The first harvest at the KVANN vegetable sanctuary garden at Væres Venner was broad beans (bondebønner) from a mixed grex and this was turned into delicious falafels that almost melt in the mouth! The year’s first falafels or hummus is a real highlight of my gardening year…and did you know that the original falafels and hummus were made using broad (fava) beans, sadly replaced by inferior (in my opinion) chick peas….and we can experience this dish fresh even in cold areas where other beans won’t grow!
AND the colour is a natural beautiful green inside….they are often made with some leafy green vegetable added to supply the greeness of the “real” falafel!
NB! Falafel doesn’t have to be ball shaped and deep fried…these are pattie shaped and shallow fried..
Ready to harvest at Være
The first harvest!
Cooked and mixed with onion, garlic, cjhili, cumin (should have been golpar!), coriander, salt and pepper, with a little egg and einkorn flour!
Fava falafel: tastewise, it doesn’t get much better than this!
I spent a couple of hours working at the Væres Venner Community Garden (Felleshage) yesterday and here are a series of photos showing progress!
If you’d like to get involved with your own plot or helping me with the KVANN World Garden (Verdenshage) and/or KVANN Vegetable Sanctuary (Nyttevekstreservat) please let me know! I’ll be definitely needing help from next year as the areas to maintain get bigger!
Norsk: Ta kontakt om du vil hjelpe meg med Verdenshagen og KVANNs Nyttevekstreservat, evt. om du vil ha din egen parsell!
Verdenshagen (The World Garden)….I scythed around the perimeter and pulled out the couch grass (kveke) that had managed to get through the layers of card and straw mulch!
Our new shed for tool storage!
Scythed perimeter
Both couch grass (kveke) had penetrated the mulch in a few places and grain in the straw had also germinated..
Lilium lancifolium (Tiger lily / tigerlilje) and garlic “Estonian Red” in the temporary bed at the centre of the World Garden where plants will be placed geographically with the centre representing the North Pole!
Anise hyssop (North America), Cirsium oleraceum (cabbage thistle/kåltistel) from the Mediterranean and others
Jerusalem artichoke “Dagnøytral” (Day Neutral)
Roseroot / rosenrot is one of the edibles representing polar regions!
Sideritis syriaca (Greek mountain tea) has grown well and representings the mountains of SE Europe
Alpine Bistort (Persicaria bistorta) is another of the alpine edibles
Caraway / karve
KVANNs Vegetable Sanctuary (Nyttevekstreservat), full of plants waiting to be moved elsewhere in the garden (e.g., the walnut trees) whilst I extend the bed! The perennial weeds were also cut down around the bed!!
Repairing holes in the thick paper donated by the local paper factory in Ranheim!
Heavy winds had knocked over some of the broad beans and quinoa…we later staked them up and harvested some of the broad beans (separate post)!
The extension bed is underway…. Please let me know if you want to do some useful training and learn the age old technique of bastard digging….the newspaper will stop the perennial weeds entering the new area!
There’s just enough top soil over clay…
We harvested the broad beans later and made felafel!
A little composition put together last night together with my daughter and artist friend from UK and wwoofer Kristina from Czech…including Allium macranthum (centerpiece), Allium carinatum pulchellum “Album”, Allium flavum, various Hosta flowers, tiger lily flower, Fedia, Adenophora, mallows, chicory leaf etc.
I accidentally pulled up one of my Queen Anne’s Thistles (Cirsium canum) and I discovered the tubers were quite like the tuberous thistle (Cirsium tuberosum)
I neither use sugar nor do I have a freezer. My favourite way of preserving fruit is drying and the quickest way of drying fruit in an oven is by making fruit leather…simply boil the fruit to sterilise and mashing as you boil, then pour into an oven tray and dry for a few hours at about 40C!
Have just finished a batch of redcurrants (rips) and raspberries (bringebær). The raspberries were both wild red raspberries, an old Norwegian yellow (gulbringebær) and a cultivar “White Russian”
See last year’s blog on raspberry / bilberry leather here: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=13187
12th August Added pictures of leather made from cloudberries, bilberries and wild raspberries!
Sitting in the garden working this morning and suddenly a flock of 9 grey herons (hegre) flew past
A flock of herons is sometimes known as a scattering of herons! (alternatively, a siege, or sedge)
Platycodon grandiflorus (balloon flower), an important vegetable in the Far East, is just starting to flower in the garden. In Korea, it is called doraji. Its root, either dried or fresh, is used in salads and traditional cooked dishes. Young leaves are also used.
See also this video from a doraji farm in Korea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7OA9AsZAs0
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
