Bakeapples for Breakfast.

I picked up my beautiful Korean daughter Friday night; she's here for 2 more years with me.  She came back, as usual, bearing gifts from home:  lovely, expensive eye cream for me (from her mother), yummy (but stinky) kimchi & occtopus & other funny looking foods; and these...........

Chopsticks (for ages up to 3 years).  Yup!  They're "beginner" chopsticks for people like me who just can't get the knack of it.  I think it was extremely thoughtful of her seeing as she will now stand to lose one of her greatest sources of laughter.

And my Mom and Dad made it to Nova Scotia.  They came to visit on the weekend bearing gifts as well.  There were Newfoundland (NL) blueberries, partridgeberries (lingonberries) and a NL delicacy --- bakeapples.

Picking bakeapples on the marshes in Newfoundland;
the flower and the unripe berry of the  Rubus chamaemorus.

Known elsewhere as Cloudberries (the gold of the marshlands), these yellow grape-like berries grow in the bogs and wetlands of Newfoundland and are ready for picking in late July and early August. The name Bakeapple is believed to be from the French, baie qu'appelle...meaning, 'what is this berry called?' Rich in Vitamin C, they can be eaten fresh but they preserve well and have been utilized by native peoples for centuries. Suitable for Wines, Jams, and Syrups.

This is the color of a ripe bakeapple.  So brilliant and Atumnal, ain't it!  But not everyone appreciates a good bakeapple.  They're a little more work than your usual berry.

They're similar in shape to but a little smaller than a blackberry.  They have a seed inside which needs to be "shucked", and by themselves, they're a little tart.  But I think they're lovely!  Besides the usual ways to use them,  I add them to honeyed yogurt.  And they're delicious like this:  

Bakeapples on croisant sprinkled with pink rose sugar.  Yummy!

I got to gift my Mom and Dad as well.  My Dad was quite pleased with his mini bottle of malt whiskey from Glendyer Distillery in Cape Breton.  And being a dedicated royalist, my Mom loved her solar-powered, waving Queen Elizabeth II figure.  (I have one on my kitchen window sill; it's good to have Lizzy to talk to when the kids act up as she knows where I'm comin' from!)

I think they're going to start their return journey to Newfoundland tomorrow in spite of nasty weather and the probable lack of ferry service due to Hurricane Leslie.  It's just another "adventure day" in the lives of the over 75's!  

Parents!  

You can't tell 'em anything!

Except how much you love them and appreciate them

(and their bundles of berries).