Accidental companions: a Sherpa onion (Allium wallichii) has set up home in the middle of my greek mountain tea (Sideritis syriaca) with a few self-sowed dandelions for good measure! Allium wallichii moves around with rhizomes…I didn’t plant it here!
A little video showing various Alliums about to burst into flower on a bed I’ve always called the Perennial Bed as it was the first bed devoted to perennials. It’s in the shade most of the day.
0-11 secs: Various forms of Allium cernuum (Chicago onion, nodding onion / prærieløk) and broad-leaved Allium wallichii (Sherpa onion)
11-20: Allium cernuum, Hemerocallis (daylily/daglilje) and Clinopodium vulgare (wild basil)
31: Norrland Onion / Norrlandsløk
(all of the onions above are in my book)
38: Allium cyathophorum v. farreri (Farrer’s onion)
Allium tuncelianum (Tunceli garlic) is an endemic to Eastern Turkey, tasting apparently like garlic and wild collected locally and used like garlic. It is most closely related to Allium ampeloprasum (leek group).
Allium tuncelianum (Tunceli garlic) is also an edimental
I’m always struck by the beauty of this plant at all stages…the almost black seed pods which are also inky when crushed are wonderful at this time of year…
Illustrating the beauty of this plant even in fruit in early October and the large differences of different accessions of the same species..
I’m always struck by the beauty of this plant at all stages…the almost black seed pods which are also inky when crushed are wonderful at this time of year…I was struck not only by the difference in colour but also the size of the seed pods is much smaller on the accession on the right. The flowers are also quite different
A couple of weeks ago, I finally got round to inviting botanist Kamal Acharya and his wife Sharmila Phuyal to see my garden!! They were amazed to see so many plants that they were familiar with from home and I blogged about this here:
They asked (begged?) couldn’t we come and make you a Nepalese meal with plants from your garden! I just had to find time for this and I’m very glad I did as it was a fantstic meal. Yes, I’m a very lucky man!!
Sharmila about to prepare fresh Jimmu for the very first time. Living in the lowlands, they can only get it dried…
Sharmila gets acquainted with the Nepalese onion in Malvik…still a bit in disbelief that this is really happening!
Another plant my new friends recognised was taro (karkalo) or Colocasia esculenta. I’ve grown this as a pot plant for several years for a couple of tubers a year, inside in winter and outside for most of the summer. Even in our cold climate it grows outside in summer! However, I’d never used the leaves as I thought one had to use special low-oxalate varieties (oxalate in the leaves can scratch your throat). They assured me I could eat it!
Sharmila can’t get karkalo leaf in Trondheim and , so it was amazing for them to meet someone up in the north actually growing it! They will now grow it themselves!
Meanwhile, Britt-Arnhild and helper made the salad (NB! Salads aren’t very common in Nepal, perhaps cooking to sterilise).
What a lucky man I am!!!
Britt-Arnild’s picture from the kitchen
A quick fry of the Jimmu (Allium wallichii) before adding to the black lentils/dal..
The karkalo leaf stems were first split lengthwise
The taro leaf was rolled up before cooking…Sharmila and Kamal had different ways of doing this from their different villages.
A Nepalese spice colelction including cumin and fenugreek
Cutting the taro leaf
The next generation of edimental salad makers! She decorated it herself!!
“We use the broad bean pods too” Kamal told me!!! What? Really? Isn’t it very fibrous?
Preparing the broad beans for cooking
The red coloured variety is Karmazyn
The Nepalese pressure cooker was frequently used!
Ghee (clarified butter) is important in Nepalese cooking as it is in India. They sometimes make their own, but this was bought..
Kamal showing one of the spices used…Zanthoxylum armatum, a new species for my life list!!
Cooking the taro leaf
WOW, are you jealous? The Allium wallichii flowers was a last minute finishing touch…I sacrificed my only dark flowered Jimmu for this picture! The broad beans were a bit fibrous but very tasty…. I will certainly be using the pods of broad beans in future. As Kamal said ” what’s a bit of fibre…it’s good for us!”
Nepal in Malvik edimentalised with the flowers of two varieties of Allium wallichii from high elevations in Nepal, but feeling quite at home in the lowlands of Malvik! The cooked taro was delicious and I will have to start growing more pots of taro as it makes an excellent winter house plant green! I couldn’t sense any silicates in my throat either!
This is what my new friends from Nepal called Allium wallichii, also known as Jimbu, Dunda, Yang, Himalayan onion, Nepal onion or Sherpa onion! They had actually never seen it live before as it grows at high altitudes :)
This is a little album showing off the wide range of forms I’m growing.. one of my favourite edimentals (edible ornamentals).
I wonder if a white form exists?
“Dark form” – this one flowers later than the others, so this is an old picture!
A lovely visit this evening from botanist Kamal Acharya and his wife Sharmila Phuyal and daughter. They taught me several new uses for my old plants!
For instance, we started indoors as it was pouring with rain outside and they noticed I was growing Andean vegetable Cyclanthera pedata (Achocha) in my living room and to my surprise told me it was commonly grown in Nepal and they not only used the small green fruits, but the top shoots and the black seeds. The latter are roasted, ground and mixed with salt, chili and perhaps lemon. The powder is also used as a flavouring in chutney :)
I enjoyed your visit! Welcome back another time when it’s not pouring with rain :)
Kamal and Sharmila posing with Nepalese onion, Allium wallichii, one of the 80 in my book :)Sharmila and daughter posing with Nepalese onion, Allium wallichii, best I learned eaten with black lentils…Sharmila showing how she sucked nectar from Canna flowers as a child…:)
Cyclanthera pedata (barela in Nepal), my living room climber just coming into flower. This Andean plant has been adopted by the Nepalese :) This is what I grew as Cyclanthera brachystachya “Fat Baby” in my old cold greenhouse in 2008. The picture was taken on 28th September.
My favourite Himalayan onion is now coming into flower in the garden. This is what I call Sherpa onion (Allium wallichii), it’s a beauty and the bees and hoverflies also love it! The other two pictures are of Norrland onion which has been in bloom for a while now. Both are described in my book Around the World in 80 plants!
Sherpa onion (Allium wallichii) and basil pesto for tonight’s dinner! Delicious!
I’ve been growing basil in my office at work since I was a student in Edinburgh in 1978, having been inspired by a fellow student the year before in Norwich… fast approaching 40 years as a basil grower then!
This is what I grew as Cyclanthera brachystachya “Fat Baby” in my old cold greenhouse in 2008. The picture was taken on 28th September.
