Sorry, but I ceremoniously sacrificed all the dandelion flowers, buds and scapes for a delicious omelette today…and what a wonderful view they had on their last day on earth! Also in the dandeliomelette was chicory “Witloof” sprouts, an old Finnish shallot, garlic, thyme and the last of the wild buckwheat sprouts (løvetann, sikori,sjalott, hvitløk, timian og vill bokhvete)
Thanks to KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) colleague Andrew McMillion for coming up to Trondheim to give his seed saving course for local KVANN and Væres Venner Community Garden members!
…and there was time for a Malvik visit, a seed saving and breeding chat, a tour of my seed boxes and a little salad with Witloof chicory and dandelion pizza. Salad ingredients: Celery, three chicory varieties, dandelion (including one flower), carrot, Japanese yams, Allium cernuum and Hablitzia (from the garden), Hristo’s onion (Allium flavescens x nutans?), oca (2 varieties), apple (Aroma), horseradish shoots, garlic, chives, wild buckwheat shoots and turnip “Målselvnepe”
I probably wasn’t aware, when we bought the house 40 years ago next year, how important the cold cellar under the house would be. It is largely unimproved since we moved here. It has allowed us to be self-sufficient in all our own fresh vegetables, root crops and fruit with minimal pre-processing. There are 4 full size rooms in the cellar which are kept dark (there are small windows which are kept covered) and without heating. Even though it is relatively early in the winter, it is at the moment just about as cold as it ever gets down there thanks to the freezing temperatures since the end of October. First are some pictures of the stairs and doors. Below is another album of pictures of the vegetables in storage; explanation with the pictures!
Steep stairs down to the cellar from inside the house
There’s an outside door in the only outside wall that is exposed to the air, leading to the first room being coldest, sometimes down to slightly below zero
The first room from the outside can freeze (just) ad is currently about 1C
The first iDoor to the middle room at the bottom of the stairsnside room to the left when you go in from the outside door is a plant and veg storage room behind this door). Currently about 2C
Door to the middle room at the bottom of the stairs
The door from the middle room into the warmest room where the previous owners stored potatoes. Currently +3C
Swiss chard (mangold)
Swiss chard (mangold) and pots with turnips and swedes, stored in slightly damp leaves
Onions (kepaløk) Allium cepa
Potatoes stored in sacks
Large amounts of apples – Aroma
Apples – Aroma with one of the old turnip varieties which will be grown on for seed next year.
Swiss chard (mangold)
Various less hardy edimentals
Various less hardy edimentals
Chicory (sikori)
Carrots in leaves and leeks (purre) behind
Turnips in leaves for eating
Various beetroot (rødbete og hvitbete) varieties …usually these would be stored in damp leaves
Burdock (borre) roots stored in leaves
Chicory (sikori) and dandelion (løvetann) ready to force for greens
Dandelion (løvetann) ready to force for greens; this one was moved up to the kitchen to bring on the greens as it’s too cold in the cellar
Happy Easter 2023 with this floriferous forced Primula elatior (oxlip / hagenøkleblom) in the kitchen window. Unlike England where oxlip is a rare native plant, it was introduced to Norway in the 1800s from further south in Norway and has commonly escaped from gardens naturalising mainly in my area and further north, right to the very north of Norway. This is the first of the three Primulas to flower here, followed by Primula vulgaris (primrose / kusymre) and finally Primula veris (hagenøkleblom).
All 3 species which also commonly hybridise where they grow together, as in my garden, are considered to be edible. I mostly use them in mixed salads, the flowers decorating early spring salads. This is what Cornucopia II says about their edibility:
Another one flowering currently in the window are the forced dandelions which we’ve been eating for since January most days:
A wonderful birthday dinner yesterday! As is the tradition since I left home, my birthday dinner has been Macaroni Cheese with rhubarb crumble for dessert. Mac Cheese was the first veggie dish I ate back in the 60s – Mum took us to Edwin Jones in Southampton (the superstore of the time) where they served it in the restaurant. We loved it and it became a traditions for Mum to make this every Tuesday! Nowadays, we use whole grain spelt macaroni with masses of greens…Hablitzia or Caucasian spinach ( stjernemelde) and dandelion (løvetann). On the top, we used dried alpine bistort (harerug) bulbils! This one time rhubarb crumble is the only time I eat sugar each year, something I’ve kept up now for the last 20 years. Dedicating this to my dear Mum…it’s after all her 65th birth day too!
I harvested Hablitzia from this pot in which I’d had a bay tree that died a few years back, Hablitzia self-sowed and has taken over using the bay to climb up!
Dandelion
Hablitzia and dandelion greens were wilted before adding to the macaroni cheese
The finished mac cheese with alpine bistort bulbils on top
Dinner presentation
…and this curious stick with 65 marks on it appeared in my postbox anonymously, postmarked Tøyen in Oslo….
The weather was a bit milder over the last few days, thawing sufficiently so that I could crowbar dandelion roots from the frozen soil and pot them up ready for winter forcing which will give a never ending supply of delicious, nutritious midwinter greens for free later in the winter (just a little effort)!
Just:
1. Dig up the roots
2. Remove (and eat) any green leaves
3. Plant the roots in soil up to the crown and then cover the crowns in a couple of centimetres of clean sand (I use buckets)
4. Store in the coolest place possible to keep them dormant (it could also be outside if you don’t have a root cellar)
5. Move to a warmer place ( a cool room works well) a couple of weeks before you need the shoots (keep dark if you want delicious blanched shoots)
(This is the same method you can use for forcing chicory, but to my mind dandelions are even tastier and they sow themselves….and all you have to do is NOT to weed and harvest instead!)
1. Dig the roots
2. Remove (and eat) the leaves
3. Plant the roots in a container in soil up to the crown
4. Cover the crown with a couple of centimetres of sand
Delicious nutritious midwinter greens for free (just a little effort)!
It snowed all day yesterday, but it’s unfrozen underneath and spring bulbs like snowdrops (snøklokke), coltsfoot (hestehov), winter aconite (vinterblom), Crocus tommasianus and Hepatica transylvanica are in flower under the snow. Remembering where the edibles are located, I can still harvest food under the snow:
It was one of the mildest December / January periods here since records began in the 1800s, no snow at sea level and no snow forecast, 3-4 cm of froszen soil at the surface and that’s it. Temperatures are currently like early April and early April foragables are now available!
Dandelion crowns (løvetann)
Lesser celandine (vårkål – the Norwegian name means spring greens!), edible until flowers appear
Lesser celandine (vårkål – the Norwegian name means spring greens!), edible until flowers appear
Salad ingredients: Celery, three chicory varieties, dandelion (including one flower), carrot, Japanese yams, Allium cernuum and Hablitzia (from the garden), Hristo’s onion (Allium flavescens x nutans?), oca (2 varieties), apple (Aroma), horseradish shoots, garlic, chives, wild buckwheat shoots and turnip “Målselvnepe”
