Here is my report from the second permaveggies / foraging weekend on the wonderful arctic island Skomvær outermost in the Lofoten Islands off north west Norway. I spent an amazing couple of days here in June 2014 with some lovely people!
Foraging on land and for seaweed, wonderful wild food, warm weather, Tai Chi, Permaculture, arctic swimming, 5 Eagles soaring above us, the sunsets, inquisitive seals, lighthouse tour, the historical rose garden and much much more…………..
Please let me know if you’d be interested in joining us in 2017 (it’s not confirmed yet)…
This album appeared originally on FB: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152397484675860.1073742076.655215859&type=1&l=f6a7c2e28e
Puffins / Lunde
Puffins / Lunde
Foraging on Skomvær
Elin gives a guided tour of the lighthouse.
Inquisitive seal
Midnight sun, taken 1 minute after midnight :)
23 species salad made for yesterday’s lunch including seaweed and endemic dandelions… :)
Eider duck / Ærfugl creche
Angelica sylvestris / Sløke roots were very tasty..
Eider / Ærfugl
Chickweed / Vassarve sprouts growing on mass just above the washed up seaweed, used in the salad… :)
Sukkertare (Sea Belt), Fingertare (Oarweed) and Grisetang (Norwegian Kelp), all edible species…
Rhubarb, the only survivor in the old lighthouse keepers garden…Røst Artist In Residence are creating a new garden out here, based on permaculture principles
The site of an old Rose garden…..
Returning from the seaweed harvest…
Anyone know what seaweed this is?
Mertensia maritima / Oyster plant / Østersurt
Black Guillemots / Teist
Eider Ducks / Ærfugl
Wood Cranesbill / Skogstorkenebb, the year’s first flowers here
Red Campion / Jonsokblom came in various different colour variants
Great black-backed gulls / Svartbak
Bird’s foot trefoil / tiriltunge
Cornus suecica with white bracts
Cornus suecica with yellow bracts
Cow parsley / hundekjeks
Violetti….
Eagle / Havørn and Hooded Crow / kråke
Our secluded bathing beach…
Rumex crispa
Rumex crispa
Sea plantain / strandkjempe
Anyone know what this seaside plant is?
Elin forages scurvy-grass / skjørbuksurt flowers
Foraging scurvy-grass / skjørbuksurt flowers
Foraging scurvy-grass / skjørbuksurt flowers
Norwegian coral
Shellsand beach
Mass germination of chickweed / vassarve on the beach
Washing up using tidal power….
Coral and Atriplex spp.
Eiderdown – an eagle / havørn had taken this unlucky bird…
Angelica archangelica
Seaweed washed up high in a winters storm
Thongweed, sea thong or sea spaghetti / remtang
Fingertare / Oarweed, one of the species harvested for alginates
Thongweed, sea thong or sea spaghetti / remtang
Fisherwoman
Dabberlocks, badderlocks or winged kelp /butare
Thongweed, sea thong or sea spaghetti / remtang. these structures which fix the seaweed to the substrate are called green sea beans / grønne bønner fra havet and we used them in salad
Greylag geese / grågås, a common breeding bird
Røst
Røst
Shags / Toppskarv
The green rectangle in the centre is the sight of an old rose garden…Elin Sunshine Vister knows the details…
I wonder what the circular green area in the centre of the picture was?
The first magical long weekend on the island Skomvær outermost in the Lofoten Islands. I was contributing at a permaculture / wild food workshop there in August 2013, the first of two (so far)!!
I hope we can arrange a third weekend here in 2017…please let me know if you’re interested :)
The following album was originally posted on Facebook here:
Angelica sylvestris / Sløke young flower umbels makes an excellent broccoli-like vegetable, steamed and with some garlic, chili and with some oil or butter. Slightly bitter, but not unpleasantly so!
Angelica sylvestris / Sløke yound flower umbels makes an excellent broccoli-like vegetable
Oyster plant/Østersurt, Mertensia maritima
Plantago maritima
Cochlearia seedlings
Plantago maritima
In the background the sea is steaming with mackerel, abundant around the island
Young Great Black-back /Svartbak
Young Great Black-back /Svartbak
Magical evening
Eirik!
Tern
Chickweed / Stellaria media, the only patch I found
Chickweed / Stellaria media
Notice that the Oyster plant was infested with black aphids!!!!
The evening salad with about 25 species, about 80% of the edible green plants on the island – the red is Cornus suecica – prepared under candlelight as we lost power that evening again and didn’t get it back the rest of the weekend…
Rumex longifolius / Høymole / Northern Dock indicates nutrient charged soil from earlier times
Angelica sylvestris and Vicia cracca
There were mats of Eyebright / Øyentrøst on the island, here with Strandkjeks / Scots Lovage
We were without electricity after the aggregated failed, just gas for cooking….So, what to do when there were only coffee beans, how would we survive 2 days without coffee? Eirik Lillebøe Wiken had the solution.
Large clump of Rumex acetosa
Another indicator of earlier cultivation is Anthriscus sylvestris / Cow Parsley / Hundekjeks
Anthriscus sylvestris / Cow Parsley / Hundekjeks
New cultivation
One of us was fishing and two killer whales (spekkhogger) swam right past within only a few metres! She ran back to tell us and we went up to the top of the top of the lighthouse to look for them, but all we saw was the fantastic view
View from Skomvær Lighthouse
View from Skomvær Lighthouse
Bird islands seen from Skomvær Lighthouse
View from Skomvær Lighthouse
View from Skomvær Lighthouse – flower heads of Angelica sylvestris / Sløke can be seen scattered around
View from Skomvær Lighthouse with flower heads of Angelica sylvestris / Sløke
View from Skomvær Lighthouse – flower heads of Angelica sylvestris / Sløke can be seen scattered around
Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and son
Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and son
View from Skomvær Lighthouse
View from Skomvær Lighthouse
View from Skomvær Lighthouse
Sun reflections in the lighthouse
Setting sun from Skomvær Lighthouse
Setting sun from Skomvær Lighthou
Magical sunset from Skomvær Lighthouse
What weird ceremony is this?
What weird ceremony is this?
What’s happening here?
What’s happening here?
The wind picked up and waves broke on the skerries. At one point I gave a short course on ocean waves
Dwarf Cornel / Skrubbær (Cornus suecica) is really not as bad as its reputation. It’s mild tasting but I think it’s pretty good and anyway we had no choice apart from Empetrum nigrum
The green “broccolis” of Angelica sylvestris were gourmet food for us, served with a cheese sauce..
This is the channel to the island’s landing place. It was pretty rough here on the Sunday and we wondered if it would be possible to get picked up on Monday morning
The landing channel
Dwarf Cornel / Skrubbær (Cornus suecica)
Dwarf Cornel / Skrubbær (Cornus suecica)
Making Angelica flutes with Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Svendsen jr.
Making Angelica flutes with Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Svendsen jr.
Making Angelica flutes with Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Svendsen jr.
Making Angelica flutes with Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Svendsen jr.
Angelica flute with Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Svendsen jr.
The Skomvær Angelica orchestra – see also the world premier video soon to be released…
Wonderful tasty seaweed dish was presented
Wonderful tasty seaweed dish was presented
On the way to forage more seaweed for dinner
Empetrum nigrum / Krekling / Black Crowberry seems to be spreading on the island with several large spreading patches
Empetrum nigrum / Krekling / Black Crowberry
Was this building used for smoking fish or distilling?
Landing ramp
About 20 seals were resting on the rocks
Limpet / Albusnegl
Limpet / Albusnegl
Limpet / Albusnegl
Gathering seaweed
Limpet / Albusnegl. Anyone know what these round brown structures are?
Gentianella campestris / Bakkesøte / Field Gentian
Gentianella campestris / Bakkesøte / Field Gentian
Potentilla anserina / Silverweed / Gåsemure growing in brackish water
Roots of Potentilla anserina / Silverweed / Gåsemure were earlier used as food both in Norway, Scotland and North America but it’s a lot of work…
Roots of Potentilla anserina / Silverweed / Gåsemure were earlier used as food both in Norway, Scotland and North America but it’s a lot of work…
Eyebright / Øyentrøst
Young Scots Lovage / Strandkjeks plants
Young Black Guillemot…
Young Black Guillemot…
Young Black Guillemot…
Black Guillemot nests are in holes under rocks like here
The second small colony of Angelica archangelica we found
Caltha palustris / Marsh Marigold / Soleihov , Bekkeblom – we found just this one small group
No, Hazel Hannah Barstow, my beard did not fall into my lunch….
Atriplex species (tangmelde?), the only plants I found
The stands of Eyebright / Øyentrøst were amazing
Sea Mayweed / Strandbalderbrå
Scots Lovage / Strandkjeks cleavage
Silene dioica
Empetrum nigrum
A trip to the southernmost part of the island
The landing
The second find of Oysterplant / Østersurt
The only cleavers /klengemaure plant we found
Sagina procumbens / Birdeye pearlwort / Tunsmåarve is also a weed in my garden
Rhinanthus minor / Yellow Rattle / Småengkall
My last sunrise on Skomvær for some time from my bedroom
My last sunrise on Skomvær for some time from my bedroom
Rescue
Seals on Skomvær
Fuglfjell / Bird Island – one of the islands with large numbers of puffins / lundefugl. There used to be almost 1.5 million pairs but there hasn’t been really successful breeding for years
The document below is in Norwegian but contains many pictures from my first visit to Vestvågøy in the Lofoten Islands to see the stands of naturalised victory onion (seiersløk), Allium victorialis, including a harvesting trip with Judith van Koesveld (she and her partner Christoph produce a local pesto from the plants). The document also contains an account of a visit to Brynhild Mørkved at the botanical gardens in Tromsø to see the collection of Allium victorialis accessions from different parts of this onion’s extensive range (from the Pyrenees to Japan). Plants vary quite a lot in their form. Finally, I visited Geir Flatabø in Ulvik (Hardanger) in south west Norway and he showed me the large naturalised stand of this plant next to the Granvin river. There are also a few pictures from a collection of heritage ornamentals at the Lofotmuseet and from a visit to a once great but now derelict garden at Finneset (Steinhagen). All pictures were taken in June 2009.
