At the Væres Venner community garden, I’ve planted 6 or 7 different Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus; stolt henrik) plants from different sources. In my book you can read how this plant which is closely related to annual quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), is probably the most promising perennial grain. Even in my cold climate, it can give two yields per season and the first yield is far ahead of annual grains here! I’m hoping that one of the varieties may have slightly larger seeds (the seeds are smaller than quinoa). The only drawbacks are that the seed are difficult to clean by hand. I winnow the seed and then do the final clean. Two of my 6-7 plants were harvested here. I’m dreaming of perennial grains being grown on a large scale in the future, even in my climate…there are many benefits including less energy needed for ploughing, less fertiliser and irrigation requirements and higher carbon sequestration than annual grains. However, we do urgently need breeding programs to try to produce improved larger seed varieties.
I går publiserte jeg en artikkel om scorsonerrot, en plante med mange bruksområder(se Scorzonera). En annen plante hvor alle deler av planten kan brukes i matlaging er Stolt Henrik (Blitum bonus-henricus ). Jeg har tidligere skrevet artikler om denne planten både i Våre Nyttevekster i 2012 og i min bok Around the World in 80 plants fra 2014.
De siste årene har det kommet frem mye nytt om denne planten i den etnobotaniske litteraturen. Derfor har jeg nå skrevet en oppdatert artikkel og resultatet kan lastes ned nedenfor! Viste du feks at man laget en type halva fra røttene av denne planten i Balkan?
Om du kjenner til en gammel stolt henrik plante eller kan samle frø fra en viltvoksende bestand, ta gjerne kontakt!
Takk til Landbruksdirektoratet som har støttet dette arbeidet gjennom prosjektet «Kartlegging – innsamling- dokumentasjon og vurdering av genetisk mangfold av spiselige planter i Norge»
Takk også til Guri-Kristina Batta Bjørnstad for korrekturlesing og faglige kommentarer!
English Summary: Yesterday, I published an article on Scorzonera, a plant with many uses (see Scorzonera). Another plant where all parts of the plant can be used in cooking is Good King Henry (Blitum bonus-henricus). I have previously written articles on this plant both in Våre Nyttevekster in 2012 and in my book Around the World in 80 plants from 2014.
In recent years, much new information about this plant has been published in the ethnobotanical literature. Therefore, I have now written an updated article and the result can be downloaded above! Did you know, for example, that there was a tradition of making a type of halva from the roots of this plant in the Balkans? I hope to translate this into English when I get more time….
One of the culinary highlights of the year is the annual Jicama (hee-ka-ma) meal….if you’ve never eaten yam beans or Jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus), you haven’t lived!
I grow this subtropical vegetable in my office, which only gets sunlight for maximum 1 hour a day which isn’t optimal conditions (they are usually grown in open fields), but being a climber originates in forests, so it tolerates shade. I grew it’s brother on-climbing Ahipa (Pachyrhizus ahipa) beside it, but that species didn’t produce much (perhaps it’s more sensitive to light?). I also didn’t think the taste was as good. Both species died down at the end of the year and I harvested the tubers in early January!
Jicama tubers are best eaten raw and are crispy and a little sweet. Being one of the lost crops of the Incas, much more popular in the Americas than in Europe, I served them sliced with a cooked quinoa mix – mixed home grown Quinoa and black-grained Henry quinoa from Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus), flavoured with chilis and lemony sanshō seeds (Zanthoxylum piperitum or Japanese pepper).
NB! Both species, Ahipa and Jicama are normally started from seed which I haven’t succeeded in growing myself!
Day Two: I didn’t eat it all yesterday, I needed a bit more, so I cooked up a third species quinoa, Fat Hen quinoa (Meldestokk quinoa), from the seed of one plant of Fat Hen or Lamb’s Quarters (Chenopodium album). It was added to yesterday’s to give a Three species quinoa and jicama salad (two pictures added)
On the left, Ahipa (Pachyrhizus ahipa; Andean yam bean) and Jicama (P. erosus, Yam bean) in my office; September 2016… I hadn’t realised that Ahipa doesn’t climb, hence the stakes on both plants…the yellow things are models of my company, OCEANOR’s marine environmental monitoring buoys that I tested in a wave tank back in the 80s!
Disappointing Ahipa (Pachyrhizus ahipa; Andean yam bean) harvest….and I didn’t think the taste was as good as Jicama either
Not bad Jicama harvest, not as good as when I grew it in my sunnier office I had some years ago..
Trondheim Jicama
Home grown Malvik Quinoa, my own variety “Stephe” with Henry Quinoa (the black seeds) from perennial Chenopodium bonus-henricus (see my book)
Cooking the quinoa mix (first rinsing thoroughlly and throwing off the “soap” a couple of times).
Lemon is usually used in this recipe, but I don’t grow them so used sanshō (Japanese pepper, Zanthoxylum piperitum) in its place
Sanshō and chili mixed with the cooked quinoa mix
Add sliced yam beans with some home grown Physalis fruit
…and it was delicious of course! If you’ve never eaten Jicama / yam beans you haven’t lived :)
Day two and I needed a bit more, so I cooked up a third type of quinoa, this time Fat Hen Quinoa (the seed of annual global weed Chenopodium album aka Lamb’s Quarters)
Honorata Gajda from the Norwegian Botanical Association introduces!
Udo, Aralia cordata, my largest vegetable!
I had far too little time in the garden…but I did manage to say hello to the vigorous Hablitzia (at the back) and neighbour Good King Henry / Stolt Henrik at the front, two of the 80 plants in my book Around the World in 80 plants (the book has a picture of this Hablitzia later in the summer!)!
A full house of a mixed crowd of all ages, some 70 people, had turned up for my lecture at the Botanical Garden in Oslo despite the beautiful evening (we should have been outside) and the long holiday weekend! Thanks to the Norwegian Botanical Associtation and Natural History Museum for putting on this event and in particular Honorata Gajda.
Back home now after a night on the train…a fantastic week on the road, thanks to all the people who helped along the way….and some 60 books lighter :)
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
