On a short visit to England to visit my mum, I visited RHS Wisley yesterday to do a 2 hour walk and talk for the Edibles Team (and a few others who were interested!). I hopefully added a new dimension to their work by pointing out all the wonderful perennial veg and other edibles hidden incognito in the ornamental collections, everything from Hostas to Rudbeckia to Gunnera! Still getting my head around the fact that there is such a thing as an Edibles Team across the RHS gardens! Next week I’m following this up with a webinar about Edimentals for all the gardens! …and I’d just like to congratulate the team for the World Food Garden! It’s very impressive with quite a few perennial veg already and looks and I imagine tastes fantastic! Thanks for the warm enthusiastic welcome to leaderSheila Das and the rest of the team! Wisley is a garden I’ve visited many times over the years to do a spot of edible spotting, so great to be able to pass on some of the knowledge! #edimentals #edientomentals #edientoavimentals #hiddenedibles #RHSEdiblesTeam #worldfoodgarden #extremesaladman
Last week was National Organic Week (Økouka), a busy week for me as I had two garden tours in my Edible Garden in Malvik (the rain stopped both days just before we started), a walk and talk in the community garden at Væres Venner and a talk at Stammen Cafe & Bar in Trondheim on “Perennial Climate-friendly Food Plants for Urban Areas” talking about 15 advantages of growing perennials! Below you can see pictures from each of the events which were all well attended. I’ve credited the various photographers below. Thanks to all that came along!
1. Garden tour on Wednesday 27th September
Making the Ø letter for Økouka (picture: Margaret Anderson)
2. Talk at Stammen
Picture by Margaret Anderson
2. Garden tour on Sunday 1st October
Picture by Margaret Anderson
Pictures by Markus Tacker (click on the album pictures for more information):
Talking about Aster yomena and other oriental Asters
Talking Hosta
My largest vegetable, udo (Aralia cordata); the steepest slope is the most productive part of the garden!
Broad bean (bondebønner) re-flowering. Let’s demand large scale growing of vegan food in Trøndelag. The tastiest and original felafel and hummus is made with this hady bean!
Pictures by Marit By (click on the album pictures for more information)::
Japanese grape (Vitis coignetiae) clambering over a yew (barlind) laden with berries ready for the birds
Talking about one of my favourite perennial vegetables, Hosta
Talking about why there should be fields of broad beans (favabønner / bondebønner) than just grain fields!
My largest vegetable, udo (Aralia cordata) starting to collapse under its own weight
Talking about how to germinated udo seeds
4. Walk and talk in the Væres Venner Community Garden Pictures by Marit By (the World Garden looking good in its autumn colours with the backdrop of the old ash trees):
What an amazing place, at Joe Hollis’ Mountain Gardens in North Carolina yesterday!
My favourite forest garden anywhere!! At 77, Joe is still expanding having purchased more land and with several new projects!
Thanks to all who came including the three who drove down from Ohio for the event (9+ hours!)
The picture shows me and Joe in his largest patch of Udo (Aralia cordata). Very much more when I get the time….on to Atlanta today and the gig at the Botanical Garden tomorrow!
I enjoyed my visit to Jøssåsen Landsby (Camphill Village) here in Malvik in the inland higher part of Malvik kommune. It’s too long since I visited! Inger Line Ødegård, who is also KVANN’s (Norwegian Seed Savers) events secretary, had invited me up to do a walk and talk about the edible wild and cultivated plants. Inger Line is working at Jøssåsen as part of her biodynamic BINGN education.
We found both planted Hosta, Daylilies and Hops around the houses. We also found many wild edibles, notably burdock (Arctium tomentosum), alpine bistort (harerug), caraway (karve) and sorrel (engsyre). We talked about the huge potential of growing perennial vegetables in higher areas like Jøssåsen and KVANN’s Sansai group which are trialling perennials in mountain areas.
After the walk, Inger Line showed me the vegetable gardens and greenhouse which she has responsibility for.
Talking Hosta
Ligularia (this one called “The Rocket” isn’t edible.
Daylilies (Hemerocallis)
With Inger Line in the greenhouse
Nice Oxalis
Inger Line is a BINGN student and is responsible for the gardens.
During KVANN’s (Norwegian Seed Savers) annual meeting weekend in Trondheim we had an official opening ceremony for my garden, The Edible Garden (Den Spiselige Hagen), as a Permaculture LAND Centre, the 3rd in Norway. The official opening was fun and can be seen in the second video. Owner of Norway’s first LAND centre, Eirik Lillebøe Wiken performs the official opening from ca. 18.00 in the second video!
The videos are mostly in Norwegian!
I’m making the most of my invite to the Mid-West Wild Harvest Festival at the end of September, where I get to teach alongside great North American foraging authors Sam Thayer, Leda Meredith, Ellen Zachos and others! I am pleased to announce a number of other events including a walk and talk with the great Joe Hollis at Mountain Gardens in North Carolina and an event put on by the one and only Eric Toensmeier in Holyoke, Western Massachusetts (I’m promised ripe pawpaws and American persimmons!), followed by a series of other talks in New England organised by my friend Aaron Parker of Edgewood Nursery near Portland! Here is the whole list (still possibilities in Boston and New York):
22nd September: Walk and talk with the great Joe Hollis at Mountain Gardens (near Asheville, North Carolina) (see https://www.mountaingardensherbs.com and https://www.facebook.com/MountainGardensHerbs); details not available yet!
24th September: Evening talk at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta, Georgia; details not available yet!
26th September:Visit and talk at Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa!
1st October: Talk organised by author of Perennial Vegetables and other great books, Eric Toensmeier in Holyoke, Western Massachusetts (details not available yet).
3rd October: Talk “Around the World in 80 Plants: New England to the Mediterranean” organised by Aaron Parker of https://www.facebook.com/pg/EdgewoodNursery in or around Portland, Maine (details not available yet). The talk continues with the rest of the world in Portsmouth the next day:
5th October: Looking for organisers for an evening event in the Boston area (possibly a walk and talk in the Arnold Arboretum)
6th October: Looking for organisers for a daytime event in the New York City area (possibly a walk and talk in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden or elsewhere)
Grand Opening of The Edible Garden Permaculture LAND Centre
(Thanks to Berit Børte, Kjell Hødnebø, Lone Dybdal, Elin Mar, Bell Batta Torheim, Inger Line Skurdal Ødegård and Margaret M. Anderson for the pictures )
Sunday 5th May was a cold showery day here in Malvik and the 3rd day of KVANN’s (Norwegian Seed Savers) annual meeting weekend in Trondheim and Malvik. This was also the day of the official opening of my garden as a Permaculture LAND centre, which was celebrated by a primula ribbon cutting ceremony and the LAND multi-species salad (how many ingredients? See below!). Meg had decorated the gate for the occasion, now a permanent feature:
25 participants from all over Norway met in the garden at 10:30. Due to the weather, we moved inside where I gave an introduction to how the garden had developed into a permaculture Forest Garden despite the fact that I knew nothing of permaculture principles! The rain eased off, so we moved outside for a walk and talk around the garden with focus on the plants. The album below shows some of the plants we talked about:
Lily White and blanched wild sea kale (strandkål)
The Legendary Moss-leaved Dandelion!
Hogweed has self-sown and is co-existing happily with some of my Hablitzias!
One of my Victory onions (seiersløk)
My collection of perennial kales, including my 6 year old Daubenton cross with Early sprouting broccoli producing masses of small broccolis! broccoli ee
Blanched Udo
My 16 year old Chinese walnut (Juglans cathayensis)
Ramsons (ramsløk)
In the most Forest Garden-like part of the garden!
Perennial kales
What’s happening here?
I had got up at 6 am to pick the ingredients for the multi-species salad we made for lunch (all 146 ingredients) to celebrate the garden’s LAND status!
LAND: Learning And Network Demonstration network – a network of permaculture sites. Sites are set up to show permaculture in practice to visitors and volunteers in a safe, accessible and inspiring way. There are a number of requirements to receive LAND certification, one of which was that I had to have a PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) which I took in 2017, sharing the teaching with Jan Bang (yes, I taught myself the plants part of the course!)
Before lunch, we had the official LAND opening ceremony for the Edible Garden, introduced by Eirik Lillebøe Wiken
of the Norwegian Permaculture Association,
The ribbon had been expertly made by Meg Anderson from flower shoots of Primula hybrids (cowslip, primrose, oxlip / marianøkleblom, kusymre, hagenøkleblom) :-)
David and Eirik presented me with two Sweet Chestnut trees and two cider apples. Thanks guys!
There was then a joint effort in my kitchen to put the salad together:
Sat 2nd March East Anglian Garden Group. Chamberlin Hall: Bildeston village hall, Chamberlin Close, Wattisham Road, Bildeston, Ipswich, Suffolk, England 14-17 https://www.facebook.com/events/1640730972892565
Many thanks to my friend Alfredo Sendim for inviting me to hold a course at his amazingly diverse Herdade do Freixo do Meio farm. It is run as a cooperative using many innovative agricultural methods, inspired in particular by Ernst Goetsch and Syntropic Farming! I was very happy that Fernanda Botelho also joined us to share her knowledge on local edible plants!
The 3 videos at the end show Agroforestry methods on the farm at Freixo do Meio, olives intercropped with a wide diversity of edibles and other useful plants!
The day started with my lecture
The course participants were joined by a group of farm workers and well known Portuguese forager /herbalist Fernanda Botelho!
Group hug of one of the ancient olive trees!
Ancient olives
Fernanda with the biggest dandelion we found!
Alfredo Sendim, whose family have owned the farm for generations, lead a long 5 hour tour around the farm…here showing how this cork oak was scarred by poor cutting in the past!
Typical form 0f Pinus pinea, umbrella pine, source of pine nuts, an important crop in this warm, dry area of Portugal!
Water is important for the animals…
Pistacia lentiscus, the mastic tree!
Acis autumnalis and Scilla autmnalis had appearedin response to the first rains after a prolonged drought!
Medronheiro, the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo)
Medronheiro, the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo)
Asparagus….woody plants here…just beginning to sprout!
Acis autumnalis and Scilla autmnalis
Quercus ilex ssp rotundifolia? (Holm oak), an important product of the farm!
Field mushrooms, the first of the autumn!
Pinus pinea
These acorns were actually quite sweet !
There was large diversity on the farm where machinery couldn’t reach…here with Pistacia, Ruscus aculeatus and Umbilicus!
Umbilicus rupestris
Me with Fernanda Botelho
Smilax aspera (young edible shoots like asparagus)
Stephen Barstow 30 October · Pistacia lentiscus, mastic tree
Calamintha nepeta
The seed grinding rock!
The transport home was a cattle truck…here with my friend Jorge Carona!
My accommodation on the farm!
Prickly pear with acorns and acorn biscuits (bolota)!
Showing the diversity of acorns on the farm (pictures taken by Alfredo!)
The agroforestry area.
Whitethroat? in the Agroforestry area
Stonechat in the Agroforestry area
The Egg Temple
They had a few deer in a compound next to the Egg Temple…apparently the hens were healthier with deer nearby..
Dwarf Pomegranate and Canna
Canna
Canna
Clouded yellow and lucerne
Lily
Blackcurrant sage
Mentha suaveolens
The delivery van returning….the farm sells though their shop in Lisbon
More traditional CSA area
More traditional CSA area
Oxalis corniculata, edible weed on the CSA area
The shop
Clouded yellow butterfly on lucerne:
Agroforestry methods on the farm at Freixo do Meio, olives intercropped with a wide diversity of edibles and other useful plants:
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
Making the Ø letter for Økouka (picture: Margaret Anderson)
where I gave an introduction to how the garden had developed into a permaculture Forest Garden despite the fact that I knew nothing of permaculture principles! The rain eased off, so we moved outside for a walk and talk around the garden with focus on the plants. The album below shows some of the plants we talked about:
salad we made for lunch (all 146 ingredients) to celebrate the garden’s LAND status!
