Unlike me, my oldest Udo (Aralia cordata) is showing no signs of ageing….well, it’s only 18 years old!
My tallest vegetable is a herbaceous perennial!
Thanks to Maria Hammarsten from Jönköping University who visited today for the pictures!
This week, we made pakoras from a selection of perennial veggies from the garden (which ones can you spot?)
Pakoras are made with chick pea (besan) flour! Looking for a source of broad bean (fava) flour as that would I reckon be even tastier and could be produced in Norway!
A selection of perennial vegetables which ended up in pakora! Which ones?
Udo (Aralia cordata) – these are blanched. We also used green udo!
Green and white udo (Aralia cordata) pakora! Although the green udo is somewhat strong tasting raw, it is delicious in pakora!
The udo (Aralia cordata) shoots had begun to lift the forcing bucket, so time for the annual udo salad, a variant this year, East meets West salad…the udo paired with garden grown ramsons (ramsløk)! Delicious!
…..and adding a few other things to the one species udo and American spikenard salads (Aralia cordata and Aralia racemosa) and this was the result, the summer’s first extreme salad, on the anniversary of the filming of the extreme salad youtube videos (“B” in the following link!) http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=16712
The centrepiece was Allium humile with tulip, Primula denticulata, Trillium grandiflorum, Trillium erectum, Arabis alpina and Primula veris
The centrepiece was Allium humile
It was commented “as if you were cradling a lover”…spot on!
Walking past the Udo (Aralia cordata) patch yesterday morning I noticed that the shoots had outgrown their bucket and, as usual, had thrown the bucket down the hill, eager for some sunshine. Sad for it, its effort was in vain as they were bound for the kitchen! Here’s an album of pictures showing how I prepared the udo salad.
I alsø blanced Arali racemosa for the first time, but haven’t tried it yet…
The bucket of cordata let some light in at the top, so the shoots were greener than for A. racemosa
Aralia cordata with ostrich fern, blanched and unblanched shoots
Aralia racemosa, blanched and unblanched shoots
Aralia racemosa and Aralia cordata
Peeled udo shoots
Peeled and sliced udo shoots
Udo salad with a dressing of roasted sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper! My least diverse salad of season 2018 so far!
Héctor is from Spain.and is teaching art and photography at the folkhøgskole (folk high school) in Skogn. He is working on a photo-project about vegetable gardens featuring “disobedient farmers/gardeners”. I’ve never been called disobedient, but I think I like that title (D.G.!!).
This was his second visit and he came with his new large format camera today (the lenses and plates can only be obtained second hand, but the frame is new and the film can be bought and developed at one place…). Will be fun to see the result! He’s been both photographing in the garden and in the cellar!
He photographed and tasted both Allium cernuum (Nodding or Chicago onion) as well as Hablitzia. He also took pictures of the dead parts of Udo, Aralia cordata.
Happy to announce that I’ll be in Switzerland the week after Easter to attend and talk at a symposium on “The Potential of Perennials for Food Resilience” Here’s the symposium announcement: https://www.perennials-resilience.org (more later!).
Excited that I’ll get to meet Mr. Mountain Gardens himself, Joe Hollis, who is also attending. Many of you will know Joe from his youtube videos, like this one on Udo (Aralia cordata): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNzCpfSQWks
Joe has spent 25 years developing Paradise Gardens, a botanical garden of edible plants in the mountains of western N. Carolina!
I will also visit Pro Specie Rara (KVANN – Norwegian Seed Savers’ counterpart in Switzerland!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProSpecieRara
Thanks to Matthias Brück and Katharina Serafimova for doing most of the organising!
Here’s the symposium announcement: https://www.perennials-resilience.org (more later!).