Molde Weekend

For the rest of the trip photos click here.

Words and pictures hardly do justice to the incredible landscapes that we saw this weekend near Molde which lies 7 hours north of Oslo, by car. Imagine Yosemite Valley, back home in California, then imagine dozens of similar valleys lying near eachother. Over each mountain you can see even more beautiful waterfalls, cliffs and rock formations sweeping down into forests and meadows. And some of the valleys are filled with crystalclear snowmelt or open up onto vast bodies of water. This is the Molde area, in a nutshell.

Nils' parent were kind enough to host us and we spent two days hiking straight up steep hillsides, climbing over boulders, exploring caves, and enjoying wide vistas.


Nils' parents weren't the only ones with a grass roofs. This traditional building style is alive and well. Speaking of green roofs, check out this article in the New York Times.

Frogs = Frosk

If a thriving frog population indicates a healthy ecosystem, then Norwegian forests and mountains are doing well. It's hard to miss these active amphibians on our hikes. So far, we have seen at least four distinct varieties.

1)The first frog is the largest and the body measures at least 5-6 inches long. Round circles are clearly visible beside the eyes and noticable stripes appear along the legs. The coloring ranges between orange, yellowish, and olive tones.


2) We found this toad among sheep droppings on steep hillsides where it blends in easily. Notice the wider body, distinct bumps on the back, and the prominent, oblong, puffy patches just behind the eyes. It moves slower than the frogs, perhaps because of its' short and stubby arms and legs. It measure about 4 inches long and 3.5 inches wide.


3)Norwegian frogs come in all sizes including this minute species, less than 1.5 inches long. Just compare it to the blueberry in the upper right hand corner of the photo. Like it's larger cousins, it has a strong dark markings under the eyes.




4) This last frog has the same dark patch under the eyes. You can also see white coloring on the throat, a black line down the body and strong stripes on the legs. It appeared to be about 4 inches long.

Sømmelig (Symaskincafe & Kaffebar)

Three blocks from our apartment is a sewing and craft studio called Sømmelig (Symaskincafe & Kaffebar). You can have coffee, read craft magazines, buy vintage or handmade clothing, learn how to sew, join a knitting club, or rent a sewing machine. They even have surgers!!! I'll post more about this later. I was introduced to the cafe by a young woman named Ragnhild.

Here's a map:
http://www.gulesider.no/kart/map.c?q=nordahl+brunsgate+13&imgt=MAP&id=a_188743

This is Ragnhild who introduced me to the cafe.

Apples in Norway

Local apples going to waste
There are ripe apple trees everywhere but I can't find Norwegian apples in our supermarket. It's hard to understand the logic behind this. When I go from runs around Oslo, I'm tripping over fallen apples, there are so many. Almost all the houses with yards have a few trees. There are crab apples, green apples, and red apples planted along the streets, near schools and in the courtyards of hospitals and even office buildings. And, some varieties taste great (I tried a few over by the university).

Fading food traditions
Of course, these trees must have been planted for some reason other than decoration. They make too much of a mess to be merely lawn ornaments. From what I hear, apples used to be prized, seasonal treats. Norwegians would gather them in the fall and keep them in their basements, wrapped in newspaper. Dried apples were enjoyed at Christmas time.

The lure of perfect foreign substitutes
But, I don't see people harvesting or using local apples these days. We can buy large, perfect apples from Chile, New Zealand, everywhere except Norway. They're available in the same generic varieties year round, without fail, and look exactly the same as the apples back home at the Safeway in Palo Alto or San Francisco.



Solutions
Still, it's absurd that so many calories are wasted while seasonal food traditions fade into the past, and so much energy is spent to bring in foreign substitutes. I wonder if Oslo has any grassroots organizations trying to rectify the situation. If solutions like the ones listed below exist in San Francisco, they might be around here as well.

1. Food for the needy
In San Francisco, a number of groups salvage produce from backyards for charities or other purposes.
Free Farm Stand
The Valley of Hearts Delight
EcoMagic
Second Harvest Food Bank

2. Resurrecting traditions
A merging trend called the Slow Foods movement reconnects people with local foods and their food heritage.

3. CSAs
CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture projects are local farms that supply food directly to people living in their immediate area. Members sign up for seasonal or year long subscriptions and receive boxes of produce on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. While this won't directly solve the local apple problem, CSA members who eat local foods become more in tune with the seasons. In place like Oslo, CSAs would probably function for half the year thought they might be able to supply eggs, meat, dairy, and staples like potatoes year-round. I did find one article mentioning three pilot CSA project in the Oslo, but they may still be in their infancy. Unlike the standard wheat farms that I've seen around here, CSAs grow a wide variety of produce on one plot of land. Sometimes CSAs offer work-trades where members can volunteer on the farm in exchange for reduced subscription fees. A great example of this is Hidden Villa farm in Los Altos, California.

Berry Jam

Did I mention the berries enough yet? I can't get over how many berries there are. In the San Francisco Bay Area, it's fairly rare to find berries on a trail, except perhaps a few blackberries, if you're lucky. And, at most you might find one handful, maybe. In Norway, blueberry bushes blanket the forest floor and raspberry bushes crowd sunny spots along the roads and clearings. At one time laborers were brought in to harvest the fruit but now the cost of labor is so high that commercial picking happens elsewhere, and the ripe berries lie neglected in July and August. What a shame!! You can walk for miles to the north of Oslo, knee high in berry bushes and the farther you go, the better the harvest. Earlier, I saw a sign on the road organizing a berry picking event for local resident near the reservoir, but when we visited the same area a week later there were plenty of tasty morsels left. After less than two hours we filled our stomachs and two tupperware containers.

My boss, who is obsessed with cowberry jam, lent us a berry picker for the weekend. The device is a red plastic scooper with handle on top and metal prongs at one end. As you scoop, it shaves off the berries along with a few leaves and twigs, so it takes some time afterwards to clean out the debris. But, it saves time trying to individually pick every branch. I don't know if it harms the plants in any way, but it speeds up the process to some extent.

The next step is jam making. We were going to start this weekend, but we didn't have the right jars. So, that will have to wait till later. I just hope we don't run out of time. I don't know how long the bounty lasts.

With high food prices, the thought of harvesting and wildcrafting becomes somewhat economical, but I think the entertainment value still outweighs any actual savings. :)


Does anyone have any good recipes for blueberry or raspberry jam?

Mushrooms of Norway

For the rest of the photos, click here.

On a hike this Saturday, Matt and I discovered an fascinating trail peppered with colorful mushrooms near the local reservoir. Everywhere we turned we found a new varieties, some as small as sewing pins and others the size of dinner plates. We've seen people harvesting mushrooms on our weekly runs with the HHH club, but we didn't dare taste these ones (see images at the bottom of the page). I don't know anything about Norwegian species, but they look suspicious.

Mushroom hunting is a very popular activity in Norway and there is at least one safe and tasty choice in the woods around Olso. Kantarells are yellowish orange and have irregularly shaped caps that curve upwards like a trumpet (see image on the left). According to others, they have a delicate, nutty (sometimes fruity) flavor and a somewhat chewy texture. Unfortunately we didn't find any on this expedition because it was a popular area near a residential neighborhood. Good kantarell hunting locations are closely gaurded secrets.

The city of Oslo offers a free mushroom verification service, and experts are available on the weekends at designated locations to inspect wild mushrooms for novice hunters.

As soon as I can find a good identification guide, I'll fill in the real names. But, until then we made up our own names. Can you guess which is which? Daisy plates, Fire twigs, Purple marshmallow clouds, Dutch crunch, Red shelf, Soft peaches, the Purple projectile, the Epidomy of an absolutely perfect baby mushroom.

The Kongsberg Mine

The Kongsberg Silver Mines
Last Sunday, we took a detour to a silver mine on our way to a hiking spot that Nils picked out. The Kongsberg silver mine, located about 45 minutes southwest of Oslo, was first discovered by accident in 1623 when a pair of local farm children noticed grazing bulls rubbing their horns against rocks with shiny patches. Their father melted down the silver but underestimated its worth and sold it at such a low price that authorities suspected it originated from stolen goods. To prove his innocence, he lead them to the spot of the first discovery and within two weeks mining began. At this time, Norway was controled by a Danish King, Christian IV, whose lavish spending habits made him ravenous for additional income sources. He visited the mine in person and declared personal ownership of the mountain and extraction operation. So, to this day, the area is called Kongsberg, the King's Mountain. Over the next 330 years the mines produced 1350 tons of silver.


Into the Mines
It was a drizzly day and Nils had never been inside the shafts, so we took him up on the offer to try out this local tourist attraction, a train that tunnels 2.3 km staight into the mountain. We crammed ourselves into a small covered train car and bounced along in the dark as the temperature dropped.
After a 12 minute ride we took a tour through the old passageways and the main tunnels with a group of English speakers from around the world. Afterwards, Nils tooks us on a meandering hike around the top of the mountain to see the opening of the mine, the old aqueduct system, and reconstructions of the original mining buildings.

Mining in Kongsberg and Around the World
There still is silver in Kongsberg, but mining has stopped. After the full tour, it's clear why. Despite some of the perks and benefits that the Kongsberg miners had, such as healthcare, it is a horrible occupation. The mountains around here are made of hard, dense rocks that easly wear down chisels and tools. Until the advent of compressed air drills, the most common method was to light a fire next to a tunnel wall. Then, as the rocks cooled they would crack and the miners would chip away fragments and shards, progressing at the rate of only a few inches a day. Accidents were frequent, and the average life expectancy was just 40 years. With rising wages and tighter regulations, silver mines overseas became more profitable, where labor was cheap, and there weren't so many regulations. Today, the top silver mining countries are Peru, Mexico, China, and Chile and most of it is used for industrial purposes.

Around the world, mining continues to be one of the most dangerous and polluting industries. Gold mining and processing cause cyanide leaching. In the US, mining is the second most hazardous occupation.

Alternatives to Mining
At least in the jewerly industry there are easy alternatives to mined metals. I found Matt's wedding ring on a site call Brilliant Earth that specializes in ethical diamonds and recycled precious metals. His ring is made from recycled gold. Even Wal-Mart offers a line of ethical jewerly called Love,Earth. And then, there is the obvious alternative, buying used or redesigned jewerly. Reducing the use of mined metals in industry sounds more challenging. Even though copper is heavily recycled, some industrial processes require fresh batches, or so this article points out. But, recycling can go a long way.

The Benefits of Trees

There was a wonderful article today in the New York Times about the hidden benefits of trees. Check it out! And Times magazine just ran an article about a topic I brought up earlier in the blog, bringing agricultural production into the busy and congested cityscapes. But, this is just beginning. With the continuing rise of food prices, increasing environmental awareness and the upward spiral of transportation costs, I think we will be seeing more and more articles like these.

On my long runs, I found a few, small community gardens in Oslo and online I found references in papers to three local CSA projects. There are seasonal farmers markets in the area that send out text message reminders to euthsiasts who sign up on their information list. The City of Oslo offers composting classes in the spring and early summer, so unfortunately I missed the this year. But, I'll keep looking. I hear that you need to get a special insulated composting container because the brutal winter temperatures can kill of beneficial worms and microbes. Now, I just have to track down these containers.

One Month in Oslo

Today marks the end of our first month in Oslo. So far it's great.

Day 19 to 26: Soul searching in Olso

For more pictures see: http://picasaweb.google.com/roaring.tree/Day_19_to_26

Soul Searching in Olso
I'm on a quest to find community in Olso and the process has been an adventure. The winner of the week was the Stitch and Bitch club. I finally found it!!! Stitch and Bitch is an international knitting group for hip women who are obsessed with making their own styln' clothes. In part, it's about reshaping the image of knitters and making it cool. The Oslo group has 10-20 members who meet one night a week at a restaurant to eat, talk, work on knitting projects, share tips, and get to know each other. One girl was so fast, she was finishing an entire sweater after just one week. It was exciting to try out my Norwegian and they were very forgiving as muddled my way through sentences. And, I can't wait to get started on mittens or hats.

Another night I tried the Rinzai Zen Center, which felt inviting. This small and charming group of practitioners meet on the top floor of a building over on the east side of town. Zen rituals are always rather bemusing. Over the years, I've tried at least 6 different styles or schools of meditation. Even though I don't fully understand the meaning behind Rinzai chanting and bowing, it feels comforting and familiar. There are a few funny things about it. Like the San Francisco Zen Center, it attracts people without Japanese heritage. They wear traditional Japanese robes and follow the prescribed rules to the T, but non of them were raised in this tradition. And, the ritual itself is amusing and involves chanting pages of Japanese characters, bowing, walking slowly around the room in a single file line, meditating three times for about 25 minutes each, and drinking tea. The lack of explanation made it even more entertaining. At each point, I had no idea what would happen next. Part of the beauty of Zen is that it doesn't have to have meaning. The art and practice of meditation can be appreciated on its own, without delving into the murky waters of religion, and folklore. Objectively, it makes sense. By relaxing, calming, and focusing the mind is strengthened. I think of it as a mind game, an athletic workout for neurons. Like running, it can be a struggle to get going and a challenge to keep pace, but once you hit your stride, every moment is worth it.

I also tried a yoga class that I found online, offered at the Art of Living Foundation near Akershus Festning. But, it turned out to be an exclusive class for advanced students, so I left after the warm up. I should read the fine print more carefully.