Tag Archives: Aiah Noack

Around the world in 80 Alliums

Yesterday, I gave my first talk about my (second) love of onions (alternative title All you wanted to know about Alliums but were afraid to ask!)….fittingly in the nursery with I believe the best selection of Alliums being sold as foodplants in Europe if not the world , my friend Aiah Noack’s Naturplanteskolen just outside of Copenhagen. Aiah is the author of an excellent book Fantasilater (fantasy salads), only in Danish so far which also includes several Alliums. My book Around the World in 80 plants mentions some 45 Allium species!
In a little over 2 hours I covered about 66 of the world’s cold hardy onions and over 80 if we include cultivars and subspecies…
Other onion related topics were also covered, such as “grow your own fireworks and Xmas decorations”, “Allium as a dancing partner”, the Allium microphone (Alliomike) and the garlic scape armband to keep “wild” animals, trolls and mosquitos away (Transylvanian Garlic keeps vampires away too)… It was a fun afternoon with yet another great group of edimentals fans! ;) 

The video  is of one of my pictures about drying Persian Shallots with a shot of my drying racks over my wood burning stove. Someone noticed that you could actually see heat rising through the racks!!!! (a wood burning stove was on behind the projector) ;)

The perennial self-fertilising vegetable gardens of Langeland

Having completed my course at Naturplanteskolen and guided walk at Grennessminde in August 2016, I was “rewarded” by being taken on a botanical excursion to the island Langeland. These pictures were taken at the north tip of the island which had a luxurious seaweed fertilised vegetation of some familiar perennial vegetables! Thanks to Aiah Noack of Naturplanteskolen :)

Naturplanteskolen at Ringve Botanical Garden

On the final morning of the Naturplanteskolen visit to Norway, we visited the Ringve botaniske hage​ in Trondheim. We started with the Renaissance garden, comprising a collection of 123 useful plants mentioned in Norway’s first gardening book, Horticultura, from 1694! We then wandered through the arboretum where mainly coniferous trees are planted geographically around the central pond, representing the Arctic Ocean! We stopped at the pond to talk about one of the world’s most useful plants,known as Supermarket of the Swamps in North America, Bulrush, cattails or dunkjevle! We passed a glade of Mandchurian walnuts (no nuts to be seen this year), then on to a naturalistic planting of Hosta, marvelled at the collection of old perennials, had a quick look at some interesting useful plants in the systematic garden, before finally walking through the “Parken” to the music museum from where we said our goodbyes :(   See the picture galelry at the bottom of this page!

In 2002 I made a renaissance salad containing 80 of the plants in this garden at the opening ceremony. Here’s a document showing what was included, more information and the Middle Age recipe used:

Download (PDF, 329KB)

Finally, here’s a little video showing the bulrush / dunkjevle pollen!

 

Alys’ Pool

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Nævrahølet
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Ostrich fern / strutseving
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Saxifraga cotyledon / Mountain Queen / Flelldronning racemes hanging from the rocks to the right of the waterfall…
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An island of ostrich fern / strutseving in the river
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Alys Fowler​ in Nævrahølet

Almost exactly 6 years ago (is it really that long ago?) I was delighted to have a visit from BBC gardening presenter and Guardian writer Alys Fowler. After we finished photographing the garden I took her on a tour to Vennafjellet, the closest mountain to home and we also stopped at Nævrahølet, a local swimming “hole” under a small waterfall! It was a glorious hot day in “paradise”. It’s now known as Alys’ Pool and a picture of her swimming here features in her book the Thrifty Forager!

6 years on I did the same trip with the group of Danes who have been learning about permaveggies in my garden! It was a much colder day, but two of us did venture into the water. It wasn’t as bad as feared! One thing I hadn’t noticed on Alys’ visit was that there were several plants of Mountain Queen (Saxifraga cotyledon) hanging in full flower around the waterfall!

See the video of Ostrich Fern Island below:
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Danish invasion of Vennafjellet

On Sunday of the Danish Malvik permaveggies course, we drove to near the top of the closest mountain from home to see the views and the rich flora: Vennafjellet (Faseknippen) and walked over to Baklifjellet
Please feel free to add names to plants and people!

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See the whole album here: http://www.edimentals.com/pictures/index.php?/category/114

Grennessminde and the fantasy salad beds

On 13th August I’ll be doing an edible wander at Grennessminde, the organic nursery just outside of Copenhagen. A large number of edible flowers are also produced here for Michelin restaurant NOMA. I popped in for a quick look on Tuesday with project leader Aiah Noack who is also (together with Naturplanteskolen) organising a trip from Denmark and Southern Sweden to my garden around 15th – 19th July! There are still some places available!

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Red mitsuba (Cryptotaenia japonica)
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Watercress
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Edible flowers, Malva
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Edible flowers, Oxalis
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Edible flowers, Fuchsia
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Edible flowers, Oxalis
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Allium fistulosum
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Rumex acetosa “Abundance” (non-flowering form)
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Lepidium latifolium – Nordic wasabi :)
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Cochlearia (scurvy grass)
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Variegated ground elder (Aegopodium podograria variegata)
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Aster scaber, Korea aster
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Aster scaber, Korea aster
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Pink-flowered dandelion, Taraxacum pseudoroseum
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Allium cernuum, Chicago onion
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Allium hookeri, Hooker’s onion
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Canada violet, Viola canadensis
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Atriplex hortensis “Aurea” / Golden orach
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Allium “Summer Beauty”
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Rumex patientia, patience dock
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Allium fistulosum
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Fragaria “Lipstick”
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Fragaria “Lipstick”
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Grennessminde fantasy lunch!
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Grennessminde fantasy lunch!


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