Tag Archives: Flerårige Grønnsaker

Edible flowers, Edientomental, Perennial vegetables

Toad lilies: great edientomentals

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Toad lilies (Tricyrtis sp.) are great edientomentals from the Far East; i.e. both food for us to eat (the edi bit), eye food (the mental bit ;) ) and food for the pollinators like bumble bees (the ento bit).
I’ve been meaning to try to research this genus properly for many years ever since I ate the young shoots 10 years ago (it tasted mild and good).  I’ve tried 10+ species over the years, but only the early flowering species thrive (Tricyrtis latifolia is I think the most successful of the two). Bumble bees love them too as can be seen in the video below!
Below the pictures is an overview of how different species Tricyrtis are used in Japan. It indicates that the flowers can also be used at least in moderation for decoration, so I must give it a go!

Blanched perennial veggies eaten on 14th May 2012 were dandelion, Crambe cordifolia , Cicerbita alpina, Lovage, Horseradish, Hosta, Sonchus arvensis, Allium tuberosum, Silene vulgaris, Heracleum maximum and Tricyrtis (latifolia)

Tricyrtis in the kitchen
All I have so far is that 6 or 7 species are listed in my comprehensive Japanese foraging book (in Japanese): Wild Food Lexicon (Japan) and this is what it says (there are no warnings of possible toxicity and it encourages the reader to get and grow a couple of the species):
Tricyrtis latifolia (Tamagawa hototogisu)
Eat young shoots. You can eat other types of Tricyrtis so don’t worry if you make a mistake. Rest assured. You can pick it even if the stems are long, you can pick the soft young shoots until they bloom.
Boil in hot water with a pinch of salt, then rinse in cold water. In boiled food, soup, tempura…
Tricyrtis macropoda
It can be eaten like Tamagawa hototogisu, but the ones with a lot of hairs have an inferior taste.
Tricyrtis macrantha
Boiled soup. For tempura etc. It has a crisp texture. Boil briefly, soak in cold water, boil, cut into small pieces and season with mustard. The young shoots are the most flavourful amongst the hototogisu.
Tricyrtis macranthopsis
Seedlings for cultivation are on the market. You can grow it and use it as food.
Around May, pick young shoots that grow diagonally. Even those with long stems can be eaten by picking the soft part at the tip of the stem.
Tricyrtis perfoliata
Young shoots are “hard”? in quality. Floating the flowers in the soup and enclosing them in jelly will make them beautiful. Get it, grow it and taste it!!

Salad, Stand

RINGVE OPEN DAY 2024

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There were some 1,500 people who came along to Sunday’s Open Day at the Ringve Botanical Garden and as usual KVANN Trøndelag (Norwegian Seed Savers; kvann.no) had a stand where a wide selection of perennial vegetables could be bought and a 130 variety salad could be sampled, mostly perennials! It was non-stop for us 3 on the stand from the start at 11 am and many plants found new homes in the course of the day. Many members of KVANN joined us in the course of the day.
Thanks to Meg and Elizabeth for helping on the stand once again! 

I’d previously agreed to lead a group around the Onion Garden Chicago from the Regionalt Nytteveksttreff i Trondheim which was organised that weekend. I’d never seen so many people in the onion garden before as there was also a large group of people, many with insect nets, on a Humlevandring (walk around the garden learning about bumble bees organised by La Humla Suse). It turned out that the Alliums were attracting the largest concentrations and number of species, so we had to events together in the garden! FUN!!
Nyttevekst Treff

Perennial vegetables

The first Udo photo shoot for 2024

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Despite the record warm May here at 63.4N with temperatures up to 30C and drought like  conditions (forest fire warnings on the news every day), my now 23 year old udo (Aralia cordata) has grown away well, but perhaps not as vigorous as normal in cooler damper conditions which are the norm for May. Sadly, my California-udo (Aralia californica) which was in a much drier location seems to have died, although I have a clone in the World Garden at the Væres Venner Community Garden.
Thanks to KVANN member Nina Sandli who took the picture on a visit on 25th May!
More about my super vegetable in many blog posts, see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?s=udo
or read about it in my book Around the World in 80 plants!

Dandelions, Seed

Encouraging dandelions

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I’ve changed full circle from the days when I fought against the dandelions to nowadays actively encouraging them in my perennial beds as they will be my most important veg all winter when we eat them every day (digging the roots for forcing like chicory before the first hard frosts). They fill all the gaps between my perennial edibles on the beds in the video and provide food for a range of insects and birds (directly feeding on the seeds and indirectly picking off the insects). At the same time I’ve become a much happier person looking at the seed heads, representing hope rather than disASTER (get it? Dandelions are in the Asteraceae)!

Food, Salad

Lunchtime 2nd May Salad

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We’re experiencing a bit of a heat wave here at the moment with high pressure, clear skies and temperatures close to 20C. The growth of my perennial veg is extraodinary for the time of year. I made this salad for lunch with a little of everything I found in a 5-10 minute garden forage with a few things from the cellar and living room!
The 37 plants in the salad are listed below the pictures!

SALAD PLANT LIST
Allium paradoxum var paradoxum (few flowered leek); flower stems
Primula denticulata
Claytonia virginiana (spring beauty)
Carum carvi (caraway; karve)
Lepidium sativum “Kandahar” (cress; karse)
Coriandrum sativum (coriander; koriander)
Aegopodium podograria (ground elder; skvallerkål)
Oxalis triangularis; flowers
Primula vulgaris (primrose; kusymre); flowers
Primula elatior (oxlip; hagenøkleblom)
Allium hymenorhizum
Allium cernuum (nodding onion; prærieløk)
Allium nutans
Allium senescens
Allium victorialis (victory onion; seiersløk)
Allium ursinum (ramsons; ramsløk)
Crambe maritima (sea kale; strandkål)
Allium scorodoprsum (sand leek; bendelløk)
Daucus carota (carrot; gulrot)
Allium sativum (garlic; hvitløk)
Anethum graveolens (dill)
Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower; storklokke)
Taraxacum sp. (dandelion; løvetann)
Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach; stjernemelde)
Cichorium intybus “Witloof” (chicory; sikori)
Scorzonera hispanica (scorzonera; scorsonnerot)
Allium schoenoprasum (chives; gressløk)
Rumex acetosa (sorrel; engsyre)
Allium carinatum “Pulchellum”
Allium angulosum
Cichorium intybus “Festive F1”
Hosta fortunei “Albopicta Aurea”
Taraxacum tortilobum (moss-leaved dandelion; mosebladet løvetann)
Allium zebdanense
Allium validum (Pacific onion; stillehavsløk)
Ligularia fischeri (gomchwi; Fischersnøkketunge)
Oxalis acetosella “Rosea” ; blomst

Course, Garden tour, Talks

The 2023 Permaveggies / Forest Gardening course

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The 5th Permaveggies / Forest Gardening course I’ve held in Malvik took place on Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd May with guest Jen McConachie who gave her forest gardening course at Presthus Farm on the Monday evening. On the Sunday we met at my garden (The Edible Garden) for a garden tour and lunch from the garden with focus this year on growing food while maintaining a high biodiversity. On Monday we visited The Væres Venner Community garden to see the World Garden and also the large collection of edible trees and bushes that have been planted there, followed by a visit to the Onion Garden at the Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim.
Previous Permaveggies weekends were held in 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2019 whilst the 2020-weekend had to be cancelled because of Covid. More information on previous courses can be found here: Previous Permaveggies Courses.
I didn’t take many pictures this year, so thanks to Meg Anderson, Jen McConachie and Mark Tacker who took the pictures below.

Malvik:

In the Onion Garden Chicago at the Ringve Botanical Garden:

After Jen’s forest garden course, the participants split into groups to design a forest garden in a field next to the farm which it is planned to be developed as a forest garden (get in touch if you are interested!). Here is one of the groups presenting their plans:


Report

PROMOTING PERENNIAL VEGETABLES IN THE SWEDISH FOOD SUPPLY

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In recent years, vegetable growers have started to open their eyes to perennial vegetables and quite a few are growing several types. Many more growers are curious and interested, but haven’t got started yet.
Now you can download the report put together by Eva Johansson, Annevi Sjöberg and Johanna Karlén through visits and interviews with growers of perennial vegetables all over the Nordics, including my 3 gardens in Trondheim / Malvik in June.
See https://perennagronsaker.se and click on the link! NB! In Swedish!
(Nice that the Onion Garden Chicago made the front page!)



Garden tour, Talks, Walk and talk

Organic week in Trøndelag / Økouka i Trøndelag

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Last week was National Organic Week (Økouka), a busy week for me as I had two garden tours in my Edible Garden in Malvik (the rain stopped both days just before we started), a walk and talk in the community garden at Væres Venner and a talk at Stammen Cafe & Bar in Trondheim on “Perennial Climate-friendly Food Plants for Urban Areas” talking about 15 advantages of growing perennials! Below you can see pictures from each of the events which were all well attended. I’ve credited the various photographers below. Thanks to all that came along!

1. Garden tour on Wednesday 27th September 

Making the Ø letter for Økouka (picture: Margaret Anderson)

2. Talk at Stammen 

Picture by Margaret Anderson
 

2. Garden tour on Sunday 1st October

Picture by Margaret Anderson

Pictures by Markus Tacker (click on the album pictures for more information):


Pictures by Marit By (click on the album pictures for more information)::

4. Walk and talk in the Væres Venner Community Garden
Pictures by Marit By (the World Garden looking good in its autumn colours with the backdrop of the old ash trees):


 

 

Seminar

Promoting Perennial Vegetables seminar

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Earlier this summer (23rd May; https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=31209) I spent a great few hours together with Eva Johansson and Annevi Sjöberg from Sweden in my 3 gardens. They were on a fact-finding mission in connection with the project ”Främja fleråriga grönsaker i svensk matförsörjning” (Promoting perennial vegetables in the Swedish food supply). Link to my blog post in comments.
Everyone can now take part via zoom in a one-day seminar on this topic by signing up here (it’s free and some of the talks are in English!): https://perennagronsaker.se/seminarium-framja-flerariga-gronsaker-i-svensk-matproduktion-16-oktober
The project is financed with funds from the Swedish Agency for Agriculture (Jordbruksverket) within the framework of the Swedish food strategy (den svenska livsmedelsstrategin) and runs until Dec 2023. The Skillebyholm Foundation manages the project.
As usual, Sweden is way ahead of Norway with innovation!