Kurrajong: a house tree with edible roots!

Kurrajong is an Australian tree, Brachychiton populneus, which along with other species of the genus make interesting house plants due to their interesting leaves. Kurrajong leaves resemble poplar leaves as the epithet populneus suggests. It’s a common tree of sandy plains in Eastern Australia. The seeds are remarkably nutritious and were popular Aborigine tucker (wild gathered food).  It is unlikely I will ever be able to harvest seed of this tree in the Malvaceae (mallow family), but Rowan White on the Radix Root Crops FB group reminded me that the swollen roots of young trees could also be eaten.  My tree wasn’t exactly young at 9 years (seed propagated along with Brachychiton acerifolius),  when I first decided to have a go in 2012, at the same time as I moved it to a bigger pot…

There were 3 young roots worth trying so I harvested them and baked them in their skins together with potatoes. They seem to need a bit longer than potatoes. The skins peeled easily off after baking and they were crispy with a good mild taste. If you have a ready supply of seed, they can be grown and harvested a bit like carrots when quite young!

This spring the tree died (at 15 years old) with no sign of life in the above ground parts, but when disposing of the plant I noticed that the young roots looked healthy, so I harvested them and repotted the remainder of the root to see if it might resprout and after several weeks in the window sill it now has fresh leaves, so not dead after all!

I didn’t get round to eat the young roots…they were left inside for a month and looked withered and inedible, but cutting in to one it looked good inside and indeed it was tasty and almost free from fibre….so we ate it in a stir-fry dish last night!

The Chicago onion garden at Ringve on 23rd July 2018

I spent the afternoon weeding and deadheading (to stop seed spreading)!
There are at least 10 different Chicago onions (Allium cernuum) still in flower! Here’s a little video impression from today:

Oriental and asiatic hybrid lilies

This is an asiatic hybrid lily growing in the garden of the flat I stayed in in Jondal during the Nordic Permaculture Festival!

An asiatic hybrid lily

According to wikipedia, asiatic hybrids include “hybrids of many Asiatic species and their interspecific hybrids, including  Lilium brownii,  Lilium henryi,  Lilium leucanthumLilium regaleLilium rosthorniiLilium sargentiae and Lilium sulphureum. The flowers are trumpet shaped, facing outward or somewhat downward, and tend to be strongly fragrant, often especially night-fragrant.”  Of these, both L. brownii and L. henryi are used for food.

On the other hand oriental hybrids “are based on hybrids within Lilium section Archelirion,specifically Lilium auratum and Lilium speciosum, together with crossbreeds from several species native to Japan, including Lilium nobilissimum, Lilium rubellum, Lilium alexandrae, and Lilium japonicum. They are fragrant, and the flowers tend to be outward facing. Plants tend to be tall, and the flowers may be quite large. The whole group are sometimes referred to as “stargazers” because many of them appear to look upwards”

I’ve never tasted hybrid lilies, but maybe I should as two of the asiatics and all the 6 oriental species involved are eaten in Japan…most importantly L. auratum which is cultivated for markets on a field scale, the others mainly foraged I think! I wonder if anyone has hybridised lilies for food rather than beauty….an interesting project for someone perhaps?

Status of the Granvin victory onion location

In June 2009, I was shown the only naturalised stand of victory onion (Allium victorialis) in south western Norway (away from Lofoten Islands – Vestvågøy – and Bodø area where there are several large populations, possibly a Viking introduction there which has subsequently spread).  It’s also found in a damp woodland (which regularly floods in spring) along the Granvinselven (the Granvin river) in south west Norway (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=10658). It is suggested that the onion came to Granvin by way of the so-called Jektefart (a trade route based on dried fish from Lofoten to western Norway), was planted in a garden close to the site, subsequently naturalising from there!

Naturalised locations of Allium victorialis in Norway showing the isolated Granvin site (the location near Oslo is probably extinct

In late October 2014, there was a major flood in western Norway (https://nn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberflaumen_i_2014) which caused a lot of damage including in Granvin. Over 200mm rain was recorded over 3 days in several places and up to 330mm! Although not a record, it had already rained a lot for most of October and the ground was already saturated when the worst rain happened…leading to a totally unexpected extreme event.

I heard rumours that the victory onion location had been severely impacted by this event, so when we drove past Granvin on the way back from the Nordic Permaculture Festival in Jondal, I took the opportunity to visit the location! This confirmed that the site is much reduced and there is visible signs of erosion including a dried up channel through the middle of the wooded island where the onion is found (the river was very low due to the drought). In addition, I was surprised to find that a path had been constructed between the river and the school. This is part of a major civil engineering work in Granvin to protect the low lying inhabited areas from flooding (see https://www.nve.no/nytt-fra-nve/nyheter-skred-og-vassdrag/granvin-har-fatt-betre-tryggleik-mot-flaum )
A video showing the completed works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Keg-BSrAi94 shows aerial views of “victory onion island” between 0:56 – 1:24!
These works may lead to further erosion and destruction of the island….
Seeds were actually already ripe due to the hot summer and I therefore collected seed to safeguard the Granvin onion to be offered to Norwegian Seed Savers (KVANN) through our autumn catalogue which will be produced in October!
From my friend Geir Flatabø: “Jaunssen Gjestgjevarstad (Jaunssen Guest House) in Granvin has begun to harvest / use the onion, and makes pesto served to guests, with good feedback.”

Other relevant articles:
Hagetidend (Norwegian gardening magazine) profile http://www.edimentals.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/6_Seiersl%C3%B8k_fra_Vestv%C3%A5g%C3%B8y.pdf

A report from my 2009 “onion safari” to Lofoten, Tromsø and Granvin can be found here (in Norwegian with English comments)  http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=18527 (some of this material ended up in my book Around the World in 80 plants))

Norwegian report on my 2009 Victory Onion safari to North Norway and Granvin!

In 2009, I travelled to Lofoten to see the naturalised stands of victory onion (seiersløk) / Allium victorialis in Lofoten, the collection of this species at the botanical garden in Tromsø and also the isolated location at Granvin, south western Norway. The following travel report (with English comments) was distributed to members of Norwegian Seed Savers in 2009 with the title “Victory onion safari”!

Download (PDF, 3.72MB)

See also:

Naturalised Allium victorialis in Hardanger, Norway

KVANN’s garden at Væres Venner

(Norsk tekst finner du nederst: We spent 3 hours this afternoon weeding and starting to extend the KVANN garden at the Væres Venner Community Garden at Ranheim today!
We need more people to help, so please let me know if you’d like to be added to an email list to get a warning if we are planning to work on the garden! It was great to see how the field is now full of pollinators and other benefiicial  insects like ladybirds. The pollinators (bees and hoverflies were on wild thistles and hoverflies were very interested in the quinoa which is now in flower (see the video below)  
(Norsk: Vi tilbrakte 3 timer i ettermiddag med luking og jeg begynte å utvide KVANNs hage hos Væres Venner Felleshagen på Ranheim i dag!
Vi trenger flere folk til å hjelpe, så vær så snill å gi meg beskjed hvis du vil bli lagt til i en e-postliste for å få en advarsel hvis vi planlegger å jobbe i hagen!)

Perennialen IV

The 4th Perennialen was the shortest yet, a short visit to Eirik and Hege’s wonderful  place and LAND centre at Alvastien in Hardanger after the Nordic Permaculture Festival in Jondal!  This year’s participants were Eirik and Hege, Meg, Karoline from Myrrhis in Denmark, Julia Sol and LAND coordinator Helene Bøhler!
Next year will be the 5th Perennialen and we will be inviting you to a road trip around great permaculture sites of Hordaland and Hardanger in May, so watch this space!

 

The Nordic Permaculture Festival 2018 in Jondal

A few pictures from a great weekend in Jondal at the Hardanger Academy for Peace, Development and Environment

A few pictures of edibles in the garden of the flat we stayed in in Jondal!

…and the last set of pictures is from a trip to the Folgefonna glacier, only 35 mins to drive from sea level at Jondal to the ski lifts for summer skiing! The pictures are mostly of edible plants seen right next to the ski centre!

Not Arran Brown

The commonest butterfly here in July is the Arran Brown (fløyesesringvinge), but they don’t often stay still like this one resting on Sanguisorba canadensis leaves…
Despite the fact that this species has its English name after the Scottish Island Arran, it’s uncertain if it has been found in the British Isles, a case of confusion with the Scotch Argus butterfly?

Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden