{"id":25026,"date":"2020-03-27T15:00:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T14:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edimentals.com\/blog\/?p=25026"},"modified":"2020-03-27T19:20:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T18:20:37","slug":"mauka-in-malvik-bergen-and-belgium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.edimentals.com\/blog\/?p=25026","title":{"rendered":"Mauka in Malvik, Bergen and Belgium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Norsk<\/strong><\/em> forklaring nedenfor)
Mauka (Mirabilis expansa) is a root vegetable grown, amongst others by the Maukallajta Indians in the Andes and I cultivated it for the first and only time outdoors in Malvik in 2012 with seed from Owen Smith … and it grew vigorously\u00a0 laterally (therefore the epithet expansa<\/em>) and I even got a harvest! Unfortunately, I can’t remember tasting the roots and think that they simply rotted in store before I could try them. But, I did eat the leaves in a salad.
Below you will find an album of pictures from my trial in 2012 (I later tried twice with seeds from Bergen Botanical Garden but did not get germination). In Bergen Botanical Garden, I saw a lush plant at Milde on October 22, 2014 (in the collection of vegetables from the Andes) and the next day I was surprised to find it in the rock garden at the Museumsplassen (pictures from Bergen are in a separate album below)!
Norsk:<\/strong> <\/em>Mauka (Mirabilis expansa)<\/em> er en rotgr\u00f8nnsak dyrket bl.a. av Maukallajta indianerne i Andesfjellene og jeg dyrket den for f\u00f8rste og eneste gang p\u00e5 friland i Malvik i 2012…og den vokste utrolig mye sideveis (derfor epiteten expansa) og jeg fikk faktisk noe \u00e5 h\u00f8ste (jeg hadde ingen tro etter d\u00e5rlige erfaringer med andre planter fra Andesfjellene)! Jeg kan dessverre ikke huske at jeg smakte p\u00e5 r\u00f8ttene og tror at de rett og slett r\u00e5tnet f\u00f8r jeg kunne pr\u00f8ve. Men, jeg spiste bladene i en salat.
Nedenfor finner dere bilder fra mitt fors\u00f8k i 2012 (jeg pr\u00f8vde senere to ganger med fr\u00f8 fra Bergen Botaniske Hage, men fikk ingen spiring).\u00a0 I Bergen har jeg sett en frodig plante p\u00e5 Milde 22. oktober 2014 (i samlingen av gr\u00f8nnsaker fra Andesfjellene) og neste dag var jeg overrasket \u00e5 finne den i fjellhagen p\u00e5 Museumsplassen (bilder fra Bergen i en separat album nedenfor!

I first saw Mauka in the “flesh” on 10th October 2008 when I visited Frank van Keirbilck’s garden in Scheldewindeke, Belgium (I met Frank and mauka through the Homegrown Goodness forum). I call his garden “Andes in Flanders)! Here are a couple of pictures from Frank’s garden that day:<\/p>\n