I didn’t know if I could make a salad just with ingredients you can buy in the supermarket (but all home grown of course!), but last week I DID IT when I had a family visit!!
The picture of me looking cool and conventional with my favourite grandson Johannes was taken by favourite son Robin (yes, I have one of each)
Category Archives: Food
Sochan and Moly scrambled egg Meditteranean style
Lunch today was inspired by the Mediterranean diet – simple with masses of greens, but with an international twist: Cherokee spinach (top shoots of sochan – Rudbeckia laciniata / kyss-meg-over-gjerde), nettles (nesle), shallots (sjalott) harvested and stored since October, greater musk mallow (rosekattost) (Malva alcea), day lilies (dagliljer) flower buds, sand leek (bendelløk) (Allium scorodoprasum) and nodding onion / prærieløk (Allium cernuum) flowers. Added wild oregano (Origanum vulgare), dried orange milkcap / Granmatrisken (Lactarius deterrimus) and home grown chili salt a la “Are Sende Osen” (a gift during his visit this week), served with Allium moly flowers (from the mountains of Spain).
Saint John’s Eve Felafels
Yesterday was St. John’s Eve and many Norwegians (and other Scandinavians) celebrated what is known here as Sankthans or Jonsok with communal bonfires, the big midsummer celebration. Sankt Hans is a short form of Sankt Johannes. There is a special perennial onion which was traditionally harvested on this day in the Netherlands, which I believe to have a much large potential than its current status as a local food crop, as it is so much easier to grow, in particular in areas increasingly suffering from summer droughts and water shortages and avoids common pests of onions and shallots by its early growth and perhaps also resistance. If nothing else, it complements shallots and onions in that it is available much earlier in the year!
There is genetic evidence that St. John’s onion (Johannes-løk) has a unique triparental origin A. × cornutum with three putative parental species, A. cepa, A. pskemense, and A. roylei. Hardiness is probably bestowed by hardy Allium pskemense which has been growing in the Ringve Botanical Gardens in Trondheim for many years. A similar hybrid has been found both in Germany, Croatia and India. It was perhaps more widely cultivated in the past and these are just remnant populations. On 21st June I harvested the Croatian accession from the Onion Garden Chicago at the Ringve Botanical garden which had been left for two years resulting in hundreds of tightly packed onions and on 22nd June from the World Garden at the Væres Venner Community Garden. I replanted in both gardens single bulbs separated by about 10cm. in a roughly circular patch.
Last night, St. John’s Eve, I started a vegetarian midsummer tradition by making St. John’s Felafels with dried broad beans stored since the autumn and golpar spice (from dried seeds of a mix of Heracleum sp.).
See more about Johannes’ shallot at https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=22601
Perennial Pakora day
On Wednesday (12th June 2024) we made indian pakora with a diversity of perennial veg straight from the garden, served with home grown cilantro raita (yogurt). I usually fry the individual greens independently, this time they were mixed! Delicious!
St George’s Asparagus stir-fry
The St. George’s mushrooms (vårfagerhatt) come up every year under the old birch tree next to my sitting place in the garden. They weren’t really growing much more in the heat and drought, so they were harvested for a little lunch stir-fry with fresh asparagus and the last of the heirloom shallots (Finland) from storage.
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)
Lunchtime 2nd May Salad
We’re experiencing a bit of a heat wave here at the moment with high pressure, clear skies and temperatures close to 20C. The growth of my perennial veg is extraodinary for the time of year. I made this salad for lunch with a little of everything I found in a 5-10 minute garden forage with a few things from the cellar and living room!
The 37 plants in the salad are listed below the pictures!
SALAD PLANT LIST
Allium paradoxum var paradoxum (few flowered leek); flower stems
Primula denticulata
Claytonia virginiana (spring beauty)
Carum carvi (caraway; karve)
Lepidium sativum “Kandahar” (cress; karse)
Coriandrum sativum (coriander; koriander)
Aegopodium podograria (ground elder; skvallerkål)
Oxalis triangularis; flowers
Primula vulgaris (primrose; kusymre); flowers
Primula elatior (oxlip; hagenøkleblom)
Allium hymenorhizum
Allium cernuum (nodding onion; prærieløk)
Allium nutans
Allium senescens
Allium victorialis (victory onion; seiersløk)
Allium ursinum (ramsons; ramsløk)
Crambe maritima (sea kale; strandkål)
Allium scorodoprsum (sand leek; bendelløk)
Daucus carota (carrot; gulrot)
Allium sativum (garlic; hvitløk)
Anethum graveolens (dill)
Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower; storklokke)
Taraxacum sp. (dandelion; løvetann)
Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach; stjernemelde)
Cichorium intybus “Witloof” (chicory; sikori)
Scorzonera hispanica (scorzonera; scorsonnerot)
Allium schoenoprasum (chives; gressløk)
Rumex acetosa (sorrel; engsyre)
Allium carinatum “Pulchellum”
Allium angulosum
Cichorium intybus “Festive F1”
Hosta fortunei “Albopicta Aurea”
Taraxacum tortilobum (moss-leaved dandelion; mosebladet løvetann)
Allium zebdanense
Allium validum (Pacific onion; stillehavsløk)
Ligularia fischeri (gomchwi; Fischersnøkketunge)
Oxalis acetosella “Rosea” ; blomst
MAC 69 ONION CHEESE
Thanks everyone for all the birthday greetings! I spent my 69th by visiting the Onion Garden Chicago that I look after at the Ringve Botanical Garden, worked for an hour and harvested leaves from 69 different Alliums as one does, surprised my daughter by meeting her off the bus from Oslo and then had a lovely evening with Mac 69 Onion Cheese with Hablitzia tamnoides washed down with a few glasses, my first birthday as a Norwegian citizen 🙂
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
Runner Bean Falafels
After many years of trying, I managed to get a decent crop of dried runner beans / løpebønner* (Phaseolus coccineus). My own garden is a bit too cold due to the shady conditions on a rather windy spot. Last year I grew a selection of 15-20 early varieties sourced from the German gene bank IPK Gatersleben and commercial suppliers which I grew successfully in the sunnier community garden (Væres Venner).
They were made into delicious falafels, accompanied by living room grown Kandahar cress (karse) and wild buckwheat / vill bokhvete and turned into gourmet food with a couple of dandelion flowers from the windowsill!
*In Norwegian, these beans are known usually as blomsterbønner (flower beans) and most often used as an ornamental. I prefer to call them løpebønner to better reflect that these are much more than an ornamental!