Category Archives: Perennial vegetables

Korean Aster on Edimentals

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Two years ago, I posted this picture of Aster scaber, commonly wild foraged in Korea and nowadays cultivated for markets in Korea and exported dried to Koreans in North America :)
The following is a collection of pages here  giving more information on this great perennial vegetable, or read the account in my book Around the World in 80 plants :)
1. Aster scaber and introducing Misoni: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=3103
2. Pakora hasn’t met this selection of vegetables before:http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=5250
3. The wild greens of Korea: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=3635
4. Perennial vegetable tempura: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=2382
5. My first Korean aster flower: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=2008
6. Alexandra Berkutenko and the giant Edimentals of the Russian Far East:http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=208

Adenophora transforms into invasive bellflower

On the corner of a bed I planted Adenophora “Amethyst” over 10 years ago. I remember that creeping bellflower / ugressklokke (Campanula rapunculoides) was growing in the grass next to the bed and I tried to stop it invading… I thought I had succeeded…
In the last few years the “Adenophora” has started invading this bed aggressively and I decided to remove the plant….. It turned out not to be an Adenophora at all and was creeping bellflower (both in the same family). So, had the creeping bellflower in the grass gradually taken over without me noticing or was my Adenophora (seed propagated from a seed trade) actually always been creeping bellfower. The latter I think. It seems that it is often an imposter for Adenophora: http://tinyurl.com/j3kzq9k

I’ve dug it out, the roots were a decent size although a bit fibrous, so I cooked them and added them to tonight’s salad :)

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New Zealand Celery and Porpoise Bay

I haven’t shown many pictures from my fantastic tour of New Zealand in March / April 2015. I was transplanting some plants of New Zealand Celery at the weekend, the seed of which I collected on rocks at Porpoise Bay in Southland! A good excuse then to show a few pictures from Porpoise Bay :)

Naturplanteskolen Malvik salad

Soba with stir-fried Golpared veggies

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The veggies: Allium senescens x nutans hybrid onions, Malva moschata (musk mallow), Broad bean tops, Atriplex hortensis “Rubra” (red orach), Sonchus oleraceus (common sow thistle), chili, puff balls, Leccinum versipelle (orange birch bolete / rødskrubb), piggsopp/hedgehog fungus and at the top young parsnip roots (thinnings)
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Heracleum maximum is the North American Cow Parsnip…
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Heracleum maximum is the North American Cow Parsnip…

I made soba with stir-fried golpared veggies and wild fungi for tonight’s dinner. Soba is buckwheat noodles. Golpar is the Turkish spice usually made from the ground seed of Heracleum persicum (Tromsøpalme). To me the taste of “golpar” made with different Heracleum species isn’t very different. Tonight I used Heracleum maximum seeds fresh harvested from the garden to spice the stir-fry (instead of cumin which I used to use).

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Harvested cow parsnip seed heads

 

 

 

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Harvested cow parsnip seed heads

 

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Cow parsnip seed

 

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Ground cow parsnip seed

 

Giant purple throat bellflower

Noticed this rather attractive purple throated Giant Bellflower, reminiscent of Codonopsis! This patch came from AGS (Alpine Garden Society) seed, received as a cultivar “Gloaming” although pictures of that one all seem to show a purple flowered variety…
Campanula latifolia is one of top favourite edimentals as anyone who has read my book will realise!

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Normal white throat

 

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A closer look shows that Purple throat also has a little purple in the petals ..
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A closer look shows that Purple throat also has a little purple in the petals ..

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Persian Cornflower

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There are several knapweeds (Centaurea spp.) that have been used as wild vegetables in the Mediterranean countries. I haven’t yet found and evidence of this beauty (Centaurea dealbata “Steenbergii”) having been used but it’s flowering in my garden at the moment!
I’m interested in seed of any of the following, all recorded as food plants (shoot, leaves and stems):
Centaurea aspera
Centaurea calcitrapa
Centaurea dumulosa
Centaurea hyalolepis (syn Centaurea pallescens)
Centaurea nicaeensis
Centaurea nigrescens
Centaurea solstitialis