Category Archives: Annuals

Russian veggie seed

One of the members of Norwegian Seed Savers emailed me that she was going to Russia and would I like any seed….now, I have genetic defect  that leads to me not being able to say no to seed…so I said yes please and if you find any perennials like cutivars of sorrel (Rumex acetosa) I’d be particularly interested. The package arrived today. I had never imagined I was saying yes to 40 packets and there was one packet of Rumex acetosa, a variety called Schavel (Sorrel) “Belvijsky”. I’m wondering if this could possibly be the elusive French cultivar “Belleville” which I mention in my book?

P1000188_1 P1000188

The new Edimentals seed trade list for 2014-2015

SEE THE NEW SEED LIST

Welcome to my new seed trade list for 2014-15.

12, 13 and 14 in brackets indicates the harvesting year for the seed. Concerning seed quantity: as I don’t have many plants of each species, seed quantity is limited in most cases. Therefore, for some species you may only get a few seeds. Many species are harvested in my garden. Others are surplus from trade and purchase. OUT: Means out of stock.

Sometimes I sell surplus seed (if time allows), although Continue reading The new Edimentals seed trade list for 2014-2015

Shoreditch Radio Interview on Around the World!

An Interview with the Extreme Salad Man Stephen Barstow at www.Shoreditchradio.co.uk on Sunday 18 January at 20:00 UTC

This is an interview I did in London with London Permaculture’s Stefan Geyer when I was in the UK on 12th December!

If you miss the broadcast, you can listen at your leisure by going to www.21stCenturyPermaculture.com

 

 

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!

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)

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)

The book is now shipping…and at a special price from Permanent Publications!

around-the-world-front-coverAround The World in 80 Plants : An Edible Perennial Vegetable Adventure For Temperate Climates, by Stephen Barstow

What has underground gardening in Tokyo, the origin of garlic and an English bishop got in common? They are all stories from the original, groundbreaking book, Around The World In 80 Plants. Perennial gardening will never be the same again, nor will be your kitchen repertoire!

Around The World In 80 Plants takes us on an inspiring edible adventure across the continents, introducing us to the author’s top 80 perennial vegetables, with inspiration along the way from local foraging traditions and small scale domestication. Each plant has its own ethnobotanical story to tell; introducing Sherpa vegetables of the Himalayas; forest gardened and foraged vegetables of the Sámi people of Arctic Scandinavia; a super-vegetable of the Maori of New Zealand; an onion with a 1,000 year history linking the author’s home and Iceland ; a plant which earned the name ‘supermarket of the swamps’; the traditional veggie roof gardens of Norway; clifftop perennial vegetables of Dorset’s Jurassic coast; the Hampshire perennial vegetable triangle; Scandinavias best kept secret, a long-lived spinach that climbs; Prince Charles’ Forest Garden, and inspiring multi-species dishes of the Mediterranean countries.

A thorough description is given of each vegetable, its propagation, cultivation and uses, and also how to source seed and plants. As many of the author’s selections are what he calls ‘edimentals’ – edible and ornamental –Around the World in 80 Plants will be of interest to traditional ornamental gardeners as well as anyone interested in permaculture, forest gardening, foraging, slow-food, gourmet cooking, traditional preservation techniques and ethnobotany.

Stephen has devoted over 30 years trialling the world’s perennial vegetables. He grows more than 2,000 edible plants in his garden close to the Arctic Circle in Norway, and in 2003 earned the title ‘Extreme Salad Man’ after creating a salad using 537 varieties, inspired by multi-species Mediterranean dishes! Sprinkled with recipes inspired by local traditional gastronomy, this is a fascinating book, an entertaining adventure and a real milestone in climate-friendly vegetable growing from a pioneering expert on the subject.

 Foreword by Alys Fowler.

Continue reading The book is now shipping…and at a special price from Permanent Publications!

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 :)