Picking herbs with a bunch of strangers on an island

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Last Friday I had one of those days you think feature only in fairytales.

I set off from home with a wicker basket, wandered through a forest, took a boat to an island and spent  the day picking herbs with strangers in their fifties (my preferred demographic). Then we made nettle soup and a giant bucket of pesto, which I took home in the empty glass jar our course instructor had advised us to bring along.

There were no big bad wolves but there were apparently two families of wild boars residing on the island.

All the humans were lovely, which makes sense given that they’d elected to spend their time picking herbs and making pesto.

Altogether it was an idyllic day and exactly what I’d needed after some stressful days at work.

For curious Berliners, the island’s located on Tegeler See and the one-day herb-picking course was offered by the Berliner Volkshochschule. Right now, I’m trying to decide on my next one. It’s a close contest between acorn-picking and apple-ring roasting. If my hectic work schudule allows, I’ll simply do both.

For international readers, random Internet visitors and my loyal blog troll, here’s what the island of Scharfenberg looks like:

7 thoughts on “Picking herbs with a bunch of strangers on an island”

  2. My kind of day out. I bet the pesto would freeze too, did they say it would keep in the glass jar? was it sterilized? Do you know what herbs made the pesto? I love nettle soup and nettle and wild garlic risotto! I have just harvested my pea crop so everything I eat is with fresh peas, yum.

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  3. Lol! Loyal blog troll? Are they still around?! This sound idyllic. There’s every chance I’ll be in Berlin for 3 days in August so if you’re free I’d love to go for a coffee with you 🙂

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