It was actually bilberries that were the evening’s objective, but when you see several ceps / steinsopp in the woods and hedgehogs/piggsopp and saffron milk caps / matriske (almost all surprisingly in good condition without fly larvae) and chantarelles / kantarell, then there’s a change of plan….and there was still time to pick more than enough bilberries for drying another ovenfull!
Most people into permaculture in Scandinavia know of Lars Westergaard’s nursery in Denmark as one of the best sources of a range of hard to get (and unique, from Lars’ own selection work) fruit and nut trees. Lars has been working with production of organic plants for many years and commercially since 2009. It seems much longer! He specialises in walnuts, heartnuts, hazel, sweet chestnut, peach, mulberries, figs, haskaps and many more! I’ve been wanting to visit for some years and an opportunity finally arose after I’d given a couple of courses near Copenhagen in August 2016. It was a pity that Lars was “distracted” by several customers during our visit, so we didn’t have too much time to talk together…..but I was impressed by what I saw. Thanks to Aiah Noack for taking me…and looking forward to his plants becoming available in Norway soon :)
The nursery page is here: http://www.westergaards.dk
Streptopus amplexifolius is a shade loving woodland plant known, amongst others, as twistedstalk, wild cucumber and watermelon berry and has an extensive wild range including North America, Europe and East Asia. It has been used traditionally by Native Americans for its edible spring cucumber flavoured shoots and the delicious berries are now in season and I’ve been dining on them recently! I’m saving the seed as I eat! Beware that they can be laxative in large quantities, but it’s unlikely you will be able to grow that many in your forest garden!
060916: Added pictures of Streptopus lanceolatus from Eastern North America and a comparison of the berries with amplexifolius!
On FB: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154221765395860.1073742708.655215859&type=1&l=0866fc78cd
Magic happened again last night! I noticed a large halo around the moon when I went to bed at about midnight and was trying to photograph it. That was pretty unusual in itself…and then the aurora decided to join in…and then the Aliens arrived (from Copenhagen)!! WOW!
Each day on the trip to Japan had been equally amazing as the day before with new plant and food discoveries all the way!! The venue for my talk in Tokyo was the art/photography studio belonging to a guy called Ken Takewaki. It turned out he’d spent a lot of time in the UK working on organic farms and knew the owner of Poyntzfield Nursery in Scotland well and I’d already planned to try to visit Poyntzfield on my Scotland trip in September! Knowing that I was heading for the mountains after Tokyo, Ken kindly invited me to visit his mountain home! What a place and the food was out of this world! Ken and his lady Masami had made a special effort to feed me sansai!
The next morning it was as if I’d been transported home in my dreams as there was new snow on the ground at the Ken’s home at 1300m. The day before it has been over 20C at 600m! Thanks so much to Tei, who I got to know through Caroline Ho Bich-Tuyen Dang, a member of Norwegian Seed Savers, for showing me so much of her village near Besshou (Ueda) in Nagano Prefecture and sharing all the amazing sansai and sake and for taking me to Ken’s place! More on Besshou later when I get time!Thank you so much too Ken and Masami for your hospitality!
On FB: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153897515615860.1073742590.655215859&type=1&l=84704ca6c5
I’ve never been able to get as close to a snipe / enkeltbekkasin before. Rather than flying off it just ducked down into the water :) Taken with my small hand held Lumix DMC-TZ60 camera.
On my trip to Japan in spring 2016, I found shidoke (シドケ / Parasenecio delphiniifolia syn. Cacalia delphiniifolia) leaves on sale in a supermarket in Ueda, Japan. This is the only place I saw it during my 3 week visit to Japan, so not one of the most popular sansai or wild mountain vegetables. I’ve been growing this plant for a few years now in a very shady spot in the garden and it’s just come into flower which prompted this post. It’s a great woodland ornamental grown for its leaves and an unusual forest garden edimental. It is also known as momijigasa (モミジガサ) which translates as “maple umbrella” due to the similarity of the leaves to Acer palmatum. It resembles yaburegasa (Syneilesis palmata) meaning “torn umbrella”. I didn’t see shidoke in the wild, but I did see yaburegasain in one place on the Izu peninsula. Both of these plants in the Asteraceae have edible young shoots, although shidoke is the preferred one. I bought a packet in that supermarket and my friends Ken and Masami who we visited that night were kind enough to prepare it as tempura! It is apparently pleasant tasting raw, but is most often cooked and served with a little soy sauce and roasted sesame seed once cool. Shidoke contains antioxidants that have been shown to inhibit the growth of cancer cells.
See also http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=6357 (Visit to Ken and Masami) and this blog post on FB at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154213988935860.1073742705.655215859&type=1&l=eb0bc1fced
Some pictures from yesterday evening’s trip to the woods looking for fungi!! After several years with almost no ceps / porcini, I found about 10 in good condition together with chantarelles, hedgehogs, slimy spike caps, saffron milk caps and puffballs and the woods were full of inedibles!
I also found yellow bird’s nest (vaniljerot) for only the 3rd time here! Who would believe it would be classified in the blueberry family (Ericaceae). It lacks chlorophyll, and gets its food through parasitism upon fungi (that form a myccorhiza with trees), rather than photosynthesis…
This is my longest dandelion leaf so far at 95cm. Any better?
A 1m pot grown olive that is now in full flower together with a clambering Hablitzia also in flower…
