Using common couch on a sunny, warm birthday in November.

Common couch (Elytrigia repens)

or at least, rhizomes thereof. Usually a terrible weed, it spreads quickly thanks to its rhizomes. It's even called Kvickrot in Swedish, which means quick root. Not the gardener's best friend, by far. But the upside is that these rhizomes are very rich in carbs. This is something you can take advantage of, either by making flour from the rhizomes by driying, cutting and grinding them, or by producing a syrup by boiling them forever in water until almost no water is left. 

So I cleansed and boiled. Oh, I boiled. For a long time. Until nothing more than a little brown puddle was left in the pan, full of nice smell and taste. Tha acual aim was to see if I could make the rhizomes soft by boiling, and perhaps serve as spaghetti, but no. They remained hard. And since I had salt in the boiling water, the remaining puddle could be used as a broth instead of syrup. it had an amazing taste in itself! It just had to be good in cooking.

I used the broth in my soup. An ordinary lentil soup with carrots, celery and onion. Flavoured with wild marjoram (Origanum vulgare) from our garden . It was perfect. A delicius lunch. I served the soup with Swedish knäckebröd, a hard bread made from rye. 

Some outdoor pictures from home:

The hens are resting in the sun next to the Blackcurrant bushes.    

                    

The view from my kitchen window.

It is a wbeatifull day today, and my birthday as well. Usually a cold, dark and often snowy day, but today it is sunny and warm- an amazing +6 centigrades. It has been like this for the last few years. I know that I should't feel happy about it, the climate change is a negative thing with lots of awful consequenses, but this part of it I like.

The forest around the corner from home. The sun doesn't rise high above the horizon at this time of year. Vällnora is located between two lakes, and in the background you can see one of them: Lake Norrsjön.