My host Bente Brenna in Valdres Sopp og Nyttevekstforbund rents out rooms on her property right in the middle of Fagernes! Her garden contains a nice collection of Edimentals including Angelia archangelica (kvann)…one of which had the characters of Vossakvann (filled stems)
I stayed in the flat on the ground floor…
Lilies and an unusual looking rhubarb with lovage (løpstikke) and horseradish (pepperrot) behind
I was surprised to find Allium cernuum (Nodding onion / prærieløk) in a bed…until she reminded me that she had been part of the Grønttreff in my garden last summer: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=5149
Hops / humle
Hops / humle
On the way up to the mountain area, Vaset where I would give my talk, we stopped off in this old garden (we had been given permission to visit the garden to look for edimentals after my talk if it was interesting enough…
Hops also here. In Norway, in the year 940 the Frostatingsloven (one of Norway’s oldest laws) made it illegal to steal hops or apples! In the Middle Ages and until the mid-18th century farm owners had to cultivate a certain amount of hops. Hops were primarily used for beer brewing, but also medicinally! For this reason, there are many old hop plants in Norway and it has also naturalised in woods in some places!
Angelica and hops
Stabbur or food store
Arriving at Skikroa (the skiing cafe) where the talk was to be held!
View from skikroa…there are many cabins in this area!
There was a festival the same weekend at Vaset and the local useful plant society had arranged a fungal foray (not much to find though as it had been so dry)
On the way back down to visit another garden with the course participants!
Hosta and ostrich fern (strutseving) near the garden entrance…a new garden with “ornamentals”, vegetables and herbs!
A bracket fungus / kjuke
Day lily / daglilje
Ligularia (The Rocket?), but probably not a good edible variety
Meum athamaticum (spignel meu/ bjørnerot) is a very common hardy herb in Norwegian gardens
Catawissa onion? Etasjeløk…
The garden owner..
Hardnecked garlic introduced by local man Anders Nordrum (see datsja.no) was also growing in Bente’s garden!
Parsnip and pastinakk grow well here
Utilising the space on a rocky slope to growing veggies
View from the garden
..and hops here too!
We popped in to Bente’s CSA (andelsbruk) to collect some veggies for dinner
A polish family were growing broad beans
Before I took the bus to Voss, I did a little cultural walk near the centre of town
Fruit leather is a quick way to preserve a surplus of fruit. I neither use sugar nor Stevia and don’t have a freezer (by choice), so I dry a lot of fruit from the garden and nature . I had too many raspberries in the garden and also bilberries picked the other week in Hurdal. I just boiled and crushed the fruit with a little water and then poured it as a thin layer into an oven tray and dried at about 50C in an oven for a few hours! This is much quicker than drying the whole berries. The leather can then be kept in a cool dry place for several years. Delicious as a goody to offer visitors!
I used an old red raspberry, originally from the old railway station garden in Malvik, an old Norwegian yellow raspberry and “White Russian” (yellow with a white blush):
I usually train the plants up into the trees , but I’ve let them do their own thing this year. One plant has climbed up a hogweed (bjørnekjeks) and then on up high into the birch tree, others have just clambered around on the ground…
I noticed this great tit (kjøttmeis) vigorously hacking at a hogweed (Heracleum) stem in the garden, presumably looking for dinner…the picture shows the result
100% coarse organic rye and emmer pie crust (flour and butter) kneeded into the pie dish (not rolled out), then a layer of blue cheese, then mixed vegetables and the rest of yesterday’s chantarelles, hedgehog fungi and Russula….and then filled with egg/milk/oregano mix and finished off with Mallow flowers which retain some of their colour at the end!
Greens: Allium fistulosum (spring onions), swiss chard, ground elder, nettle
I always thought that thrushes like fieldfares / gråtrost and starlings / stær “shared” the most saskatoon berries (Amelanchier spp.) in my garden, but now I have to rethink as I noticed and filmed both blue tits / blåmeis and greenfinches / grønnfink eating the berries today, the blue tits taking the fruit whilst the greenfinches were eating the seed…
I love the taste of saskatoons both fresh and in particular dried, tasty but not too sweet! However, I think I’ll leave the rest to the birds (not too good a crop this year anyway)…
For a change I cycled to the shops at Sveberg rather than cycling to town…this also gave me the opportunity to check out the fungi in the woods…
The route involves a notorious climb up Vuluvegen. I haven’t cycled this for some years and having hardly cycled since I retired at the end of April, I wondered how it would be, but I’m pleased to note that it was pretty easy :) …and it took me about 35 minutes, so shorter than going to town but more strenuous!
Almost at the top of Vuluvegen….familiar Thomas Thomassen? Robin Arne Barstow? Avellana Wood
At the top!
View from the top of Vuuvegen over Malvik and my house :)
Into the woods…
Just a few minutes into the woods and there were a lot of young chantarelles (kantarell) on the way up…a good sign as it’s not often I find them this quickly…there were also a few hedgehog fungi (piggsopp)
…and a few chantarelles big enough to pick too
Cortinarius spp. (slørsopper)
Cortinarius spp. (slørsopper)
Russula spp.
Apricot Jelly / Traktgelesopp – Guepinia helvelloides – is apparently edible; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guepinia
Brunsskrubb (birch bolete)? Leccinum scabrum
Rødskrubb (orange birch bolete)?
Lactarius spp. (hulriske?)
Russula spp. (mild tasting, hence edible)
Russula spp. (mild tasting, hence edible)
Alpine bistort / harerug
Back down Vuluvegen, lots of Angelica sylvestris (wood Angelica / sløke) on the verge
…and some with reddish inflorescenses
Flower buds and stems are the tastiest, but I didn’t pick as it’s next to the road
A small but tasty catch and the season has started!
…for an omelette for dinner with spring onions, Scorzonera flower shoots and buds and Malva moschata leaves and garlic…
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
