Come on it's important to know what NTFP is

[oakfarm]

 I don’t have much social things to write about. I’m not working, it’s vacation time. Robert is working. Erika is gone to their summer house. But today I met sister Y and her family. We went to the forest and picked the blue berries that grows in the forest. In school we learned that the English name for those blue berries in the forest was “blueberries”. But if I should be a knowitall, it’s not true. Blueberries are Vaccinium corymbosum, the blue berries here are V. myrtillus, “bilberries” in English. There’s easy to see the difference, bilberries are not like blueberries white in the middle.

 

Ok, then I must tell you the abbreviation NTFP, “non timber forest products”, berries must be that. And reading books I have learned it’s the same with cranberries, in the same genus as bluebarries. Watching movies “cranberry” is always translated to tranbär. But no, tranbär is Vaccinium oxycoccus, while cranberry is V. macrocarpum. 

 

So, yeah, we picked some bilberries. My oldes niece said she should make a pie with them. She's four by the way.

 

Btw, I 100% sure I don’t have to write this, I’m sure you understand, but anyway. When I write about the pandemic, I don’t tell anyone how you should act. Do what your local health authority says. What I try to comment, or want to comment, is politicizing the pandemic. Black and white thinking. Tunnel vision. Both seeing virus fighting as the only yardstick for a functioning society and ignoring suffering that comes as consequence. And tunnel vision on the visual parts of pandemic suppression, namely masks and lockdowns, and ignoring handwashing, testing, etc.

 

Comments

[aoi_sora]

Your niece sounds like a great kid! Did she bake the pie?

I'm also pretty sure they are selling us bilberries as blueberries over here.

[oakfarm]

:) They made panncakes instead with the berries.

[aoi_sora]

Excellent choice! :)

[tarasacon]

As a plant geek, plus a kid who grew up picking huckleberries (both Vaccinium ovatum, and Vaccinium parvifolium), thia
A) makes me nostalgic for my childhood foraging
B) is a perfect example of why common names are generally useless.

( used to hang out in a plant identification group on FB. People were always asking for common names, to which we would reply "This is an international group, and common names vary between countries, and even regions in the same country."

[oakfarm]

:)

Reading about plants one learn the value of the scientific names. Not that they are easy to learn.
Hopefully it’s stimulating and good for the kids to do things like this.