My lovely daughter Corylus avellana is home again and I made this salad for her with a tomato called Moonglow, grown in her old bedroom in the loft, so it had to be a moonglow salad :)
Waxing crescent moonglow salad
Monthly Archives: October 2016
Stussvik and Vidar Rune Synnevåg
On my way from Hardanger (Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Svendsen) to my walk and talk in Bergen in September 2016, I had a great evening with my friend Vidar-Rune Synnevåg. He is one of the most important figures in the organic movement here in Norway from the early 1970s, working towards self-sufficiency, organic farming as well as being a skilled house architect and boat builder. As a young man, he worked towards an alternative future from the early days through talks, articles, books and TV and radio appearances! A great inspiration for many of us here in Norway! And he is working just as hard today towards a better future, including as leader of the board until recently of the (formerly the Nordic Peace Academy).
See the opening talk he gave 2 years ago (in Norwegian) https://www.facebook.com/
See more from my last visit two years ago here
http://www.edimentals.com/
http://www.edimentals.com/
See pictures from Vidar-Rune’s place and dinner with “neighbours” Veronica and Dag Kyrre Lygre and garden visit chez Aase Kristensen
Malabar spinach in my bedroom….
I have Malabar spinach (also known as Ceylon spinach or just Basella), a vigorous climbing spinach which isn’t hardy outside here, but grows very well and sets seed every years in an unheated bedroom, this year in my bedroom…should I be worried it might strangle me in its sleep?
It’s in the Basellaceae alongside Madeira Vine (Anredera cordifolia) and Ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus), both of which have both edible tubers and leaves… I actually included all 3 of these in Xmas dinner one year (picture below) :)
Malabar spinach can be harvested here – I usually take a few leaves and mix with other greens – from August right into the depths of winter, a great winter leafy green house plant! This year I have both green (Basella alba) and red-stemmed (Basella alba “Rubra”) varieties growing alongside each other…
I presume that Malabar is the area of southern India where it’s a popular vegetable and I look forward to making Malabar bhaji next time I make an Indian meal!
On she who wrote Jade Balls and Alien Pearls….
Emma “the unconventional ethnobotanist” Cooper has been a favourite blogger in the realm of unusual vegetables for some time and has referenced this my little blog edimentals.com, on several occasions for which I’m deeply grateful <3
So, it was about time I returned the favour….
Emma has for a year now been tendrilling the big wide Internet for vegetable snippets to interest us, in her own words “Tendrils are my (ir)regular round-ups of the intriguing, plant-related goodness I find elsewhere on the interwebs. It’s my gift to you of a weekend of entertaining reading”.. (follow the link to be entertained: http://theunconventionalgardener.com/blog/tendrils-160930 and search for tendrils for more of the same, well different…)
I’d encourage you to have a look, you won’t regret it..and she even mentions my “Many uses of Udo” article in the current issue…
Emma is also author of a book with an intriguing title “Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs: Unusual People and their Plants” or something like that, featuring a rogues gallery of the vegetable growers world amongst which yours truly features.
Thank you Emma Cooper……
Allium wallichii seed harvest
Illustrating the beauty of this plant even in fruit in early October and the large differences of different accessions of the same species..
Long cycle forage to the shops
As I was working from home yesterday and not doing my normal bike ride, I decided to do a longer ride over the hills to the post office to pick up the Japanese seeds (different post)…I arrived home 3 hours later with a haul of, mostly, winter chantarelles / traktkantarell….I just couldn’t not pick them when I saw them :( Guess what I’ll be doing tonight :)
Clearfell / Flatehogst
In my local area, a disproportionate large area of forest has been clear-felled recently, a practice we need to stop if we are to take climate change seriously as this releases much carbon dioxide. It was sickening to see just how large an area has been felled in recent years in this series of photos taken recently on a flight to Oslo. The usual excuse given is that a lot of trees have fallen in recent extreme storms and need to be “cleared” up. And what is causing these storms? A vicious circle in other words…
See my blog post about our recent field trip to discuss these problems here: http://www.edimentals.com/
Seed of edibles from Japan
The autumn’s first seed order has arrived…new edibles from Japan to be sown soon :)
Can Greek Mountain Tea be effective against Alzheimers?
I don’t blog often about medicinal plants, but an interesting research paper from Oslo on the treatment of Alzheimers with herbal medicine has been published, and it’s an old favourite here in Malvik, Sideritis syriaca (Greek Mountain Tea) (actually two closely related species were used!). The research was carried out by a professor at the University of Oslo to test whether the traditional use of these herbs in the Balkan Peninsular to prevent age-related cognitive problems in elderly might have a real effect!
Se http://pahnkelab.eu
Previous articles on Greek Mountain Tea can be found on my blog here: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?s=sideritis
Previous articles on Greek Mountain Tea can be found on my blog here: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?s=sideritis