In the morning of the masterclass on permaveggies on 1st November 2018 organised by the Janas Ecovillage, we visited Jardim da Condessa D’Edla in collaboration with the Sintra Natural Parks! Fernanda Botelho and myself lead the tour of this amazing place seeking out a large diversity of edible plants, both wild and cultivated :)
Introduction by Joana Martins
A curly leaved Ruscus aculeatus (Butcher’s broom / erva-dos-vasculhos, gilbarbeira)…it has edible shoots At the bottom can be seen a Bergenia, a Siberian species that is very adaptable!
We talked about the edible flowers and fruits of Fuchsias
…and edible Begonias
Fernanda told us that the pretty flowers of Alyssum are edible!
Sweet chestnut
The cork palace, Chalet Condessa d’Edla
The cork palace, Chalet Condessa d’Edla
The cork palace, Chalet Condessa d’Edla
Rose
Yucca….the flowering stem can apparently be cooked and used like asparagus
…and the flowers are also edible! See http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=8470
Abutilon is in the mallow family and has delicious (taste and look) flowers…an edimental (edible ornamental)
What was this, Fernanda?
Somebody commented if Asterix and Obelix been here?
Quercus spp. (oak)
Quercus spp. (oak)
Umbilicus rupestris, navelwort / umbigo-de-vénus
The Pena Palace
Chickweed / morugem (Stellaria media)
Valeriana?
Cephalotaxus (Japanese plum-yew) with ripe fruit!
Cephalotaxus (Japanese plum-yew) with ripe fruit!
Cephalotaxus (Japanese plum-yew) with ripe fruit!
Cephalotaxus (Japanese plum-yew) with ripe fruit!
An interesting looking dandelion / dente-de-leão (Taraxacum spp.)
An interesting looking dandelion / dente-de-leão (Taraxacum spp.)
Centaurea with Alyssum
Monkey puzzle, Araucaria
Monkey puzzle, Araucaria
Blackberries
? on Eucalyptus
? on Eucalyptus
Tree ferns
Cordyline australis “Purpurea” (cabbage tree)
Monstera deliciosa has edible fruits
Gunnera, one of the 80 in my book
Yew (Taxus spp.)
Cardamom
Participants with a Fuchsia in fruit!
Cordyline australis (cabbage tree)
Abutilon x hybridum? is another great edimental?
Abutilon x hybridum?
Abutilon x hybridum?
Abutilon x hybridum?
Viola spp
Alyssum
Myrtus communis (myrtle)
Myrtus communis (myrtle)
Calamintha nepeta
Phytolacca americana
Rumex acetosella?
Asparagus officinalis
Goji
Acelga / chard
Allium schoenoprasum (chives)
Fuchsia
Lovage / levistico
Fuchsia
New Zealand Spinach
Parsley and Nigella
Agaricus
Tradescantia…probably one of the South American species that don’t seem to be edible
Fire salamander….
Parietaria
Plantago major
Returning to Janas and the afternoon session…a column of cars
The queues to get into see the Sintra palaces….we had the gardens more or less to ourselves!
3 years ago I had foraged this part of Sintra with Fernanda and Jorge and we had walked up these steps and had ID’d this plant as Sparmannia africana (pictures can be seen in the photo album in this link: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=2744)
3 years ago I had foraged this part of Sintra with Fernanda and Jorge and we had walked up these steps and had ID’d this plant as Sparmannia africana (pictures can be seen in the photo album in this link: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=2744)
An album of pictures of plants and views at Magoito just north of Lisbon on a short botanising visit with Fernanda Botelho!
First, two videos showing the cliff habitat of Crithmum maritimum!
Crithmum gutteratus?
Crithmum
Helichrysum stoechas
Plantago coronopus
Full of sunbathers in summer, we were alone with the gulls
Sea daffodil (narciso-das-areias): Pancratium maritimum with Hottentot Fig (Carpobrotus edulis)
Sea daffodil (narciso-das-areias): Pancratium maritimum with Hottentot Fig (Carpobrotus edulis)
The Wild Plants Lady meets the Extreme Salad Man to discuss ready salted vegetables on the Magoito Cliffs north of Lisbon!
A) Crithmum maritimum (rock samphire or death samphire; perrexil-do-mar); this is the first plant in my book and was my first plant in my talk at Ecoaldeias Janas the day before
B) Helichrysum stoechas (Portuguese curry plant; perpétuas-das-areias)
C) Beta vulgaris ssp maritima (sea beet; acelga-brava)
D) Plantago coronopus (buck’s-horn plantain, minutina or erba stella; diabelha)
Thank you so much for showing me the vegetable gardens of the sea cliffs of your home village, Fernanda Botelho :)
Thanks to Jorge Carona for filming and driving :)
With Ana Marques!The first slide in my talk at Ecoaldeias Janas was this one about Death Samphire! More people have probably died harvesting this than any other vegetable! Fernanda asked me if I’d brought my rope!!
As part of the course organised by Ecoaldeias Janas in the village Janas near Sintra in Portugal, Fernanda Botelho collected wild and cultivated plants and here she is making an inventory of all the ingredients, all 50 of them: a typical traditional Mediterranean multi-species salad! Jorge Carona was sitting next to her taking notes!
Part 1:
Part 2:
Jorge’s list in a mix of Portuguese, Latin and English
The course participants at the wonderful Janas Ecoaldeias coop and restaurant!
Thanks to Matthias Brück for preparing cactus pads (nopalitos) from Opuntia ficus-indicus for lunch, a long job by hand to de-spine first, but delicious! Does the old variety developed by Luther Burbank, “Burbank’s Spineless” still exist?
…and the prickly pear /Indian fig fruits too, together with old pear and apple varieties and banana from Madeira! Thanks to Nuno Roxo!
Two years after receiving bulbils of Chinese yam or cinnamon vine (Dioscorea polystachya) from my friend Søren Holt, I was able to harvest this curious tuber! I grew it as an “auedible” house plant….yes, it even makes a noise…as the numerous bulbils fall reverberating on my wooden floor in autumn! The bulbils are the reason it has become an invasive species in North America, the vines swamping native vegetation! The first picture below shows the tuber after its first season….I was quite pleased and was about to eat it when someone encouraged me to wait a year…I’m glad I did!
Although Chinese Yam has been grown in Europe since the middle of the 19th century, it never became popular as the tubers bury themselves very deep (up to one metre) as in my pot where it went as far down as it could! According to Vilmorin (1920) (see pictures), there were successful attempts to breed varieties that didn’t bury themselves so deep…with round tubers clustering near the surface, but these varieties were not so productive.
Any suggestions for good recipes?
Early December 2017 after one season
October 2018 harvest at the base of the bucket…it had buried itself as deep as possible!
Finally, a post from my 3 days non-stop tour of Wicklow gardens, thanks to Orlaith Murphy. The first stop was Suzie Cahn’s Carraig Dulra Permaculture Farm. The abundance developing here on this hillside site which most would probably be categorized as marginal land reminded me of Mandy Barber‘s Incredible Edible site on previous sheep pasture in Devon!
It’s been a hard year due to the very unusual drought since April until recently. Nevertheless, the deep rooting collection of heirloom apples had produced well! We were there on a blustery day after Storm Ali had battered Ireland that night!
The male blackcap (munk) was this morning feeding on yew berries (a garden variety “Hicksii”). This yew is right next to the kitchen window and has attracted several fruit eating species including blackbird (svarttrost), redwing (rødvingetrost), fieldfare ( gråtrost), waxwings (sidensvans) and last night for the first time a song thrush (måltrost).
