Somebody asked me to show how I force veggies indoors in winter, so here you have a link to a short video showing what is available at the moment!
At this time of year, most of our leafy greens used in salads and cooking are either harvested from the forcing pots shown in the video or directly from the cold cellar under the house. Here is a mixture of perennials, biennials and annuals. Still looking for a good perennial chicory for forcing. See the list of plants shown below.
Follow the link to the video.
Witloof Festive Chicory (sikori / julesalat)
Witloof Væres Venner mix (my own selection from the community garden based on several varieties from various gene banks)
Hristo’s onion (Allium flavescens x nutans?)
Kandahar cress (karse) from the Experimental Farm Network (seed harvested in the community garden)
Wild buckwheat / vill bokhvete (seed harvested in The Edible Garden) Garlic bulbil sprouts / spirte hvitløk bulbiller
Nodding onion / prærieløk (Allium cernuum)
Dandelion / løvetann
Tag Archives: sikori
Dandelion scape, bud and flower omelette
Sorry, but I ceremoniously sacrificed all the dandelion flowers, buds and scapes for a delicious omelette today…and what a wonderful view they had on their last day on earth!
Also in the dandeliomelette was chicory “Witloof” sprouts, an old Finnish shallot, garlic, thyme and the last of the wild buckwheat sprouts (løvetann, sikori,sjalott, hvitløk, timian og vill bokhvete)
Seed saving talk weekend
Thanks to KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) colleague Andrew McMillion for coming up to Trondheim to give his seed saving course for local KVANN and Væres Venner Community Garden members!
…and there was time for a Malvik visit, a seed saving and breeding chat, a tour of my seed boxes and a little salad with Witloof chicory and dandelion pizza.
Salad ingredients: Celery, three chicory varieties, dandelion (including one flower), carrot, Japanese yams, Allium cernuum and Hablitzia (from the garden), Hristo’s onion (Allium flavescens x nutans?), oca (2 varieties), apple (Aroma), horseradish shoots, garlic, chives, wild buckwheat shoots and turnip “Målselvnepe”
…and my seed archive:
A tour of the Edible House cellar!
I probably wasn’t aware, when we bought the house 40 years ago next year, how important the cold cellar under the house would be. It is largely unimproved since we moved here. It has allowed us to be self-sufficient in all our own fresh vegetables, root crops and fruit with minimal pre-processing. There are 4 full size rooms in the cellar which are kept dark (there are small windows which are kept covered) and without heating. Even though it is relatively early in the winter, it is at the moment just about as cold as it ever gets down there thanks to the freezing temperatures since the end of October. First are some pictures of the stairs and doors. Below is another album of pictures of the vegetables in storage; explanation with the pictures!
Garden foraged perennial veggies: 28th June 2023
Tonight’s perennial vegetables from the garden, used in a stir-fry:
Top right and clockwise:
Sochan / Cherokee greens tops (Rudbeckia laciniata); Norsk: Kyss-meg-
over-gjerde (picture at the bottom)
Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) “Skomvær”; Norsk: engsyre (picture at the bottom)
Garlic shoots (Allium sativum) from a clump grown as a perennial; Norsk: hvitløk
Perennial chicory tops (Cichorium intybus)
Urtica platyphylla (a Japanese nettle species; later than Urtica dioica)
Cabbage thistle (Cirsium oleraceum); Norsk: kåltistel
From top and down
Sherpa onion (Allium wallichii); perfect time for harvesting; Norsk: Sherpaløk
Hogweed tops (Heracleum); Norsk: bjørnekjeks
Hosta fortunei var. albopicta f. aurea
Allium nutans; Norsk: Sibirsk nikkeløk
Sochan tops are excellent
A sorrel I collected at Skomvær, an island outermost in the Lofoten Islands; it is floriferous and has a compact growth form!