Flowering Aster scaber

September is the month when several Asteraceae are in flower including one of my favourite perennial vegetables and edimentals Aster scaber (yes, I know it’s officially Doellingeria scabra) or chamchwi in Korea where it’s cultivated commercially for Korean markets around the world (often sold dried). It’s also popular with pollinating insects as can be seen … Continue reading Flowering Aster scaber

Dried Aster Scaber

One of my favourite perennial vegetables and a fantastic edimental is Aster scaber (nowadays Doellengeria scabra), here harvested in spring in my garden: In September, in a farmer’s market in Atlanta, Georgia I found packets of dried Aster scaber leaves (I had searched unsuccessfully for chwinamul in other Korean supermarkets, but hadn’t found it before): On … Continue reading Dried Aster Scaber

Aster scaber and introducing Misoni

Aster scaber was one of the obscure edibles in the Plants for a Future data base http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Aster+scaber  Edible Parts: Leaves; Young plant[105, 177]. No more details are given. [105]Tanaka. T. Tanaka’s Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. [177]Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Ken Fern doesn’t seem to have tried it himself. There is more information in … Continue reading Aster scaber and introducing Misoni

EdimAsters

There are many Asters that are foraged and cultivated in the Far East. This includes Aster scaber (Korean Aster) which is one of the 80 in my book Around the World in 80 plants. I’ve blogged a lot about this fantastic edimental. See http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?s=aster+scaber. In my book, I mention 4 other Asian species that are … Continue reading EdimAsters

Korean Aster on Edimentals

Two years ago, I posted this picture of Aster scaber, commonly wild foraged in Korea and nowadays cultivated for markets in Korea and exported dried to Koreans in North America :) The following is a collection of pages here  giving more information on this great perennial vegetable, or read the account in my book Around … Continue reading Korean Aster on Edimentals

THE NEW EDIMENTALS SEED TRADE LIST FOR 2023-2024

Welcome to my new seed trade list for 2023-2421, 22, 23 indicate 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. … Continue reading THE NEW EDIMENTALS SEED TRADE LIST FOR 2023-2024

Unpacking the Edimentals Herbarium

Being the focus of an art installation wasn’t something I ever imagined, but since February an installation has been exhibited at the Trondheim Art Museum Gråmølna based on my January winter vegetables and very nicely put together it was too, by a group of international artists working on the Meatigation (get it?) project through the … Continue reading Unpacking the Edimentals Herbarium

Salad for HGB and HvB

My dad Harald George Barstow (HGB) sadly passed away on 7th June at 97. A few days later on 11th June I’d scheduled a long-awaited visit from my friend Helene von Bothmer, the Koster Islands Permaculture Queen accompanied by participants on a one day permaculture course on Katy Chada’s farm (I had twice visited Koster … Continue reading Salad for HGB and HvB