I learned something today

Or actually, it wasn't really today, but I'm watching South Park.

Every Friday at work we make up a batch of waffles to treat our customers - Friday is the slowest day of the week so we like to do a little extra then so people know it's still worth coming by that day. ;-) Since we have mostly professional customers the shopping pattern at our store is the opposite of what you'll see in for instance mall stores. We don't build up to the weekend ... on the contrary, the closer the weekend gets, the more our customers think that damnit, I'll leave this till next week. Anyway.

We has waffles ... and a couple of weeks ago I was making them when a customer came up and wanted some. He put raspberry jam on them and as he was eating he told me about the history of raspberry farming in this country. Apparently, up until 10-15 years ago there were a whole bunch of different raspberry canes in use in this country. He seemed to have his best information from the West Country. There used to be maybe half a dozen varieties that were common and about another dozen that were also farmed to a lesser extent. They got dessert berries from some and industrial grade berries - ie berries intended for jam and juice - from others. But then sometime in the 90s a new variety was introduced, a Scottish cane called Glen Ample ... and in just ten years it's almost completely wiped out all these other types. Or, maybe not wiped out, as such, but they're just hardly being grown anymore now. This new type works so well for both dessert and industry purposes that there's no need for any other types. I see the value in that, but it's still kind of sad.

I love raspberries ... my favorite way to eat them is with vanilla sauce, yum. :-) I actually eat them all year round these days, because there are Belgian and Portuguese berries on the market here in the winter season as well, and they're actually really tasty. Not like strawberries in winter that just taste like water. But this week some Norwegian berries have been on the shelf too. I had to get some ... they looked soo delicious, I couldn't resist. It wasn't till I got home that I remembered to look at the box. Glen Ample berries from Østre Enger farm in Sylling. Would you look at that. I learned something today. :-D