Red sky in the morning…

October 26, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

It’s the 23rd day in a row without rain here and this could be the last one…..and sunrises have been beautiful most days!

Autumn leaves, Fjord views, Trees

Autumn leaves

October 25, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Back home from my visit to south western Norway and this is probably THE autumn of all autumns I will ever experience here…..high pressure weather with clear skies for 3 weeks, record number of sun-hours in any month ever and little wind to blow the leaves off the trees…the autumn colours keep going and going, so here’s an album of leaf pictures, all taken today 25th October 2016…

Allotment, Bees, Seed

Stavanger and around

October 25, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

After my weekend course in Haugaland, member of Norwegian Seed Savers, Tone Lise Østboe kindly showed me around gardens in Stavanger and we also visited Rogaland arboretum outside the city and also a producer of bumble bees for the greenhouse industry!
Thanks very much Tone Lise :)

The stairs up to the flat I’d been loaned for my stay :) I hope I don’t sleepwalk :)

Tone Lise was one of the first to receive seed from Paolo in Italy who had crossed our Dagnøytral Jerusalem Artichoke with wild JAs in Italy and her flower heads were full of seed! I’ve never seen so much JA seed produced in Norway and Stavanger isn’t teh warmest part of Norway :) Let’s hope these are viable seed!

Tone Lise’s seed were darker than the original seed I received from Paolo, seen in this pictrue.

The tubers on Tone Lise’s plants were not worth keeping, inheriting the wild genes…

My first taste of African Sukuma Wiki kale….some varieties are perennial….

Tone Lise tried to defeat me with this super chili hot pizza, but failed…it was delicious!

Interesting brussel sprout seed head which had developed sprouts…is this common?

Swelling ovaries on Tone Lise’s Elephant Garlic!!

A tree in the street where Tone Lise lives has the tallest dandelion ever growing out of it ;)

The arboretum was disappointing….that an oil town can’t afford to make a good arboretum is very sad….

We visited a producer and breeder of bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) for pollinating in greenhouses…

Multi-colour pollen from different plant species!

Tone Lise has a “kolonihage” (allotment with small cottage) here

All the street names are vegetables—blomkålveien = Cauliflower Way

I wonder if this is Aralia spinosa? It remebles Aralia elata, but that one is already in seed in my garden. Does spinosa flower later?

…and she has asparagus in the front of her garden :)

A lot of work has gone into developing the garden with masses of organic matter…

Tone Lise is now the main guardian in Norway of Herrgårds artichoke! Artichoke is most likely to survive the winter in Stavanger…I sent this to her this spring!

Tone Lise’s Artemisia annua plantation, inspired by a stay in Africa

A strange long-leaved kale, probably deriving from one of Chris Homanic’s perennial kale mixes

Tone Lise’s garden is sadly far and above the most productive garden here, most people growing no food at all….

Tone Lise has a good taste in reading material in her greenhouse

A neighbour has a monkey puzzle tree, a good indication of a mild winter climate!

Tree tomatoes…but they don’t smell strongly like my plants did…why?

It’s forbidden to use Round-up in Stavanger and this also applies to allotments!

..and to end the day, a look through Tone Lise’s seed collection including several packets of unknown seed from Africa! These both seem to be cultivars of Solanum nigrum or similar, an important leafy green vegetable in Africa!

Salad

Adresseavisen salad photo shoot…

October 20, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

On 10th June 2014, journalist Hilde Østmoe, with photographer Terje Visnes, interviewed me for regional newspaper Adresseavisen’s Saturday magazine UkeAdressa. It was for a special extended article about urban growing!

I had hoped this post would be ready before Terje Visnes’ exhibition this week in Trondheim, but I just missed the “deadline”. I don’t know if one of these photos were used as I also couldn’t make it to the exhibition at the last minute! I remember being impressed by his work that day!

…and Terje made this wonderful animated picture of the salad ingredients….if you hover with your mouse over the picture the (Norwegian) names will appear: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/536181539210264576

The final article can be downloaded here: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Adressa_Spiselige.pdf

My first ever blog post was also featuring this salad on June 29 2014: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=43

Below are pictures I took during the photo shoot in my garden!

Journalist Hilde Østmoe and photographer Terje Visnes from our regional newspaper Adresseavisen

From the magazine article: to my great surprise all the plants were identified, even with their latin names…

Seed

Arctic ethnobotanical seed wanted

October 18, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

For an Arctic ethnobotanical garden, I’m looking for seed of the following species used for food by native peoples of Alaska!

Angelica lucida
Arabis lyrata ssp kamtchatica
Claytonia acutifolia
Claytonia eschscholtzii
Claytonia ogilviensis
Claytonia sarmentosa
Claytonia scammaniana
Claytonia tuberosa
Plantago macrocarpum
Ranunculus lapponicus
Rumex arcticus
Saxifraga nelsoniana
Saxifraga punctata
Senecio congestus
Taraxacum carneocoloratum

Fjord views, Sun

Dawn 17th October 2016

October 17, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Another in a row of rainless sunny days. It’s now 2 weeks since it rained and no rain is forecast for the next 10 days. Grass and heather fire warnings are now in force, very unusual here…winter droughts seem to be on the increase…

Berries

Elderberry harvest

October 16, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

10 years ago, I wouldn’t have believed it was possible to harvest elderberries here, but with the new Danish cultivars which are both early, hardy and with large berries this album shows the result…The cultivars shown are Samyl and Samnor!
They are now drying above my wood stove..

Garden tour, Uncategorized

Norrland visits Norrland Onion

October 16, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

A pleasant visit today from Angelina Hjelm from a little place called Lillpite (pop. 429 in 2010!) in Norrland in Sweden and a friend, traveller from Brisbane in Australia!