I’ve been trying to find out what species the legendary moss-leaved dandelion (as featured in my book) and some other cultivated varieties actually are. I took the series of detailed pictures below of this plant last spring and posted them on the Dandelions of Britain and Ireland group (there are several experts of Taraxacum there including author of the Field Handbook to British and Irish Dandelions, John Richards) Dutch expert Karst Meijer has ID’d the plant as Taraxacum tortilobum. We cannot be 100% sure that this is the original plant depicted in the Vegetable Garden (1920), but it makes sense that it was a wild plant that was domesticated as dandelion breeding is difficult as they are largely apomictic. T. tortilobum is found in the wild in northern France, which strengthens the theory that this is the plant. See https://www.gbif.org/species/5394131 where it is known as the twisted-lobed Dandelion. The plant I grow which is the only line claiming to be the moss-leaved dandelion originated from IPK Gatersleben (German genebank) as Taraxacum sublacionosum “Delikatess” which it isn’t!
It’s truly magical now with the whole garden covered with a deep carpet of snow, an important input as it melts helping drive the equally magical annual explosion of growth in The Edible Garden which starts, amazingly, in only a few weeks – a truly magical transition.
This weekend was my big annual seed pack for members of Norwegian Seed Savers (KVANN, kvann.no). I’m offering some 360 varieties this year and I received orders from 60 members within the time limit, totalling 580 packets. I share my seed nowadays exclusively with KVANN apart from a few trades. Two complete days of packing and I was worn out without leaving my chair apart from a short burst of snow clearing outside. Having done this for over 20 years now, the picture shows I can pack seed without taking my eyes off yesterday’s femmila (50 km cross-country ski race in the world cup). If you get the wrong seed, you now know why ;) Now time for a ski today!
Yesterday, I was preparing my talk for the Finnish Permaculture Association (see https://youtube.com/live/CYBqioWTr6U) and was reminded that I had mentioned in my book that Hablitzia could be used in place of spinach in Finnish spinach pancakes (pinaattiohukaiset). With my Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach; köynnöspinaatit) shoots having grown well recently, I decided to make these Finnish-style habby pancakes for lunch to get in the mood for the talk. I must admit, I didn’t look up a recipe and just improvised (recipes make cooking complicated in my mind!) using ingredients I felt should be in there. Apart from plentiful Hablitzia shoots I mixed in whole grain oat flour, eggs, garlic, chili and pepper and fried them in butter. It was served with a salad which also included Hablitzia! First, the quotation from Around the World in 80 plants (suggested by Jonathan Bates in the US in his article on Hablitzia):
Wild Enoki, Oca, Hablitzia, wild buckwheat sprouts, Allium nutans with dandelion, garlic chilis mixed with scrambled eggs for a delicious home grown and foraged lunch! Enoki is one of the hardiest fungi appearing often midwinter in mild winters. Also known as velvet shank (vintersopp in Norwegian, meaning winter fungus; Flammulina velutipes). Many had been reporting finding this species recently, and I too found some when I visited the botanical garden the other day! It’s difficult to believe that this is the same fungi as Enokitake or Enoki, sometimes offered in supermarkets and one of the most popular cultivated fungi in the Far East. The cultivated fungi are long and white as they are grown in the dark in an enriched CO2 environment which gives longer stalks.
We occasionally eat wild fish and bacalhau is a favourite made from Norwegian dried cod that can be found in supermarkets here. More or less anything goes in bacalhau (bacalao) and although most people make it in the same way – layers of potato, fish, tomato and onions, often with chili – the Portuguese have hundreds of ways of preparing baccalao (dried cod). Being self-sufficient, detailed recipes aren¨’t useful and we use whatever is available at the moment. Winter is the time for stored bulbs, corms, tubers, rhizomes, and taproots. See below the picture for yesterday’s baccalao ingredients with 14 home grown below surface storage organs plus some greens (I’m pretty sure nobody else had this version of the dish…ever!): Oca (Oxalis tuberosa): yellow and red varieties Garlic / hvitløk (Allium sativum) Wapato (Sagittaria latifolia) Potato / potet (Solanum tuberosum) – 2 varieties Jerusalem artichokes / jordskokk (Helianthus tuberosus) Parsnip / pastinakk (Pastinaca sativa) Scorzonera / scorsonerrot (Scorzonera hispanica) Common onion / kepaløk (Allium cepa) Cacomitl (Tigridia pavonia) Yacon (Polymnia sonchifolia) Burdock / storborre (Arctium lappa) Madeira vine (Anredera cordifolia) Parsnip / pastinakk (Pastinaca sativa) shoots – had started shooting in the cellar Leaf beets / bladbete (Beta vulgaris var. flavescens) – 3 varieties Allium nutans (forced in the living room) plus (not home grown) organic tomatoes, olive oil and olives (I forgot the dandelion…will add tonight: we make enough that it lasts for several days….and the taste improves!)
Thanks to my friend Geir Flatabø from Hardanger, I could finally add monkey puzzle nuts (piñones) to my life list of plants eaten (Araucaria araucana; also known as Mapuche nuts or Chilean pine nuts; apeskrekk in Norwegian). Like large pine nuts, they were delicious! Can’t wait 40 years for my first home grown nuts ;) I also sowed a few as the single young tree in my garden needs company and I’d also like to plant some in the community garden (Væres Venner). I don’t know of any trees that have survived on this side of the fjord, but on the slightly milder northern shores of Trondheimsfjord there are a least two sizeable trees. I reckon climate change has come far enough now for us now to be part of the Norwegian coastal zone north to Tromsø where this tree should grow! I’ve tried a couple of times before without success! The very sharp end to the nut is clearly designed to penetrate the soil after falling! I planted a small tree in the garden last summer, grown from seed and overwintered a couple of winters in my cellar, and it seems to be doing well so far! Here¨’s a couple of pictures taken today:
I was showing a journalist around the winter edible garden and cellar this morning and dug up some nodding (Chicago) onions (Allium cernuum) and picked a few Hablitzia shoots, so why not turn it into lunch! I sliced an oca (Oxalis tuberosa) in with the vegetables. Scambled Habby Chicago eggs is simple gourmet midwinter food from garden to table in no time!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
