Category Archives: Course

The 2023 Permaveggies / Forest Gardening course

The 5th Permaveggies / Forest Gardening course I’ve held in Malvik took place on Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd May with guest Jen McConachie who gave her forest gardening course at Presthus Farm on the Monday evening. On the Sunday we met at my garden (The Edible Garden) for a garden tour and lunch from the garden with focus this year on growing food while maintaining a high biodiversity. On Monday we visited The Væres Venner Community garden to see the World Garden and also the large collection of edible trees and bushes that have been planted there, followed by a visit to the Onion Garden at the Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim.
Previous Permaveggies weekends were held in 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2019 whilst the 2020-weekend had to be cancelled because of Covid. More information on previous courses can be found here: Previous Permaveggies Courses.
I didn’t take many pictures this year, so thanks to Meg Anderson, Jen McConachie and Mark Tacker who took the pictures below.

Malvik:

In the Onion Garden Chicago at the Ringve Botanical Garden:

After Jen’s forest garden course, the participants split into groups to design a forest garden in a field next to the farm which it is planned to be developed as a forest garden (get in touch if you are interested!). Here is one of the groups presenting their plans:


Announcing the 4th Permaveggies course in the Edible Garden

Norsk: Se lengre ned på siden

English:
This is the course for you who want to learn more about perennial vegetables and forest gardening in a course held in and around Norway’s world-renowned Edible Garden, now one (of 4) Permaculture Land Centres in Norway, led by author and head of KVANN / Norwegian Seed Savers, Stephen Barstow. There will be lectures on Allium, an extended garden walk, making lunch and dinner with spring harvested produce, foraging on the shoreline and the ostrich fern tour along the Homla river canyon. Full program, pictures and link to pictures in the pdf at the bottom

It is also possible to extend your stay to Monday when we will work together in KVANN’s gardens at Væres Venner in Ranheim on Monday 11th May.

Course fee and registration: You must either be a member of KVANN or the Norwegian Permaculture Association. NOK 1600 (for the whole weekend) for KVANN members (membership costs NOK 250), NOK 1800 for members of the Norwegian Permaculture Association. Kr. 900 for students and unemployed. There is a binding registration when paying the course fee. VIPPS to 91529516 (private). Bank account: 82306086762. This course has been fully subscribed all the times it has been arranged in the past with a waiting list. If you sign up but are later prevented attending, there are good chances of finding someone take over your place and we will help advertising that!

Sign up to sbarstow2@gmail.com with your name, address, email, phone and year of birth (we need this information because we are seeking support from Studieforbund Natur og Miljø)

Norsk:  Dette er kurset for deg som vil lære mer om flerårige grønnsaker og skogshaging i og rundt Norges verdenskjent Spiselig Hage, nå et (av 4) Permakultur Land Sentre i Norge, ledet av forfatter og leder av KVANN, Stephen Barstow. Det blir foredrag om Allium, utvidet hagevandring og felles matlaging, sanketur i fjæra og strutsevingetur langs Homla. Fullt program, bilder og lenk til bilder fra de 3 tidligere kurs kan man laste ned nederst på denne siden.

Det er også mulighet å være med på dugnad i KVANNs hager hos Væres Venner mandag 11. mai.
Kursavgift og påmelding: Man må enten være medlem av KVANN eller Norsk Permakultur Forening. Kr. 1600 (for hele helgen) for medlemmer av KVANN (medlemskap koster kr. 250), kr. 1800 for medlemmer av Norsk Permakultur Forening. Kr. 900 for studerende og arbeidsledige. Det er bindende påmelding ved betaling av kursavgifta. VIPPS til 91529516 (privat). Bankkonto: 82306086762. Dette kurset har blitt fulltegnet alle ganger tidligere med venteliste. Om man tegner seg på, men senere blir forhindret er det gode sjanser for å få noen til å ta over plassen din og det skal vi hjelpe til med!

Påmelding til sbarstow2@gmail.com med ditt navn, adresse, epost, telefon og fødselsår (dette trenger vi fordi vi søker støtte fra Studieforbund Natur og Miljø).

Download (PDF, 1.11MB)

BINGN Student Visit to the Edible Garden

It was a busy weekend. On Sunday, a group of 6 third year BINGN students, a three year biodynamic apprenticeship program in the Nordic countries were here for 5 hours. This was part of a one-week seminar close to Trondheim. Part of the education is to visit and learn from many farms and gardens around the Nordic countries. The education is in English and there were students from Hungary, Belgium, Finland, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Sweden! There were many questions and lots of discussion underway. We also provided lunch which, of course, included a salad! I knew a couple of them before as they’d been at the KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) Annual Meeting in April!

Perennials at the summer festival at Permalin farm

28th July 2019 was a great day in the company of some lovely people from a number of different countries (Chile, Finland, Germany, North Carolina in the USA) ….but also some locals…at the Summer Festival Farming in Harmony with Nature at the new Permalin farm, on Grostadveien in Lensvik, which is a little over 1 hour drive from home!
The participants had clearly had a great day learning the local plants and foraging with Ane Marit Willmann of the company Vill Mat who had been there the day before.
I talked about Forest Gardening and attempted but failed again to complete my Around the World in 80 plants talk. This was followed by a quick course in very hot bastard digging (also known as Barstow digging) a new bed so that we could plant 20 odd perennial vegetables from Malvik!
It will be interesting to follow the developments at this fantastic idyllic farm in the years to come!
Thanks for a great day and the great food too!

Tour de Portugal links

Perennials Resistence in Mertola, Portugal (video and interview)  http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=20370

Herdade do Freixo do Meia http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=20042

Freixo de Cima http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=20133

In search of the wild asparagus at Bombeira do Guadiana http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19856

Cactus pads for my last lunch in Mértola  http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19658

The Holy Grail Kale and the Janas Ecovillage gardens! http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19949

Edible plants of the Sintra Natural Park  http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19746

Mostly edibles at Majoito  http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19685

The Ecoaldeias Janas extreme salad  http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19669

Perennial vegetable course at Landås

The main reason for my visit to Bergen was the Saturday course on perennial vegetables for the organisation Bærekraftig Liv (literally Sustainable Living). We had perfect weather for the day which started with a beginners course followed by foraging around the garden of Landås hovedgård (lysthus), a historical building where Edvard Grieg spent much of his youth! The afternoon session was my normal Around the World talk. Bærekraftig Liv have a long term lease here in collaboration with Bergen kommune where the gardens and house will be restored! https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land%C3%A5s_hovedg%C3%A5rd
A great mixed crowd of folk turned up and, yes, I’d love to come back next year!
Perennials can be a partial solution to the problem that Bergen has with the Iberian slug (brunsnegl) which disillusions many new vegetable gardeners in Bergen!

Having permafun in Porsgrunn

Back in Nesodden (family visit) after two great days celebrating økouka (national organic week) in Porsgrunn! Thanks to Gunn Marit and Anne Sofie for inviting me and for all the great folks that attended, several of which were members of KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers). On Wednesday evening I gave a 90min + talk about KVANN and perennial veggies, followed by the official opening of Porsgrunn Seed Library (with my Hablitzia – stjernemelde) seed being the first donation. Then, on Thursday morning, I gave a course on perennial veggies to a group in the newly restored Eidanger vicarage in which the Eidanger CSA (moved here this year from another site) has a room, including half an hour looking at wild and garden plants in the old rectory garden! A great mix of folks, it was particularly pleasing that two young students had travelled down from Bø i Telemark to learn more about perennial vegetables! It was also good to see the leader of the Århus CSA scheme Tove and the new gardener Katrine in attendance! I’d met Tove on that memorable life-changing visit to Århus 5 years ago (http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=13690). There are lots of exciting sustainable developments and initiatives in Porsgrunn and I also talked to a guy with plans of converting an old farm to a forest garden. Great also to meet a newly arrived American wwoofer who had travelled south from Engeløya (Steigen) where she’d been working for my friend Eva Bakkeslett​ (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=1720 about my 2015 visit to Engeløya). For this reason, the course was in English!! Eidanger is destined to become a centre of vegetable diversity in the future with such a great group of visionary folk and a lot of land to work with!
See also this aerial view of the Porsgrunn CSA at the Eidanger Prestegård: https://scontent-arn2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/20863217_10214875018217539_4042211065793829304_o.jpg?oh=014f038146772c9a50993319a5a1c027&oe=5A546BFA

Mini tour of Canada

Thanks to my long-term “virtual” friend, vegetable and fertilizer innovator extraodinaire Michel Lachaume, I have been invited by well-known Québécois farmer and author Jean-Martin Fortier to hold a seminar at the farm he manages in Hemmingford, Quebec: permaculture-inspired  la Ferme des Quatres-temps for leading chefs in the area! This will probably be on 11th April!

You can read more about Jean-Martin here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Martin_Fortier

I’m going to take advantage of this amazing opportunity to do a little mini-tour of Canada, do a bit of teaching, learning and experience early spring edibles in another part of the world in nature and gardens! Here’s my rough tentative itinerary
Arrive Vancouver 28th March
29th March – 4th April: Salt Spring Island – Victoria –  Vancouver
(5th – 6th April) Halifax, NS (uncertain)
7th – 12th (Montreal – Quebec – Ottawa area) with 11th at the farm!
13th Toronto (Botanical garden?)
13th Evening flight back to Norway!