Category Archives: Perennial vegetables

Little Garden Fish: A New Unexpected Edimental

Those that have read my book and follow my blog will know how much I love the stories that follow edible plants around the world and discovering those ornamental plants that I had never expected could be used in the kitchen, turning them into edimentals! My book Around the World in 80 plants is full of them!
The plant known as little vegetable garden fish in Brazil is a case in point and I have to thank Kyle Dougherty for alerting to me to this unlikely edible on my Edimentals and Perennial Vegetables Facebook group.
Brazil isn’t a likely place to search for novel edibles that would be hardy enough to grow in my 63.4°N garden. However, I actually grew this plant for many years before removing it to make way for edible plants. It is Stachys byzantina (syn. S. lanata or S. olympica), lamb’s-ear or woolly hedge nettle (lammeøre here in Norway). It is a perennial in the Lamiaceae or mint family which is native to Armenia, Iran, and Turkey but has been cultivated throughout the temperate world as an ornamental plant, and has escaped, naturalising in many locations. Here in Norway, it doesn’t seem to produce seed, so only spreads vegetatively. It is surprisingly very hardy and is said to be worth trying more or less anywhere here.

So, how is it that the use of this plant from West Asia and known as “peixinhos da horta”, literally little vegetable garden fish in Brazil, is more or less isolated to that country today? In Brazil, the dish and plant have the same name. Some suggest that the name little garden fish is because the taste is fish-like, but others say that it doesn’t taste of fish at all. It’s more likely that it’s because the fried and battered leaves resemble small fish and maybe the association leads to people experiencing a fishy taste? There are a number of “how to” videos on youtube, with and without egg (à Milanesa) (see, https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=peixinho+da+horta)

Peixinhos da Horta prepared “à Milanesa” (with egg) in Brazil; see the “how to” video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhergrWMki0

It is said that the plant is also used as tea, in omelettes, pasta, steamed and in salads (youngest leaves).
Over the last 10 years several studies of non-conventional vegetables including this plant and its preparation have been published addressing also medicinal uses and nutrition; e,g., “Stachys byzantina (Lamiaceae) has a high nutrient content compared with conventional vegetables including vitamin C, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, high fiber content, minerals (potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, copper, iron, manganese, zinc and boron) and high content of phenolic compounds which gives antioxidant activity” (Aguiar et al., 2020).
However, the dish of the same name in Portugal is made from cut green bean pods, coated in batter, and fried in oil at high temperatures, but is also prepared with other vegetables, such as pumpkin and green peppers. Intriguingly, these green beans, usually Phaseolus vulgaris, travelled the other way from the Americas to Europe. Was the use of Stachys byzantina in this dish an old way of preparing it which has now died out or did it evolve independently in Brazil based on the basic recipe (there are strong connections of course between Portugal and Brazil). I haven’t been able to find an answer to this question but the fact that the Portuguese name for the plant is peixinho-da-horta , lambari or simply peixinho suggests it was used in the past. The Portuguese wiki page states only that the plant is used in Brazil or was it the other way round and the inspiration came from Brazil?
I have only found one reference in the ethnobotanical literature to Stachys byzantina being wild foraged in its native area. Civelek and Balkaya (2013) list some 19 wild vegetables in the Black Sea region of Turkey, providing a nutritional analysis of all and stating only that the leaves are roasted. The table below from this paper lists all 19.

Table of wild foraged species and how they are used in the Black Sea region (Civelek and Balkaya, 2013)

A number of cultivars exist including white flowering and dwarf forms (see https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/search-results?query=stachys%20byzantina):
‘Big Ears’ – leaves very large, up to 25 cm long.
‘Cotton Boll’ – a sterile cultivar that does not produce flowering stems. Asexually propagated.
‘Primrose Heron’ – leaves yellow in spring; flowers pink
‘Sheila Macqueen’ – sterile; low-growing; leaves large.
‘Silky Fleece’ – grows 25 cm tall with lilac-plum flowers, produce smaller white-woolly foliage. Seed propagated.
‘Silver Carpet’ – sterile; leaves grey. Asexually propagated.
‘Striped Phantom’ – leaves variegated.
There are other examples of plants that have travelled far before being adopted in another country far from home. Shungiku or chopsuey greens (Glebionis coronaria),is an important supermarket vegetable today in Japan, but there are only sparse records of use in the past in the Mediterranean countries where it originated. See https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=22710
A story says that the dish peixinhos da horta was introduced to Japan by Portuguese sailors Antonio da Mota, Francisco Zeimoto and Antonio Peixoto in the sixteenth century, where it was eventually developed into tempura: I wonder what plants were used at that time. Did our lamb’s ears make another long journey together with the recipe? In Japanese the plant is known as cotton chorogi. Chorogi is another edible in the Stachys genus, S. sieboldii, also known as the Chinese artichoke (see picture gallery of other edibles in the genus Stachys below).
I found at least one page Stachys byzantina, a largely ornamental plant also in Japan, is prepared with tempura – see https://ameblo.jp/eruma56/entry-11581777515.html (it notes, however, that this plant arrived in Japan in the early 20th century).
Stachys byzantina is also of value to many insects and hummingbirds (the latter in the Americas, of course), but in particular bees. The wool carder bee / storullbie (Anthidium manicatum) even collects the fuzz from the leaves, used in nest making in decayed wood. It has also been documented that bumble bees congregate early in the day to collect the water condensation that has accumulated on the leaves. This is therefore a multi-purpose plant, edible, nature friendly as well as ornamental, what I term an edi-ento-mental!

Anthidium manicatum by Bruce Marlin – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=662209

Here are pictures of  a few other plants in the genus Stachys

Civelek, C. and Balkaya, A. 2013. The nutrient content of some wild plant species used as vegetables in Bafra Plain located in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. The European J. Plant Science and Biotechnology.
Aguiar, T., Nues, A. and de Souza Damasceno, M., 2020. Unconventional food plants foud in Santa Catarina State: nutritional and therapeutic potential. Revista Eletrônica Científica Ensino Interdisciplinar. Mossoró, v.6, #18 (see http://dx.doi.org/10.21920/recei72020618731753)

Toad lilies: great edientomentals

 

Toad lilies (Tricyrtis sp.) are great edientomentals from the Far East; i.e. both food for us to eat (the edi bit), eye food (the mental bit ;) ) and food for the pollinators like bumble bees (the ento bit).
I’ve been meaning to try to research this genus properly for many years ever since I ate the young shoots 10 years ago (it tasted mild and good).  I’ve tried 10+ species over the years, but only the early flowering species thrive (Tricyrtis latifolia is I think the most successful of the two). Bumble bees love them too as can be seen in the video below!
Below the pictures is an overview of how different species Tricyrtis are used in Japan. It indicates that the flowers can also be used at least in moderation for decoration, so I must give it a go!

Blanched perennial veggies eaten on 14th May 2012 were dandelion, Crambe cordifolia , Cicerbita alpina, Lovage, Horseradish, Hosta, Sonchus arvensis, Allium tuberosum, Silene vulgaris, Heracleum maximum and Tricyrtis (latifolia)

Tricyrtis in the kitchen
All I have so far is that 6 or 7 species are listed in my comprehensive Japanese foraging book (in Japanese): Wild Food Lexicon (Japan) and this is what it says (there are no warnings of possible toxicity and it encourages the reader to get and grow a couple of the species):
Tricyrtis latifolia (Tamagawa hototogisu)
Eat young shoots. You can eat other types of Tricyrtis so don’t worry if you make a mistake. Rest assured. You can pick it even if the stems are long, you can pick the soft young shoots until they bloom.
Boil in hot water with a pinch of salt, then rinse in cold water. In boiled food, soup, tempura…
Tricyrtis macropoda
It can be eaten like Tamagawa hototogisu, but the ones with a lot of hairs have an inferior taste.
Tricyrtis macrantha
Boiled soup. For tempura etc. It has a crisp texture. Boil briefly, soak in cold water, boil, cut into small pieces and season with mustard. The young shoots are the most flavourful amongst the hototogisu.
Tricyrtis macranthopsis
Seedlings for cultivation are on the market. You can grow it and use it as food.
Around May, pick young shoots that grow diagonally. Even those with long stems can be eaten by picking the soft part at the tip of the stem.
Tricyrtis perfoliata
Young shoots are “hard”? in quality. Floating the flowers in the soup and enclosing them in jelly will make them beautiful. Get it, grow it and taste it!!

The first Udo photo shoot for 2024

Despite the record warm May here at 63.4N with temperatures up to 30C and drought like  conditions (forest fire warnings on the news every day), my now 23 year old udo (Aralia cordata) has grown away well, but perhaps not as vigorous as normal in cooler damper conditions which are the norm for May. Sadly, my California-udo (Aralia californica) which was in a much drier location seems to have died, although I have a clone in the World Garden at the Væres Venner Community Garden.
Thanks to KVANN member Nina Sandli who took the picture on a visit on 25th May!
More about my super vegetable in many blog posts, see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?s=udo
or read about it in my book Around the World in 80 plants!

Dandelions in pink, white and yellow

16th May 2024: Dandelions in white, pink and (self-sowed) yellow in the Asian part of the World Garden at the Væres Venner Community Garden in Trondheim. I planted both Taraxacum albidum, Taraxacum leucanthum and Taraxacum pseudoroseum in this part of the garden and suspect these are albidum and pseudoroseum but am not sure. Will post separate albums below showing detailed studies of the pink and white one in case anyone has a key to these (there are several white flowered dandelion species in Asia).

Botanical details of what I’m growing as Taraxacum pseudoroseum in the World Garden at the Væres Venner community garden in Trondheim:

Botanical details of what I’m growing as Taraxacum albidum in the World Garden at the Væres Venner community garden in Trondheim. Anyone have a key to this species?

Soba perennial veg stir-fry

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)




Snow onion salad

After yesterday’s video post about the snow onion (Allium humile) I had to make a snow onion lunchtime salad, so here it is; see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mOcQ4aUQVI
Ingredients below the pictures.



Allium humile
(snow onion; snøløk)Crambe maritima (sea kale; strandkål)
Primula veris (cowslip; marianøkleblom); 2 varieties
Allium paradoxum var paradoxum (few-flowered leek); bulbils (NB! DON’T PLANT AS IT IS VERY INVASIVE!)
Ligularia fischeri (gomchwi; Koreansk nøkketunge)
Taraxacum “Vert de Montmagny Ameliore”
Oenanthe javanica (seri)
Allium ovalifolium var. leuconervum
Allium schoenoprasum “Black Isle Blush” (chives; gressløk)
Rumex acetosa (sorrel; engsyre)
Hosta “Urui”
Allium ursinum (ramsons; ramsløk)
Myrrhis odorata (sweet cicely; Spansk kjørvel)
Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach; stjernemelde)
Claytonia virginiana (spring beauty)
Taraxacum tortilobum (moss-leaved dandelion; mosebladet løvetann)
Anethum graveolens (dill)
Coriandrum sativum (coriander; coriander)
Allium victorialis (victory onion; seiersløk)
Begonia heracleifolia
Brassica oleracea (perennial kale; flerårig kål)
Allium sativum (garlic; hvitløk) shoots of garlic grown as a perennial.

A video tour of the World Garden

A video tour on my youtube channel showing what’s emerging in The World Garden (Verdenshagen) at the Væres Venner Community Garden in Ranheim, Trondheim, Norway on 7th May 2024. I’ve planted some 160 perennial vegetables here (including mostfrom my book Around the World in 80 plants – signed copies can be ordered from me). The plants are arranged geographically around a 12m diameter circle with the mid-point representing the North Pole and the arctic regions of the world. The garden has been created with support from the KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) network Schubelers Hager (see https://kvann.no/schubeler). These are the plants I mention in this video:
Angelica archangelica “Vossakvann” (Voss Angelica)
Urtica (two stingless stinging nettles; brennløs brennesle)
Matteuccia struthiopteris (ostrich fern; strutseving)
Allium angulosum x nutans “Norrland Onion” (Norrlandsløk)
Allium victorialis (victory onion; seiersløk) from naturalised populations in the Lofoten Islands)
Rumex patientia (patience dock; hagesyre)
Artemisia dracunculus sativa “German” (German tarragon; Tysk estragon)
Polygonum bistorta (bistort; ormerot)
Cirsium eriophorum (wooly thistle; ulltistel)
Humulus lupulus “Aureus” (golden hops; gullhumle)
Cirsium oleraceum (cabbage thistle; kåltistel)
Levisticum officinale (lovage; løpstikke)
Allium x cornutum (St. Jansuien; Johannesløk)
Phyteuma spicatum and P. nigra (spiked rampion; vadderot)
Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach; stjernemelde)
Rumex acetosa “Champion” (sorrel; engsyre)
Allium stipitatum (Persian shallot; Persisk sjalott)
Allium pskemense x fistulosum “Wietse’s onion” (Wietsesløk)
Rhodiola rosea (roseroot; rosenrot)
Allium fistulosum “Takløk fra Gudbrandsdalen” (roof onion from the Gudbrandsdalen valley; old variety growing on turf roofs)
Arabis alpina (alpine rock cress; fjellskrinneblom)
Hemerocallis (day lilies; dagliljer)
Hosta
Ligularia fischeri “Cheju Charmer” (gomchwi; Koreansk nøkketunge)
Cryptotaenia japonica “Atropurpurea” (purple mitsuba)
Aralia cordata (udo)
Ligularia fischeri “Himalayan accession”
Allium senescens or nutans (or hybrid)
Arctium lappa (greater burdock; storborre)
Taraxacum pseudoroseum (pink flowered dandelion; rosablomstret løvetann)
Hemerocallis middendorfii
Secale cerale x montanum “Mountaineer” (perennial rye; flerårige rug)
Allium douglasii (Douglas’ onion; Douglas-løk)
Allium cernuum “Alan Kapuler” (nodding onion; prærieløk); wild collected by Kapuler on the coast of Oregon
Camassias
Allium cernuum “Major” (nodding onion; prærieløk)
Maianthemum racemosum “Emily Moody” (false spikenard; toppkonvall)
Oenanthe javanica (seri)
Sagittaria latifolia (wapato)
Urtica dioica subsp gracilis (California nettle)
Agastache foeniculum “Aureum” (golden anise hyssop; anisisop)
Hydrophyllum tenuipes (Pacific waterleaf)
Allium x proliferum “Catawissa” (walking onion; etasjeløk)
Rudbeckia laciniata “Hortensia” (cutleaf coneflower; gjerdesolhatt, Kyss-meg-over-gjerde)
Tradescantia occidentalis (prairie spiderwort)
Crambe maritima (sea kale; strandkål)

The Full Gap

I used to call it the Hungry Gap (Vårknipen), but transitioning to a large proportion of perennials this is the time I now call the Full Gap! The vegetables were quickly stir-fried in olive oil and added to a 100% whole grain rye, emmer and spelt quiche (eggepai).
These were the veggies I harvested for last night’s dinner (names below). Taraxacum sp.  dandelion / løvetann
Hablitzia tamnoides  Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde
Cichorium intybus chicory / sikkori (2 cellar forced Witloof type cultivars, one purple leaved, the other green)
Allium cernuum nodding onion / prærieløk
Allium fistulosum  Welsh onion / pipeløk
Allium x proliferum  walking onion / luftløk
Allium paradoxum One flowered leek
Dystaenia takesimana  Seombadi;  giant Korean celery / Ulleung kjempeselleri
Allium sativum  garlic / hvitløk (shoot from a stand grown as a perennial)
Aegopodium podograria  ground elder / skvallerkål
Hemerocallis middendorfii
Campanula latifolia 
giant bellflower / storklokke
Allium ochotense oriental victory onion / orientalsk seiersløk
Myrrhis odorata  sweet cicely / Spansk kjørvel
Allium hymenorrhizum



Hablitzia beginnings

If I’m asked what my favourite perennial vegetable is, I will struggle to only mention one (I wrote a book about my 80 favourites after all), but the one I will mention most frequently is the Caucasian spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides) as it has an interesting history, it was discovered as an edible plant in Scandinavia and remained a closely kept secret here until the 2000s, it provides the first spring greens together with various Alliums , its productive and probably grows best in cold climates!
This video describes how I discovered this amazing vegetable and its history in Scandinavia and in particular the role Swedish author Lena Israelsson played!
The video can be seen here: HABLITZIA BEGINNINGS