The only picture I took during Saturday’s two edible plant tours of Hurdal Ecovillage, the farm, the rectory garden (Prestegårdshagen) and the CSA scheme (andelsbruk)! This was part of Høstivalen (The Ecovillage’s autumn festival). I was particularly pleased by the fact that the daughter of one of my heroes, Ivar Torp (see page 44 of https://okologisklandbruk.nlr.no/media/ring/3550/2014/%C3%98L%20nr%201_2014%20epostfil.pdf ) joined the tour, although I wasn’t aware of it until afterwards! She has now taken over Ivar’s property!
Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of a memorable visit to the Århus CSA scheme and Tom Harald Eckell’s magical vegetables with Rita Amundsen, Margaret M. Meg Anderson and Veronica Samycia!
Never have I been so impressed by a field of vegetables (organic too), the astonishing diversity, many of which I’d never seen before…..and above all Tom Harald’s gentle modest manner in the midst of brilliance….my life changed that day…
We all sensed that we’d passed into a parallel universe for the duration of the visit and we all sensed simultaneously on the journey home our return! My life changed that day
I visited Bo “Bosse” Blomquist last year outside of Gothenburg and despite it being a bit late in the day and almost dark at the end, I was really impressed by his collection of edible trees, shrubs and bushes! He works in Gothenburg and is a regular visitor to the gardens! We agreed to meet before my talk and a group of friends also joined us!! It was great to walk in the garden with Bosse as he knew all the interesting edible woody plants! Thanks!! Here are a selection of pictures!
Yesterday, I gave my first talk about my (second) love of onions (alternative title All you wanted to know about Alliums but were afraid to ask!)….fittingly in the nursery with I believe the best selection of Alliums being sold as foodplants in Europe if not the world , my friend Aiah Noack’s Naturplanteskolen just outside of Copenhagen. Aiah is the author of an excellent book Fantasilater (fantasy salads), only in Danish so far which also includes several Alliums. My book Around the World in 80 plants mentions some 45 Allium species!
In a little over 2 hours I covered about 66 of the world’s cold hardy onions and over 80 if we include cultivars and subspecies…
Other onion related topics were also covered, such as “grow your own fireworks and Xmas decorations”, “Allium as a dancing partner”, the Allium microphone (Alliomike) and the garlic scape armband to keep “wild” animals, trolls and mosquitos away (Transylvanian Garlic keeps vampires away too)… It was a fun afternoon with yet another great group of edimentals fans! ;)
The video is of one of my pictures about drying Persian Shallots with a shot of my drying racks over my wood burning stove. Someone noticed that you could actually see heat rising through the racks!!!! (a wood burning stove was on behind the projector) ;)
Thanks to Eliane Vivi Frieda Bonde for inviting me to Bornholm…a great day with a knowledgeable international group of foragers, gardeners, permaculturists, farmers, foodists and wwoofers / workawayers! Here are some pictures from the venue in an old school in the beautiful North Bornholm town of Allinge where I gave a 4-5 hour talk followed by a beach walk! Hope to return in spring!!
It was a great honour to finally get to talk at the Gothenburg Botanical Gardens last night….not just once but twice as the first talk (picture) was sold out…and as I told them Gothenburg is my favourite edible garden anywhere there was a big cheer (second talk). The garden has around 30,000 accessions and with an estimated 1/3 of all plants edible, that makes for a huge diversity of food plants all in one place…. I just hope the garden doesn’t have problems with “grazing” after my visit ;)
Thanks to Johan Nilson, Mats Havstrøm and the staff for making me feel welcome, to Johan for the tour around the greenhouse collections of Alliums and much more and the garden “forage”. Finally, it was great to meet Bosse Blomquist and friends who guided us around the more unusual collections of edible nut and fruit trees, many of which I hadn’t seen before!
Tomorrow evening, I’ll be giving two talks in the botanical garden in Gøteborg (Gothenburg) in Sweden, the first at 1700 is sold out, but there are I think still tickets for the second at 1900!
I’ll be selling signed copies of my book Around the World in 80 plants at SEK 250 (remember cash/paypal also accepted)!
The talk will be a little different this time as I will be showing many pictures of edimentals (edible ornamentals) taken in the botanical gardens, but keeping to my Around the World in 80 plants / perennial and forest gardening vegetable theme :) Welcome!
During our PDC course here in Malvik yesterday, we found an “exciting” and “amusing” fungus which is quite rare in this part of the world, Phallus impudicus (common stinkhorn, stanksopp) at the witch egg stage! :)
I have found this “organic” fungi several times before, but it’s 8 years since the last time. I’ve found it in 3 places in my garden, first around 1998 on an edible bed built up like a Hugel bed! I often had to explain to folk visiting the garden why there was a sickly smell hanging over the garden ;)
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden