Blueberry pie.
I made blueberry pie last weekend!
Blueberries, those nutritious wonders, are so much a staple of the Finnish diet that it has taken me the last 17 years to understand that they are a luxury item in Ireland. They’re expensive, hard to get, and when eventually you get them, they’re a disappointment.
Last weekend, I bought 500 g for €6. In Finland, you can go and pick them for nothing in the forest. That’s why they’re so cheap to buy in Finland too, and getting them fresh in the forest is a guarantee that they are organic and natural. Garden-grown blueberries are no match for wild blueberries in taste either. The blueberries I bought last weekend were of the garden variety and grown in Poland. When you squeeze one, it breaks but keeps its shape, and the inside is white. A blueberry grown in a Finnish forest turns to mush when you squeeze it - leaving a juicy stain on your clothes that’s impossible to wash out - and is full of the dark purple loveliness inside. Unfortunately, there are no wild blueberries in Irish forests.
While the pie was delicious, I think I will keep the rest of my precious blueberries for eating on their own and rejoice in the fact that in two days, I will get to eat the real thing again. No offence to anybody else’s blueberries, but they do taste best in Finland!