Bramblings (bjørkefink) are common breeding birds at higher elevations, but it’s just possible that they will breed here one day. This is the closest I’ve got with a male singing the last few days in the garden, here atop a Norway maple (spisslønn), the flowers still waiting after two very cold weeks!
Easter is a big holiday here and it’s a tradition to decorate your home with various decorations (påskepynt) and the cheapest decoration is just to bring in some twigs that leaf out bringing a bit of spring atmosphere into homes. This is even more important this year when most people are at home! I do this every year too, but here the emphasis is on edible tree leaves and two of the best are lime (Tilia cordata) and beech (Fagus sylvaticus)! So here’s what this year’s looks like:
Last night’s 100% wholegrain sourdough barley, rye and oat pizza with masses of Hablitzia shoots was eaten with delicious lime leaves:
The leaves of Murraya koenigii (Curry tree or curry leaf plant) are commonly used in curries and in chutneys in India. Although it’s a small tropical tree (<6m), I would encourage even arctic gardeners to try to get hold of a plant (not currently available in the UK RHS Plant Finder) or seeds (try ebay). I’m pretty sure it could be propagated by suckers too! My experience is that it’s easy to grow as a house plant, which can be cut down to the soil as a young tree and resprout from the base repeatedly. I was given one in 2003 and I still had it in 2013, although it eventually died for an uknown reason. It even managed to flower but, although self-pollinating, I didn’t get any of the edible aromatic seeds! I still have a jar of home-grown dried leaves which can be powdered and sprinkled on vegetables and yoghurt. I also had a Murraya paniculata (Jasmine orange) which is used for a similar purpose but it became infested with thrips I think and I had to throw it out before I could try it. There are at least 8 species in the genus Murraya which is in the Rutaceae as are citrus fruits!
Murraya koenigii in my living room
Murraya (left) and Fenugreek (bukkehornkløver) leaves used for a curry
Murraya and Fenugreek curry
Even though I have a cold by Norwegian standards living room ( I try to keep it about 16C), this tropical tree grew well
This was about as big as it gof, flowering in January
I cut it right down every year or so and it quickly resprouted. I never tried but I imagine you can propagate by suckers!
Murraya koenigii
Dried leaves of Murraya koenigii (grind and sprinkle over vegetables and yoghurt!)
When I was away in January, the mildest ever recorded in this part of the world, this bird cherry that I received as Padus asiatica leafed out for the third year running in January, here seen with my only misteltoe (top left):
My only Rhododendron, R. mucronulatum v. taguettii from Jeju Island in Korea is also early out and full of flower buds, so I brought a few twigs indoors:
After the storm some days ago now, it was interesting to see how evenly the seed from Norway maple / sycamore and birch (spiss- og platanlønn og bjørk) was spread evenly over the whole garden…it’s easy to imagine how the more open parts of the garden would quickly transform to forest given the chance!
Most trees had an enormous production of seed and berries this year following the hot summer in 2018 and mild winter last year.
There are an enormous number of yew berries on the tree next to the kitchen window this year and this video shows how a vine (probably Vitis coignetiae) has found its way towards the light high up in the yew, which is Taxus × media “Hicksii”, the Anglojap or Hicks’ yew, which is a hybrid of Taxus baccata and Taxus cuspidata.
Most will be left for the birds, bringing both waxwings (sidensvans) and blackbirds (svarttrost) close to the house!
The only pine tree in the garden, Scots or Norwegian Pine (Pinus sylvestris) is in full flower at the moment! I posted a couple of films of siskins feeding on the cones the other week.
This tree was probably not much taller than me when we moved here in 1984. 35 years on and it’s approaching the height of the mature birch trees nearby.
Pictures below of the small red female flowers at the tips of shoots and the more obvious clusters of male flowers which are laden with pollen. Good news for the siskins!
Every year I bring in twigs of lime / lind (Tilia), birch / bjørk (Betula), rowan / rogn (Sorbus), hawthorn (Crataegus), currants (Ribes) etc. and put them in a jar filled with water for early salad leaves! All have edible leaves and many say that lime is the best of them all! They were part of today’s salad.
Here’s a series of pictures of them emerging in my living room!
Kurrajong is an Australian tree, Brachychiton populneus, which along with other species of the genus make interesting house plants due to their interesting leaves. Kurrajong leaves resemble poplar leaves as the epithet populneus suggests. It’s a common tree of sandy plains in Eastern Australia. The seeds are remarkably nutritious and were popular Aborigine tucker (wild gathered food). It is unlikely I will ever be able to harvest seed of this tree in the Malvaceae (mallow family), but Rowan White on the Radix Root Crops FB group reminded me that the swollen roots of young trees could also be eaten. My tree wasn’t exactly young at 9 years (seed propagated along with Brachychiton acerifolius), when I first decided to have a go in 2012, at the same time as I moved it to a bigger pot…
Brachychiton acerifolius (Illawarra flame tree) is another beautiful tree growing in my living room forest garden….making an attempt to escape…it’s been suggested I make a hole in the ceiling so that it can grow on up into my bedroom where it could flower and produce nuts that I could harvest from bed ;) (this tree is often planted as an ornamental street tree in the tropics, see https://tinyurl.com/yaqnnm65)
Brachychiton acerifolius leaves
There were 3 young roots worth trying so I harvested them and baked them in their skins together with potatoes. They seem to need a bit longer than potatoes. The skins peeled easily off after baking and they were crispy with a good mild taste. If you have a ready supply of seed, they can be grown and harvested a bit like carrots when quite young!
Kurrajong doesn’t often if ever experience snow, here’s my plant with earth removed (December 2012)
The small young roots were harvested
Roots removed, hope it doesn’t kill my tree (it didn’t!)
Ready for baking
After 45 minutes in the oven
They peeled easily
Crispy non-fibrous roots
Kurrajong leaf
Kurrajong leaf
This spring the tree died (at 15 years old) with no sign of life in the above ground parts, but when disposing of the plant I noticed that the young roots looked healthy, so I harvested them and repotted the remainder of the root to see if it might resprout and after several weeks in the window sill it now has fresh leaves, so not dead after all!
I didn’t get round to eat the young roots…they were left inside for a month and looked withered and inedible, but cutting in to one it looked good inside and indeed it was tasty and almost free from fibre….so we ate it in a stir-fry dish last night!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
