Thanks to Matthias Brück for preparing cactus pads (nopalitos) from Opuntia ficus-indicus for lunch, a long job by hand to de-spine first, but delicious! Does the old variety developed by Luther Burbank, “Burbank’s Spineless” still exist?
…and the prickly pear /Indian fig fruits too, together with old pear and apple varieties and banana from Madeira! Thanks to Nuno Roxo!
This follows on from my early blog posts from my April visit to Northern Italy. Matthias Brück had invited me to Switzerland to take part in the Perennials for Resilience seminar in Stans and he asked me along on a trip through the Alps to the Piedmont area of NW Italy. Our host, Pius Leutenegger took us on a botanical trip to Lake Maggiore. Giardini Botanici Villa Taranto (the Villa Taranto Botanical Gardens) is the second garden we visited on 3rd April, located on the western shore of the lake. The gardens were established in 1931-1940 by Scotsman Neil Boyd McEacharn and opened to the public in 1952.
Blog post from the first garden visit is here: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=17901
Magnolia salicifolia, also known as willow-leafed magnolia or anise magnolia, originates from Japan
Magnolia salicifolia, also known as willow-leafed magnolia or anise magnolia, originates from Japan.
Primula vulgaris
Staphylea holocarpa
Fallopia japonica
Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) with Rhododendron
Alnus glabra var pendula
Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa)
Musa basjoo (Japanese banana)
Chinese quince (Pseudocydonia sinensis)
Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica “Alba”)
Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica “Alba”)
Matthias with his beloved and tasty Magnolia buds
Cercis griffithii
Pachysandra terminalis
Magnolia
Prunus tomentosa, Nanking cherry
Lithocarpus edulis (Japanese Stone Oak)
Magnolia
On the right is Matthias Brück, centre is our host Pius Leutenegger
Last weekend I attended this symposium in Stans (near Lucerne) with a diverse group of people including farmers, decision makers, bankers, investors, NGOs, students, landscape architects, writers, international organisations, chefs, plant breeders, university researchers, syntropic farmers, permaculturists etc. to discuss the role of perennials in what more and more people are seeing as a necessary paradigm shift in agriculture in the face of climate change and dwindling resources.
The program: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a574020b078696d379ca25e/t/5ab04a9288251bfd948ffe44/1521502868186/Program+PerennialsConference+7.Apr18.pdf
Jugendstil-Hotel Paxmontana in Flüeli-Ranft was where we were accomodated :) We arrived here in true Harry Potter style as the station (platform) where we had to get a connecting bus here didn’t seem to exist. At the next station where we asked a railway employee…a bus miraculously appeared going to the hotel which the official managed to flag down!
The magic bus…me, Joe Hollis and a few other delegates!
The site of the symposium: Kapuzinerkloster & Garten in Stans
The symposium was very well attended with around 100 people despite no real marketing!
Myself and Joe Hollis helped out foraging perennial food for the symposium!
It was an honour to meet the Mountain Gardener Joe Hollis in person, such a wise and gentle person :) I’d encourage you to watch his Youtube videos (includes Udo, Aralia cordata) about many of the plants he grows in his paradise gardens! See https://www.youtube.com/user/mountaingardens/videos
Sonchus, sow thistle
Plenty of nettles
Wild onion, probably Allium vineale
Hedge garlic (Alliaria)
Nettles and ground elder
Organiser and initiator Matthias Brück
We ate lunch at the restaurant in the middle of the Nature park….the waiter and owner was bemused by us augmenting their rather boring salad :)
Billed as the Perennial Life Experience symposium food, it was for most attendees!
Perennial Ryotto! Similar to Norwegian Svedjerug, so not truly perennial…
It was a beauiful spring weekend weatherwise and food and breakout sessions were held outside!
The author Dominic Flammer is also the curator of the Kapuzinerkloster & Garten which is currently under restoration.This will be a wonderful place for courses when it’s restored! He’s written several books including the wonderful Culinary Herbs of the Alps!!
Katharina Serafimova wraps up the final breakout session to discuss how to take this forward!
Malva syrup
Dandelion wine
Menu for the first dinner at the hotel
View from the hotel
While I was visiting Pro Specie Rara in Basel, Joe Hollis joined the others foraging ramsons which grows like a weed in Zurich and is common on the hills around!
While I was visiting Pro Specie Rara in Basel, Joe Hollis joined the others foraging ramsons which grows like a weed in Zurich and is common on the hills around!
Campanula
Galium
Path down to the river
Primula veris x vulgaris hybrid?
Primula veris
Heracleum
Taraxacum
Viola
Hepatica (not edible)
Veronica beccabunga
Nettles
Barbarea vulgaris
Fallopia (Japanese knotweed)
Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)
Primula vulgaris
Sanguisorba minor
Aegopodium
Spring heath (Erica carnea)
Long distance paths
Chapel by the river
Primula vulgaris
More symposium food
The view from the symposium
Another dandelion product
Joe Hollis
I was chuffed to sign Joe Hollis’ copy of my book and to see that he had made so many notes!
A bed right outside the venue with a contorted hazel full of ramsons (Allium ursinum)
The venue in Stans
View from a hike above Stans
I saw this potential edimental Phyteuma spicata (?) in two places
One of the breakout sessions was based on two of us so-called “pioneers” telling our story as to how we became perennial vegetable growers. I was one. It was strange sitting in a room with groups discussing and analyzing my “case” ;)
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!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
Here’s the symposium announcement: https://www.perennials-resilience.org (more later!).