A wonderful birthday dinner yesterday!As is the tradition since I left home, my birthday dinner has been Macaroni Cheese with rhubarb crumble for dessert. Mac Cheese was the […]
Digging
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Birthday excavations
Many thanks for all the birthday greetings yesterday! Last year’s signature tune was When I’m 64 by the Beatles, but this year’s I’ve been looking forward to most. It’s […]
Food
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Quinoa greens
Tonight’s 22 greens from the garden with yacon used in a quinoa stir-fry (with garlic and chili in addition):Brassica oleracea (perennial kale / flerårig kål)Hydrophyllum virginianum (waterleaf, indian […]
Birds
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Close dunnock encounter
I’ve never been this close to a dunnock (jernspurv) before. They are normally really shy and although they sing every spring I have no sightings of young birds […]
Food
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More perennial vegetables for dinner!
A new collection of perennial vegetables from the garden on 25th April 2020, now back to cool, overcast weather. All are managed in some way. Carum carvi (caraway […]
Food / Perennial vegetables
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Today’s perennial catch
23rd April 2020 perennial greens used in a delicious quiche (eggepai):Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde)Myrrhis odorata (sweet cicely / spansk kjørvel)Rumex acetosa (sorrel / engsyre) Campanula latifolia (giant […]
Butterflies and moths
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Brimstone butterfly and moth
Brimstone butterflies (sitronsommerfugl) have become much more common on the other side of the fjord in recent years and I saw one in the garden for the first […]
Food / Onions / Perennial vegetables
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Victory falafels
Falafels can be home grown over most of Norway and if we are serious about climate change should become standar fare in kitchens, restaurants and supermarkets throughout the […]
Birds / Fjord views
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The wild dawn call of the Curlew
I am so fortunate every year to hear the song of the curlew (storspove) singing in the bay from early April and through most of the summer, sometimes […]
Onions / Perennial vegetables
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Earliness and diversity in Victory Onion
Victory onion or seiersløk (Allium victorialis) in Norwegian has one of the most widespread geographic distributions in the Allium genus from the Pyrenees to the Far East. In […]
Perennial vegetables
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Forest garden companions
Here’s two favourite companions of the edible woodland garden: Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum) and the climber Caucasian spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides). The plant is for the waterleaf to gradually […]
Onions / Perennial vegetables
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Mass Victory Onion Germination
Mass germination around one of my victory onions /seiersløk (Allium victorialis). I’m not sure where this accession originates. Post Views: 159
Breeding / Food / Onions / Root crops
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Caraway root breeding and Karvekaalsuppe
I’ve been selecting caraway (Carum carvi) through 4 generations now for larger roots. I plan to have a larger number of plants from next year at our community […]
Article / Onions
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Trøndersk geirlauk: tilbake etter 1000 år på Island
English: This is the Norwegian version of the story I published in my book Around the World in 80 plants about a wild onion (Allium oleraceum) that was […]
Birds
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Large Arrival
Following the blizzard like conditions over the last two days the low pressure system moved away eastwards and a high pressure ridge with light winds built up over […]
Fjord views / Snow
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Dramatic Spring Days
You appreciate the sunny spring days much more when you have a couple of days of blizzards in between….our resident robin, blackbird and chaffinch were back singing today! […]
Climbers / Food / Perennial vegetables
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The paradoxical habby pesto
Last night’s Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde) and Allium paradoxum pesto was of course delicious with golpar (Heracleum spice), garlic, chili, sunflower seeds, parmesan, salt and pepper. […]
Edible flowers / Food / Salad
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The year’s first extreme salad
Half an hour “foraging” in the garden and half an hour in the kitchen and I can present the year’s first multi-species salad….54 different plants! Notable additions were […]
Dandelions / Perennial vegetables
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The mossy dandelion
It’s 100 years since Vilmorin-Andrieux’s The Vegetable Garden: Illustrations, descriptions, and culture of the garden vegetables of cold and temperate climates was published! The plant I most associate […]
Edimentals / Perennial vegetables
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Naturalised Giant Bellflower
No doubt introduced by the previous owners here as an ornamental and despite the fact I spent a lot of time trying to eradicate it from parts of […]
Birds
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Resident coal tits
For the second time a pair of coal tits (svartmeis) have taken up residency in the garden. It’s not often I see them as they don’t come to […]
Perennial vegetables
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Dandies, habbies, sand leeks, sorrel and sweet cicely
7th April 2020 perennial greens used in a quinoa stir-fry:Taraxacum officinale (dandelion / løvetann)Allium scorodoprasum (sand leeks / bendelløk) (these grow semi-wild in seaweed on my sea kale […]
Food / Perennial vegetable shoots
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Garden produce 6th April 2020
Continuing my series of photographing my veggies, all from the garden this time. Just three this time, added to a pea soup.Allium nutans (or hybrid) (Siberian nodding onion)Hablitzia […]
Web site
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Ken Fern’s Plants for a Future database
Somebody wrote to me recently and told me that the guy who originally compiled the Plants for a Future database back in the 80s and early 90s, Ken […]