The last time I led a foraging trip with ramsons (ramsløk), Allium ursinum, as the main focus was in 2014 on the island Hvaler in south eastern Norway near the Swedish border. This was at the time the ramsons-pesto trend was really taking off and major gourmet restaurants were paying good money for the leaves. I was shocked to see that a large area had been indiscriminately cut to the ground and I suspected commercial harvest. Since that time similar reports have come in, even from nature reserves which is illegal and there have been declines in the wild stands of this plant. In my area I heard of a chef in Trondheim bragging of big hauls of ramsons in locations at the very north of the plant’s range and at location the plants had almost disappeared. Similarly, a concerned friend showed me pictures of commercial harvesting in a nature reserve in the neighbouring county of Møre og Romsdal. Well known botany professor Klaus Høiland was also alarmed by developments and published a list of ten common sense rules (ramsløkvettreglene) when harvesting this plant from the wild. This was published in KVANN’s (Norwegian Seed Savers) newsletter and we asked people rather to grow in their gardens and to share seed and plants to fellow members. A similar development happened in North America with a similar looking Allium species ramps, Allium tricoccum, where local populations have been overharvested and cultivation has started to compensate on Native American lands (unlike ramsons, bulbs are collected in North America). Ramsløkvettreglene are repeated below (in Norwegian). I would now include Nordmøre and areas close to Bergen and Stavanger as areas where only small amounts should be harvested. Jakta på ramsløken er i gang! Men viss du plukkar i eit verneområde kan det vera forbode.
Den kjente professor og sopp- og nyttevekstspesialist Klaus Høiland har laget disse “ramsløkvettreglene”:
1) Plukk ramsløk greit på Vestlandet, Sørvestlandet og Sørlandet. Der er det rikelig av den.
2) Plukker du på Østlandet, Nordvestlandet og i Trøndelag og nordover, la små bestander stå i fred, og vær forsiktig – ramsløk er ikke vanlig i øst, nordvest og nordover.
3) Se etter at det ikke er fredet. Står det fredningsskilt er det forbudt å plukke ramsløk, som alle andre planter og trær i fredningsområdet. Sjekk uansett om det er fredet, hvor enn du har tenkt å plukke.
4) Respekter innmark, og spesielt mark rundt hus. Noen kan ha plantet ramsløk der, den kan du ikke plukke. Spør alltid grunneier om lov om du vil plukke nær hus.
5) La det alltid stå noen planter igjen, sjøl om du plukker i ei rik li med ramsløk på Vestlandet.
6) Ikke dra opp plantene med løk og rot. Det er bladene som smaker.
7) Er det andre som allerede plukker der, finn et annet sted. Da begrenses også beskatningen på området.
8) Ikke plukk mer enn du trenger.
9) Trå forsiktig, ramsløk vokser ofte i slitesvak skogbunn.
On Sunday 26th May we organized a potluck party in Væres Venners Community Garden in Trondheim for the first time! It was a fantastically successful event in glorious summer weather close to 30C (and a record for May) and with 40 participants, both members of the community garden (and supporters) and KVANN Trøndelag members. The participants brought a large variety of food dishes as we had hoped! The highlight was Anders (and Barbro) Nordrum’s introductory lecture on food preparedness! Thanks to everyone, we will be doing this again! My contribution was naturally a salad and I had to apologise as there were only 50 plants in it ;) The white flowers: ramsons (ramsløk), sweet cicely (Spansk kjørvel), Allium zebdanense and sea kale (strandkål). General pictures by Dan Smith!
This week’s perennial veg stir-fry with soba (buckwheat noodles), Japanese style contained the following (roughly left to right in the picture): Nettles / stornesle (Urtica dioica) Burdock / storborre roots (Arctium lappa); stored in the cellar Wapato tubers (Sagittaria latifolia); stored in the cellar in water Ramsons / ramsløk (Allium ursinum) Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde (Hablitzia tamnoides) Giant bellflower / storklokke (Campanula latifolia) Himalayan water creeper (Houttuynia cordata) – reddish shoots Sand leek / bendelløk (Allium scorodoprasum) Garlic / hvitløk (Allium sativum)
Last year’s birthday dinner was the Around the World in 80 Mac-Cheese, this year’s green mac-cheese contained 68 Hablitzia shoots, 68 ramsons (ramsløk) leaves, 68 ground elder (skvallerkål) leaves and 68 stinging nettle (brennesle) shoots, with opium poppy seeds and nutty alpine bistort (harerug) bulbils on top! The video shows me collecting the Hablitzia shoots!
All 272 greens!
With opium poppy seeds and nutty alpine bistort bulbils on top!
With opium poppy seeds and nutty alpine bistort bulbils on top!
Earlier this week with little time to make dinner this was the unlikely result: St. George’s, ramsons and red-leaved dandelion leftover pasta with Hosta icicles in Japanese dip. Earlier in the day I had noticed a patch of St George’s Mushroom / vårfagerhatt (Calocybe gambosa) in the same spot it had turned up for the first time 3 years ago (see St. George’s Mushroom). They were then stir-fried with ramsons (ramsløk) and red-leaved dandelion (Taraxacum rubifolium) and some left-over wholewheat spelt pasta and were served with fried egg on home made garlic toast with a few prawns and some blanched Hosta “Big Daddy” shoots (Hosta icicles) as a side salad with an olive oil /soy sauce dip and the last bottle of St. Peter’s organic pale ale. LIFE IS GOOD!
The best of spring in one sitting. In celebration of the country Norway, we yesterday (17th May) harvested a small selection of the best blanched perennial vegetables (apart from the ostrich fern which had to be harvested or it would have been too late). This included three udo species (Aralia cordata, Aralia californica and Aralia racemosa), sea kale (Crambe maritima), Hosta “Big Daddy” together with delicious sweet blanched ramsons (Allium ursinum) . They were all eaten raw (apart from the fern which was steamed for 10 minutes) with a Japanese dipping sauce – olive oil (should have been sesame), tamari (soy sauce) and roasted sesame seeds. These accompanied an onion soup prepared with half of the leaves from one plant of Wietses Onion, a vigorous hybrid of Allium pskemense and Allium fistulosum! It doesn’t get much better than this! More information with the pictures:
Blanched Aralia cordata, Japanese udo (I used a large builders bucket)
I found a friendly beetle hiding on the stem
The green unblanched udo was only 1/3 of the size due to the sheltering / heating effect of the black bucket
Aralia racemosa (American spikenard)
Californian udo. also known as Elk clover (Aralia californica)
Californian udo. also known as Elk clover (Aralia californica)
Californian udo. also known as Elk clover (Aralia californica)
I harvested two early Hosta “Big Daddy” shoots which were growing under a blanching bucket in a sea of blanced ramsons /ramsløk (Allium ursinum)
Blanched Hosta “Big Daddy” shoots after harvesting the ramsons (ramsløk)
From left to right: California udo, Japanese udo, American spikenard, Hosta “Big Daddy” and blanched ramsons /ramsløk
Hosta “Big Daddy” (above) with American spikenardith
Blanched ramsons (ramsløk) were sweeter tasting
Japanese udo and Hosta “Big Daddy”
Wietse’s onion (Allium pskemense x fistulosum)
Wietse’s onion (Allium pskemense x fistulosum) after harvesting half of the shoots (I want it to flower as it is also one of the best popular plants for several bumble bee species and other pollinating insects)
Wietse’s onion (Allium pskemense x fistulosum) – main ingredient for the soup
Wietse’s onion soup
17th May dinner (in the middle at the top are the blanched sea kale – Crambe maritima – and cooked ostrich fern at the bottom)
Presenting some of this week’s perennial greens and, in the case of the blanched Hosta shoots, perennial whites! Hosta sieboldiana with ramsons / ramsløk (Allium ursinum) and giant bellflower / storklokke (Campanula latifolia)
AROUND THE WORLD IN THE EDIBLE GARDEN; Part 3 – Southern Europe and the Mediterranean countries Inviting you to the third in a series of dinners from Malvik’s Edible Garden where we “forage” from different parts of the world! If you’ve visited countries in south east Europe you will no doubt have eaten the delicious vegetable pies like Greek spanakopoita, Turkish börek, Italian Torta pasqualina, Bulgarian banitsa and others. Inspired by these and not wanting to make the time consuming to make filo pastry, we made a 100% wholegrain rye/barley quiche like dish with large quantities of the following perennial greens: From left to right (from top left) : Allium ursinum (ramsons; ramsløk) Rumex patientia (patience dock; hagesyre) Urtica dioica (stinging nettle; brennesle) Silene vulgaris (bladder campion; engsmelle) Rumex scutatus (Buckler-leaved sorrel; Fransksyre) Rumex acetosa (sorrel; engsyre) Myrrhis odorata (sweet cicely; Spansk kjørvel) Malva alcea (hollyhock mallow; rosekattost) Melissa officinalis (lemon balm; sitronmelisse) Scorzonera hispanica (Scorzonera; scorsonnerot, svartrot) Asparagus officinalis (asparagus; asparges) Humulus lupulus (hops; humle) Tragopogon pratensis (Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon; geitskjegg) Taraxacum “Moss-leaved dandelion” Campanula trachelium (nettle-leaved bellflower; nesleklokke) Brassica oleracea “Daubenton variegated” (perennial kale; flerårige kål) Allium zebdanense (white flowers) from Lebanon (with garlic and chili and imported olives)
Last night we made a green pea soup and apart from the Hablitzia (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde), I used perennial vegetables growing in a wild part of the garden. With little or no help from me there’s a bounty of wild edibles in this area under wild hazels (Corylus avellana) and this made for a delicious pea soup with masses of greens. Campanula latifolia is documented as used in spring soups in the 16th century in my area in Norway and Heracleum shoots are also a tradional soup ingredient, in particular Russian borsch now thought of as a beetroot soup was originally made with hogweed shoots.
Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower) and Urtica dioica (stinging nettle)….in a dry shady area under trees, the productivity here is equal to my annual vegetables!
Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower) has almost outcompeted ground elder / skvalelrkål (Aegopodium podograria)
Hablitzia tamnoides in front of the wild greens
Heracleum (hogweed / bjørnekjeks) stems
Ramsons (right) were also used from an increasing patch naturalised in the shade of the north side of the house!
I noticed yesterday that the ostrich ferns (strutseving) in the forest garden had put on a spurt despite the cold weather and were almost past the harvesting stage. This is the main disadvantage of this great vegetable. The harvesting window is very narrow. I quickly harvested some, taking care not to take more than 1/3 of the shoots. Together with Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach), a bit of sea kale (strandkål), ramsons (ramsløk) and sand leeks (bendelløk) this made a delicious green pasta sauce. See the video before I picked below!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
Men viss du plukkar i eit verneområde kan det vera forbode. 
