Berries and preserves

One of the things I really miss here is Seville oranges to make my own nice tangy, chunky marmalade. I recently made a batch of marmalade from a tin of prepared lemons (best before 2004!) and some peels from eating oranges and some carton orange juice. It is OK but nothing like the real thing made to my Mum's recipe.

There is also a marked shortage of fruit for jam making, compared to my garden in UK. There are however some edible berries which grow here. Most are very small and grow very close to the ground.


These are diddle-dee, a small shrubby plant, rather like heather which grows extensively here. The berries are much smaller than a red currant, about the size of a mung bean and quite hard. They taste very bitter. It is unusual to see a plant with so many berries on. In fact when I went to pick some in the autumn there were only occasional plants with a few berries so it took me 2 days to pick enough for a few jars of jelly but it was nice to be out walking in the sunshine. The upland geese strip much of the fruit off them. You can make jam from them but it is extremely pippy so I made jelly, which tastes quite like red currant jelly and is nice with meat.


These are tea berries which grow in damp places amongst grass and very close to the ground. They are very sweet, with a delicate flavour and are nice to eat raw.


They are paler and softer than these mountain berries which are not poisonous but don't taste very nice.


The real gem to find is the Falkland's wild strawberry which actually looks more like a raspberry and tastes delicious. These are very hard to find as they are not widespread, the plants are tiny and the fruits well hidden.


These are not to be confused with the pig vine which is plentiful in wet areas around the coast but is poisonous.