Category Archives: Shrub

From the vaults: my Edible and Useful Plant Seed Trade List from 2000!

14 years ago and my seed list had some 1,000 entries and I even added a usage code (from Plants for a Future)………

Edible and Useful Plant Seed Trade List
for November 2000 to October 2001

About the Garden: Most of the seed offered is collected in my own garden here on the edge of the Trondheimsfjord at close to
64 deg. N an area of extreme climatic variability. The grass can be green on 1st January and snow might lie for a short while on
1st June. We talk about having two seasons – the green and the white winter. It is, however, surprisingly mild for the latitude. A
remarkable number of species survive the winter (or should I say summer) and seem to thrive. However, a number of the plants
are grown in pots and are moved in to a cold cellar (temperature just above zero in mid-winter) in the winter without extra
warmth.

The garden is one of a network of organically run gardens in Norway and can be visited by agreement. We are just at the end of
our 17th season here. We use no input apart from compost, an important ingredient of which is seaweed which we collect every
spring.. We grow a wide range of vegetables many of which are not commonly grown here (e.g., Runner Beans, Broad Beans, Continue reading From the vaults: my Edible and Useful Plant Seed Trade List from 2000!

#ATWselfie

The ATW selfie is going viral worldwide…. ;) Send me yours and it will be added…you will be showing support of a very good cause: the conservation and promotion of the amazing diversity of food plants Around the World!

Robert and Robyn Guyton’s amazing food forest in Riverton, New Zealand is one of the wonders of my world (see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=8725) and the centre of dispersal of the southern hemisphere food forest idea…

 


One of my first interns, Daina Binde from Latvia, helped out in my garden in Malvik in 2014. She sent me this series of pictures this week of little Andris learning about perennial vegetables :) She is nowadays giving zoom lectures on permaculture and perennial vegetables!


I met Isaac Coblentz at Mountain Gardens (Joe Hollis’ place) – https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=26460. Isaac wrote to me: “This is one of my favorite books. I keep it in my backpack and never tire of re-reading. Your book has also expanded my diet and improved my health. It is a real treasure. It was so nice to meet you and spend time with you and Joe Hollis at Mountain Gardens”. He lives and gardens in Ashtabula, Ohio.

Presenting Norwegian forager and teacher Fru Johnsen of https://www.frujohnsenssoppognyttevekster.com. Cathrine is known as TanteGrusom (Aunty Cruel) on FB. I had a memorable visit from her and partner Edvin last summer: https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=23045.

 
Meet Lauren Lochrie, a permaculturist and Forest Gardener from Scotland of @Herbal_Homestead / GrowYourHomeWay; https://www.herbalhomestead.org
Thanks for this one, Søren Holt!! Here he is with his ATW selfie and his favourite edimental, Allium victorialis – read my book to understand why :)
Søren Holt with one of the great edimentals that didn’t make it into the book, Ligularia fischeri!
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Thank you Bunkie Weir for this one…I’m assured the book was read rather than burned ;)

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Thank you Maxime Dufresne!!

Kelly
Thank you Kelli Ploeger Hinn!
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Chris Fowler isn’t very experienced with selfies and missed!
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...and thank you Knut Poulsen..you may remember I visited his interesting gardens in Denmark this summer: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=6205
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Joe Atkinson, Permaculture teacher during his October 2016 Design tools and principals in Permaculture course at Naturplanteskolen in Denmark (photo: Aiah Noack)
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Honorata Gajda from the Norwegian Botanical Association!
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Luan Van Le​ from GMO Free USA has been travelling around Europe and the US with Neil Young’s Global Ecovillage tour and was the coordinator of the News You Can Trust stand which I took part in at the Stavernfestivalen in July 2016!
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At the “Fantasilater: Har du spist en blomst?” / “Fantasy salads: Have you eaten a flower” event at Grennnessminde, Denmark!
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With Sachiko Ito after my talk in Tokyo :)

 

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Lasse Hav is a gardener at Grennessminde organic nursery in Copenhagen, Denmark!
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Another happy selfie! This is Joann who is a volunteer with my colleagues at Naturplanteskolen (NPS) in Denmark. Joann was visiting NPS on her birthday and here she is giving herself my book for her birthday! Happy birthday, Joann…
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Fantasy salad queen Aiah Noack shows it off in Copenhagen :) She is particularly happy as she (Naturplanteskolen) have sold 86 of these so far!!
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I had a great chat to this Maori guy at the Rainbow Community in Golden Bay, NZ. He was so pleased that someone from the other side of the planet should be so interestedin his vegetable traditions that he should write about it :)
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My friend Maria Silva and Sofia have a lot of bed time reading ahead!
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Steen Nørhede showed my book on stage during a talk about Permaculture at the Roskilde Agricultural Show (Dyrskue) yesterday (8th June 2015) :)
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Joan Bailey in Japan has sent me this beautiful shot taken at dusk in her community garden plot in Tokyo! Joan was the first to review the book in Permaculture Magazine and a lovely review it was too…I remember being relieved that somebody liked it :)
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My friend Gunn Apeland!!
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Wouter of Foodforest Ketelbroek with Ramsons!
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Elin Kiraly and a suspicious Bolla
ATWSelfie
First up, my friend Telsing Andrews / Ottawa Gardener /Aster Lane Edibles, the future of edimental garden (see on the Links page)
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Not a selfie? My toes are very nimble!
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Another ATWtoeselfie, but who could it be?
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Mr. Decomestibles Ronny Staquet, amazing how happy a man can be – would recommend his web site Wallogreen – see the links page
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Tim Harland , the very first toe ATWselfie…. :)
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…a very cool lady, seems something in the book has shocked her :)
Tony Bülow and the first #mirrorATWselfie
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…and the perennial kale was feeling left out, so decided to join in the FUN :)
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Patricia Wallinger in Canada is pleased to join the ATW owner’s association….
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…and my friend, leading New York forager Leda Meredith sent me this lovely one from Jerusalem!
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Foodforest Ketelbroek are a bit shy and have only revealed a hand in this ATWselfie
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…and in this one, Foodforest Ketelbroek have only revealed a foot! Come on guys, we want to see more!

ATW SelfieAiah

Guinness Megasalad Record Book Rejection email from 2001

The first time I made a megasalad in 2001 with 363 different plants (see  http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=206) I approached Guinness to claim a world record.  They were not interested and I accidentally found the rejection email today (from 10th October 2001). Their reply: “Unfortunately, we would not be interested in a record for the most diverse salad. I recommend that you choose a salad of some particular variety and attempt the largest salad of its kind.”

After this,  I was glad that I’d been refused as the Guinness Records represent greed and an inorganic product. I tried half seriously to find an organic brewery that would be interested in starting a record book of records with a sustainable message…..still looking…

Download (PDF, 85KB)

Coffee

The coffee plant is a fantastic edimental indoor plant that tolerates quite low temperatures in winter….but don’t expect more than a cup of coffee a year :)  Coffee tea is an alternative (made from the leaves) and the fruit are also tasty. Strangely, coffee fruit juice isn’t often seen (large amounts of fruit flesh must just be thrown away)? Coffee fruit wine is also produced locally..

http://www.amazon.com/…/dp/B001KBQ…/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

An old Facebook album:

http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Facebook/All%20you%20wanted%20to%20know%20about%20coffee%20but%20were%20afra?sort=3&page=1

World Record Salad Invite

Sunday 24th August 2003, I earned my title Extreme Salad Man :) when I made a salad comprising 538 varieties of edible plant. I’m still looking for the recipe I made, and in the process I found the attached invitation to the garden open day when I made that salad, shown below:

Record_salad

For English speakers, here’s what it says:

“”Open organic herb garden
Bergstua organic garden, Malvikvn. 418, Malvik
Sunday August 24th from kl. 1200

Co-organizer: Malvik Gardening Club

http://www.oikos.no/aapenhage

Other Activities: Plant sale and plant swap

(Bring plants for swopping)

World Record Salad attempt (500 varieties of edible plants in a salad)

Garden tour (over 1500 varieties)

 Focaccia, herbal tea, coffee, poppy cake

 Fungi control (bring fungi to be checked)

Plant Sales and plant swap
Preliminary sales list (NB there are few plants of each cultivar and many are small plants from seed this year).
(There follows a list of 219 plants I had for sale that day!!)””

Download (PDF, 199KB)

A little salad recipe :)

Somebody was asking if I still had the ingredients list for my record salad from 2003 with 537 varieties – it used to be on the net but has been taken down. Haven’t found it yet, but in the process of searching I found the RECIPE for the first of my MegaSalads from 2001…just in case you want to have a go

WORLD RECORD SALAD RECIPE

On 19th August 2001, Stephen Barstow decided to attempt to break the world record for the greatest number of plant varieties in a salad in his garden in Malvik, Norway at 63.4deg N. However, from searches beforehand on the Internet, it didn’t seem that anyone had been daft enough to try this before. The salad was composed and put together in connection with the Norwegian National Open Organic Garden Day. The final salad had a grand total of 363 distinct plant varieties and 382 distinct plant parts (i.e., including flowers and leaves from the same variety). All bar two of the varieties were collected in the garden.

The recipe:

Take some leaves of Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), leaves of Alpine Calamint (Acinos alpinus); leaves of Basil Thyme (Acinos arvensis), leaves of Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria), chopped wood mushroom (Agaricus silvicola), some leaves and flowers of Agastache “Licquorice”, some leaves and flowers of Anise Hyssop (Agastache anisata), some leaves and flowers of White Anise Hyssop (Agastache anisata alba), add some leaves of Agastache aurantiaca, some leaves and flowers of Mexican Giant Hyssop (Agastache mexicana), leaves of Agastache pringlei, some leaves of Korean Mint (Agastache rugosa), some leaves of Agastache scrophulariaefolia, leaves of Agastache speciosa, a few leaves of Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata), some Continue reading A little salad recipe :)