After 3-4 weeks of snow cover, the weather this week changed dramatically and we had the second warmest February day over the last 100 years with over 10C! Together with rain and wind, almost all of what was close to 50 cm of snow has disappeared. For plants, this has been a very mild winter and the ground has hardly been frozen. As soon as the snow had disappeared I could dig the soil. Some edibles such as nettles and chickweed haven’t been killed by frost. Here are some pictures of (apart from the snowdrops) edibles in the garden today.
Nettles (nesle)
Dandelion (løvetann)
Chickweed (vassarve)
Allium cernuum (Chicago onion / Prærieløk)
It looks like it would be a good year for overwintering of my perennial kales (flerårige kål/ staudekål)
A perennial leek (Allium ampeloprasum) will not normally overwinter here
Lesser celandine (vårkål)
Allium scorodoprasum (bendelløk)
Rumex patientia
Sideritis syriaca (Greek mountain tea /Gresk fjellte emerging from one of the last snow patches
Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde); my oldest 17 year old plant
Alliaria petiolata (hedge garlic / løkurt)
Alliaria petiolata (hedge garlic / løkurt)
Norwegian accession of Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde) from Hadsel vicarage
Toasted diverse Alliums, Hablitzia and dandelion for lunch
Toasted diverse Alliums, Hablitzia and dandelion for lunch
Snowdrops should be open in the open garden in a few days!
A little video showing various Alliums about to burst into flower on a bed I’ve always called the Perennial Bed as it was the first bed devoted to perennials. It’s in the shade most of the day.
0-11 secs: Various forms of Allium cernuum (Chicago onion, nodding onion / prærieløk) and broad-leaved Allium wallichii (Sherpa onion)
11-20: Allium cernuum, Hemerocallis (daylily/daglilje) and Clinopodium vulgare (wild basil)
31: Norrland Onion / Norrlandsløk
(all of the onions above are in my book)
38: Allium cyathophorum v. farreri (Farrer’s onion)
Héctor is from Spain.and is teaching art and photography at the folkhøgskole (folk high school) in Skogn. He is working on a photo-project about vegetable gardens featuring “disobedient farmers/gardeners”. I’ve never been called disobedient, but I think I like that title (D.G.!!).
This was his second visit and he came with his new large format camera today (the lenses and plates can only be obtained second hand, but the frame is new and the film can be bought and developed at one place…). Will be fun to see the result! He’s been both photographing in the garden and in the cellar!
He photographed and tasted both Allium cernuum (Nodding or Chicago onion) as well as Hablitzia. He also took pictures of the dead parts of Udo, Aralia cordata.
I’m still alive and well after last night’s noxious pizza. I’ll explain. I used pea shoots from the living room, onion, Allium cernuum shoots harvested from the garden (I forgot to include Hablitzia shoots), garlic and chili…on top of the pizza, I added seed of Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), one of the “worst” noxious (invasive) species…
Pea shoots grown in soil on the window sill in the living room
Allium cernuum leaves can be harvested year round even when it’s -10C in the middle of the day as it was yesterday!
Allium cernuum, Chicago onion, Nodding onion (Prærieløk)
I used a whole grain emmer, spelt, rye sourdough base to the pizza (much more tasty and nutritious than standard pizza dough)
A bit overdone…the oil rich brown noxious himalayan balsam (kjempespringfrø) can be seen on top.
..I forgot the Hablitzia shoots (also fun to harvest fro the garden when it’s very cold!)
Himalayan balsam (kjempespringfrø) was the noxious element of the pizza….the seeds were used. Here from July along the Monk’s Brook in my home town Eastleigh, Hampshire!
This album was first published on FB in June 2012, now “regurgitated” here:
“What for dinner? “Burdock flower stalk, nettle and the onion that nods curry” sounds interesting, so why not. So it was to be… I had completely missed this amazing vegetable and this experiment was prompted by foraging author Leda Meredith waxing eloquent about it a few days ago, so thanks to her. How did I miss it? Well, Cornucopia II doesn’t mention this part being eaten, just the leaf stalks – I’d tried them and they were fiddly to peel and bitter. The flower stalks were easy to prepare and once peeled had an excellent sweet crunchy taste with no bitterness.”
(https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151007155680860.476401.655215859&type=1&l=b287a87f09)
A pile of nettles (brennesle) and Burdock (borre) flower stalks
Burdock (borre) flower stalks
Peeled burdock (borre) flower stalks – the outside layer is fibrous and bitter, but the inside has a pleasant sweet crunchy taste that could be used in salads.
Peeled burdock (borre) flower stalks with Allium cernuum (Nodding Onion/Praerie-løk), easy to grow and excellent cooked and in salads at this time of year with flower buds.
Peeled and chopped burdock (borre) flower stalks are delicious raw – this really must be one of the best vegetables ever!
Stir fried Nodding Onion with Indian spices
…add the burdock which maintains an excellent flavour after cooking with spices…
Discarded burdock (borre) leaves are great slug traps – I’d noticed that slugs are very keen on the leaves and they hide underneath the large leaves
A little secret I’ve had since last autumn (apart from a select few) when I was told that I would get my very own Allium bed at the Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim :)
Yesterday, 18th August 2017, I finally got the time to start the planting. I will be planting both the collection of old Norwegian perennial onions that I have collected from all over the country over the last 10 years and a selection of species Alliums to show off their incredible diversity!
The first phase was mainly the planting of my old Norwegian onion collection, Allium schoenoprasum (chives / gressløk), Allium fistulosum (Welsh onion / pipeløk including old Norwegian roof onions from Gudbrandsdalen) and Allium x proliferum (walking onions, tree onions, Egyptian onions / luftløk, etasjeløk). I also planted about 22 accessions of Allium cernuum (nodding onion, Chicago onion / prærieløk) plus a few others like Allium carinatum pulchellum and Norrlands onion (Norrlandsløk).
It was a long day starting at home at 8 am with packing, sorting and documentation, returning home after 10 pm – it was worth it for the sunset from the garden over Trondheimsfjord!! Looking forward to phase 2 which will probably be in September!
Thanks to the Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre and particularly Morten Rasmussen for funding the bed preparation and Vibekke Vange and the staff at Ringve for making me feel so welcome!
Before!
The first Alliums in the ground were two accession of Norrlands Onion (Norrlandsløk) from Lund and Harstad (from Magnar Aspaker)
Norrlands Onion (Norrlandsløk)
Spacing out the chives (gressløk)
Chives and Allium cernuum finished planting
Finished planting 93 different onions!!
This sunset from the garden I take as a good sign! It was a beautiful evening in the garden and several people stopped by to ask what was (finally) happening!
Preparing Allium cernuum accessions for Ringve at home:
Sunset and the new Allium bed with the accompaniment of screaming (approving) swifts! Life is good!!
I love my nodding onions (Allium cernuum) as you can read in my book and the diversity of forms increases as each year passes, both as I introduce new varieties and as they self-seed….and the bees love them too..
Not garlic scapes as they’re not ready yet, but Chicago onion (Allium cernuum) scapes with Allium scorodoprasum scapes and Scorzonera scapes in tonight’s stir fry!
Scorzonera at top, Allium cernuum (bottom left) and Allium scorodoprasum (bottom right) scapes
Scorzonera at top, Allium cernuum (bottom left) and Allium scorodoprasum (bottom right) scapes
What an amazing group of people who had assembled in Jevnaker at the weekend to learn more about perennial vegetables, edible weeds and edimentals! It was sad to leave…
Thanks to Trude Skåre Johansen of Jevnaker Hage and Mr. Permaculture Norway himself, Jan Bang for arranging the weekend!
The Hablitzia salad, mostly Hablitzia shoots plus ground elder (skvallerkål), dandelion (løvetann), wild hop (humle), chicago onion (Allium cernuum), Allium scorodoparasum (bendelløk), primrose x oxlip hybrid (kusymre x hagenøkleblom), Primula elatior (oxlip / hagenøkleblom), Allium triquetrum, Allium paradoxum, Arabis alpina (flowers), Cardamine pentaphyllos (flowers), Primula denticulata (Kuleprimula; flowers)Great to finally stay with Jan Bang…who has a fantastic sunset…I admit that I did have a little slice of this cake at the weekend…
Last night (8th March 2017) was the first of two events I had been asked to take part in celebrating the diversity of vegetables that our area has on offer (or could have on offer) even in winter! The Trondheim Kosmorama international film festival are showing two films related to food. Last night, the film “NOMA: My perfect storm” was shown and around 40 people also bought tickets to a fantastic 10-15 course, 4 hour meal (I lost count) at Trondheim’s NOMA: Credo!
I supplied a number of vegetables for the dinner and these are shown here, several being served for the first time in Norway :)
All the veggies including Primula elatior (oxlip / hagenøkleblom flowers)Blanched dandelions (løvetann)Oca, ulluco, Hablitzia shoots (stjernemelde) and Chicago onioBlanched horseradish (top left) with blanched wild dandelion, Aleksandra garlic bulbil sprouts, Chicago onion (Allium cernuum), different types of Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) and Ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus – green tubers)Sweet cicely / spansk kjørvel seed sprouts at the top with blanched horseradish shoots at bottom and blanched wild dandelion on the right
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
