If I can find any way to make my efforts useless and time-consuming I’ll find it.

I just destroyed my blog of two? days ago, because I couldn’t find a way to correct my spelling of lichen. I was trying to give you a recipe for lichen custard and the heading came out with a spelling mistake. I could not find a way to correct it so I had to erase the whole piece and I’ll try to bring it back now. You already know I’m a techie dork.

Here is my missing blog: Lichen Custard

40 g fjallagrös

1 1/2 liter milk

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp brown sugar

Wash the grasses in cold water and clean away any pieces of moss. Boil the milk and add the grasses. cook for 5 minutes. Add salt and sugar. If this is boiled a bit longer, the milk thickens. Serve as a dessert or with sour blood pudding or with red currant pudding.

This recipe, and others in the booklet published in 1988 by the Leif Eiriksson Icelandic Club in Calgary, are from Margrét Geppert, who added information about the main ingredient:

“Fjallagrös” or mountain grasses are really lichen that grow on top of moss in mountainous areas in Iceland. It was usual for entire families to go and pick these (að fara til grasa) on damp spring nights. It is quite likely that these lichen played a large part in preventing scurvy in bygone years. Fjallagros can be picked, dried and kept all winter. They can be added to all kinds of milk dishes and to blóðmor, and used in baking.´

I kept this blog and put it into the Sumar (Summer) issue of the INLNA—Icelandic National League, North America, and Iceland (three flags) newsletter (the Food Issue), celebrating June 17 (Icelandic Independence Day), July 1 (Canada Day) and July 4 (Independence Day, USA).

it’s all very time-consuming.