As you probably already know I am a forest enthusiast. I just like the way I feel in a forest and being in nature has been something really helpful for my mental health , especially in the last 2 years which were difficult for me.
Today I will present you the Riis Skov forest. I will nickname it The Garlic Forest as it is now completely filled with ramsons known as wild garlic or Allium ursinum which is splendidely bloomed throughout the entire place. It looks like a scenery cut out of a Hollywood movie. I actually stood in awe looking at it, thinking how much I would like to someday get married in a forest like this. It's just magical, simple and yet sophisticated.
This is the first public forest in Denmark. It is located south of the district of Risskov, along the Bay of Aarhus. Queen Margaret first introduced this forest in 1395, so it has some history. It is covered mainly with beech, oak, larch and maple. This is not a natural beech forest so new trees are being planted once a while.
What I have found cool about this forest is how it leads you to the sea, ending up with a beautiful view towards the bay. As you explore it you can see a nice panoramic view over the public sea-bath beach of Den Permanente, a place reserved for members only. I felt like a kid again exploring the place filled with parked boats and tiny houses where the locals probably keep their explore-the-sea stuff.
There were some big blocks of rocks throughout the forest and that made me curious. I have found out that on the 2nd of October 1951 a big meteorite exploded above Aarhus and one of the two pieces was recovered in Riis Skov. How awesome is that? A forest with meteorite memorabilia.
I collected some of the wild garlic and made a soup and some salad . It has an incredible earthy, raw, delicious taste. And its benefits are quite significant, amongst them being the lowering of your blood pressure, antibacterial and antifungical properties. It contains vitamins A and C, calcium, iron, phosphorus, sodium and copper. So it is good, healthy and free! I am sure there is enough garlic in this forest to feed the entire population of Aarhus haha.
You can read more information about this tasty plant here
P.S. A small detail in my walk made me realize that we humans, regardless of where we come from and what language we speak, we possess some very common things that unite us as spiritual beings. A universal language is love. I saw some benches sprayed with some messages like Love U and Miss Me .And I smiled. Knowing how reading this stuff could make anyone feel. I found it cute and funny and I thought: oh well, isn't love just internationally understood and felt beyond words.
