I noticed yesterday that the ostrich ferns (strutseving) in the forest garden had put on a spurt despite the cold weather and were almost past the harvesting stage. This is the main disadvantage of this great vegetable. The harvesting window is very narrow. I quickly harvested some, taking care not to take more than 1/3 of the shoots. Together with Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach), a bit of sea kale (strandkål), ramsons (ramsløk) and sand leeks (bendelløk) this made a delicious green pasta sauce. See the video before I picked below!
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere I eat more Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde) than any other spring vegetable and have eaten it every day now since the beginning of March (70 days). A friend mentioned on Instagram that she would love to see my plant! Well, I’ve just counted them and I have 36 harvestable plants and many different accessions now and more on the way…spread around the garden. About time then for an overview. They grow back so quickly even though we’ve hardly had a single day above 10C this spring that you wouldn’t have guessed that I’ve cut most of them right back! They regularly self-seed but they only see to succeed in naked soil where there is little competition. All the plants I tried in the forest garden area didn’t make it (in competition with ground elder, Aegopodium).
Bed 2: This is where I planted my second Hablitzia which was a seedling of my oldest plant and my first wild accession from Sergey Banketov in the Russian Caucasus, both planted in 2008. They’ve thrived and self-seeded on this bed which was too dry to grow annual vegetables under the shade of a large birch tree
Bed 2: This self-seeded plant has an exposed root.
Bed 1: Nearby under the same birch tree is where I planted (in 2009) the only Norwegian accession from Hadsel vicarage and a plant derived from seedlings I received from Jonathan Bates in the US. He received his plants from the botanical garden in Rostock, Germany
A few plants have self-seeded in a neighbouring bed from Beds 1 and 2
My oldest plant is approaching 20 years old and is still yielding well!
A second view of my oldest plant is approaching 20 years old and is still yielding well!
A self-seeded plant from my oldest plant
A self-seeded plant from my oldest plant
This one has also self-seeded in gravel in the middle of what was where we parked the car, now where I keep plants waiting for a place in the garden.
This one self-seeded in a wooden barrel where I was growing Alliums
This one self-seeded in a pot with a large bay tree which died. It now climbs into the dead bay!
Norwegian accession originating at Hadsel vicarage
Wild accession from Sergey Banketov in the Caucasus
Bed 7: Self-seeded and growing happily together with nettle (Urtica dioica)
Bed 8: From Tampere, Finland
Bed 10 (unknown accession)
Bed 10a/11: In front is a plant originating from the Uppsala Botanical Garden (probably originally wild collected); behind is Tycho and Karolines wild accession from Georgia (via Andrew Hahn in the US as I lost my original plants received directly)
Bed 11: Unknown
Bed 13a/14: This derives from a self-seeded plant that was variegated, but the variegation disappeared-
Hedge bed N: Accession received from Arche Noah in Austria in 2018, unknown origin
Presenting yesterdays greens used on a veggie 100% whole grain barley/spelt/rye sourdough pizza were: Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach /stjernemelde) (eaten now every day since the beginning of March and there’s more to harvest now than at any time since I started!) Crambe maritima (sea kale / strandkål) Allium ursinum (ramsons / ramsløk) Levisticum officinale (lovage / løpstikke) (I call blanched lovage “spring celery” as it’s not that much stronger than celery…and much easier to grow than celery organically) Ligularia fischeri (Gomchwi; Fischer’s Ligularia / Koreansk nøkketunge) (King of the Sannamul: see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=3114) Rumex patientia (Patience dock / Hagesyre) Bistorta officinalis (Bistort / Ormerot)
Sea kale (strandkål)
Blanched lovage (løpstikke)
Blanched lovage (løpstikke) with unblanched plants behind
A wonderful birthday dinner yesterday! As is the tradition since I left home, my birthday dinner has been Macaroni Cheese with rhubarb crumble for dessert. Mac Cheese was the first veggie dish I ate back in the 60s – Mum took us to Edwin Jones in Southampton (the superstore of the time) where they served it in the restaurant. We loved it and it became a traditions for Mum to make this every Tuesday! Nowadays, we use whole grain spelt macaroni with masses of greens…Hablitzia or Caucasian spinach ( stjernemelde) and dandelion (løvetann). On the top, we used dried alpine bistort (harerug) bulbils! This one time rhubarb crumble is the only time I eat sugar each year, something I’ve kept up now for the last 20 years. Dedicating this to my dear Mum…it’s after all her 65th birth day too!
I harvested Hablitzia from this pot in which I’d had a bay tree that died a few years back, Hablitzia self-sowed and has taken over using the bay to climb up!
Dandelion
Hablitzia and dandelion greens were wilted before adding to the macaroni cheese
The finished mac cheese with alpine bistort bulbils on top
Dinner presentation
…and this curious stick with 65 marks on it appeared in my postbox anonymously, postmarked Tøyen in Oslo….
Here’s two favourite companions of the edible woodland garden: Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum) and the climber Caucasian spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides). The plant is for the waterleaf to gradually fill the gaps between the Hablitzia plants.
Last night’s Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde) and Allium paradoxum pesto was of course delicious with golpar (Heracleum spice), garlic, chili, sunflower seeds, parmesan, salt and pepper.
I think that we ate Hablitzia (fondly known as habby) shoots every day this March as the mild winter and largely unfrozen soil brought them on about a month earlier than normal, even the plants in the shadiest parts of the garden, where frozen soil normally lingers longer, have been harvested regularly this year. They’ve been used in all sorts of dishes from pizza to quiche to salads to a soba dish, stir fry in green pasta sauce, in curry, in vegetable patties and baccalao. Tasty, adaptable and nutritious! We’ve had 3 or 4 heavy snow falls which have melted again in a few days but the Caucasian spinach (stjernemelde or star orach in Norwegian) is hardly affected. HABBY EASTER TO ALL MY FOLLOWERS :)
A year ago, I reported on variegation on a Hablitzia in my son’s garden on Nesodden near Oslo (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=18162). I gave him this plant a few years ago and I really didn’t believe it would thrive here as the spot appeared very dry with poorish looking soil, but this year it’s clearly thriving and is sprawling in different directions (they plan to paint the house, so it’s not been trained up the wall). I discovered for the second year running that one of the shoots is variegated, similar to Mandy Barber‘s plant a couple of years ago reported on the Friends of Hablitzia forum on FB!
Has anyone had success (or not) with layering Hablitzia to propagate?
Previous posts on variegated Habbies here (on Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/groups/hablitzia/search/?query=variegation
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
