As usual, the first seed of edible plants to be collected from the garden is dandelion, this year on the last day of May.
The moss-leaved dandelion (Taraxacum sublaciniosum “Delikatess”):
Tag Archives: moss-leaved dandelion
Today’s permaveggies
Presenting the 14 permaveggies used in tonight’s Indian dal!
Here are the ingredients:
Around the outside:
Blanched sea kale / strandkål (Crambe maritima)
Stinging nettle / brennesle (Urtica dioica)
Top left and anti-clockwise:
Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde (Hablitzia tamnoides)
Hedge garlic / løkurt (Alliaria petiolata)
Cow parsnip (Heracleum lanatum)
Day lily / daglije (Hemerocallis shoots)
Common wintercress / vinterkarse (Barbarea vulgaris)
Giant bellflower / storklokke (Campanula latifolia)
Blanched lovage / løpstikke (Levisticum officinale)
Ground elder / skvallerkål (Aegopodium podograria)
Victory onion / seiersløk from the Lofoten Islands in Norway (Allium victorialis)
In the middle:
Great waterleaf (Hydrophyllum appendiculatum) grows well in my garden and self-sows. It’s natural habitat is damp calcareous woodlands in Eastern North America.
Patience dock / hagesyre (Rumex patientia)
Afterthought:
Moss-leaved dandelion / mosebladet løvetann (Taraxacum sublaciniosum “Delikatess”) – one entire leaf rosette with dandichokes and top of the roots)
The mossy dandelion
It’s 100 years since Vilmorin-Andrieux’s The Vegetable Garden: Illustrations, descriptions, and culture of the garden vegetables of cold and temperate climates was published! The plant I most associate with this fantastic book is what I’ve called “The Legendary Moss-Leaved Dandelion”. I fell in love with the image of this variety of dandelion when I first saw it (see below) and I later blogged about how I sought after and was finally able to grow it myself here: https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=1193
There was even a T-shirt printed in its honour (see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=1043)
However, it was only yesterday that I discovered how mossy looking it can be in the early spring when I tried to clean moss away from the young dark leaves of a plant I was harvesting for a salad ;)
Self-produce from the garden
Here’s yesterday’s fresh produce* from the garden….the joy of perennial vegetables! However, snow overnight will make harvest more difficult the next few days! Here’s today’s list:
Aegopodium podograria (ground elder / skvallerkål)
Allium hymennorhizum
Allium sativum (garlic / hvitløk)
Allium cernuum (noddding onion/ prærieløk)
Allium victorialis (victory onion / seiersløk)
Rumex acetosa “Arkhangelsk” (sorrel / engsyre)
Hemerocallis middendorfii (day lily / daglije)
Brassica oleracea (various perennial kales / flerårige kål)
Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde)
Myrrhis odorata (sweet cicely / spansk kjørvel)
Ficaria verna (lesser celandine / vårkål)
Taraxacum officinale ” Moss-leaved” (dandelion / løvetann)
Angelica archangelica “Vossakvann Markusteigen” (kvann)
Used in a green pasta sauce.
* “Produce” they aren’t as most produce themselves without little input from me: Self-produce is a better word! 
Belated happy birthday to me
The first veggie food I ate was macaroni cheese and chips at Edwin Jones (now Debenhams) in Southampton, a treat when we Mum took us shopping back in the 60s…
Most years since I’ve followed this tradition on or near my birthday, no chips this year as the potatoes have run out and nowadays the macaroni cheese is mixed with masses of green stuff both from the garden and, yesterday, fiddleheads harvested on the Homla walk. This is more or less the only time in the year I have dessert and the only time I eat sugar…in rhubarb crumble, also with family roots back to the 60s :)
rhubarb crumble, also with family roots back to the 60s :)
Perennial vegetable tempura
April 2014 and Yngvil (aka Ms. Saladdy) was helping out in my garden, her practical experience for her education to become a gardener! I’ll let her tell her own story of the wonderful diverse tempura we made together on that day using perennial veggies!
See also https://saladdy.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/tempura-day
..includes ostrich fern, blanched lovage, Udo, perennial kale, moss-leaved dandelion, Allium victorialis, nettles, Aster scaber, scorzonera shoots, Campanula latifolia, Oca, Myrrhis, Allium scorodoprasum, garlic, Allium ursinum, Ligularia fischeri (first time), sea kale, Primula veris “Red Strain”, Rumex acetosa, Alliaria petiolata and a few others…
