I was invited to the opening of a new edimental bed at Incredible Edible Todmorden (West Yorkshire) in September, but sadly couldn’t make it :( It was designed by a landscape gardener from Harrogate as part of her university degree course! The task was to make a totally edimental bed!!
I certainly didn’t think I would make a blog post with this name today! This is possibly my strangest post ever….
To explain, I was cleaning and packing seed in the garden today (a beautiful sunny day here) and I noticed that the seed of an Allium I’d just cleaned seemed a bit “nervous” or jumpy, jumping as soon as I touched them! They don’t have an English name, they are simply Allium ovalifolium var leucoNERVUM….. I decided to film this strange phenomenon (see the video below)…..and at about 1 minute my friend the wren decided he wanted to be part of the action and starts to call next to me (see also yesterday’s wren film)…and then at the end my neighbour can be heard calling me, unaware of the drama going on….wanting to know if I wanted some hen (not wren) manure…..let me know what you think?
Yesterday I had a walk in the steep north facing woods east of Malvikbakk only 5 minutes by bike from home. I’d found a lot of edible fungi here on my last visit a month ago when we had a mini-drought (north slopes dry up last). It’s still very dry in the fungisphere despite recent rains and there’s not much winter chanterelle (traktkantarell) in the woods… No luck this time, but good to be in the woods for 2-3 hours….
Sugar Magnolia pea (purple sugar snap pea from Alan Kapuler)
Sugar Magnolia pea (purple sugar snap pea from Alan Kapuler)
Rumex sanguineus
Allium victorialis Ex-Røst
Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum)
Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum)
Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum)
Ligularia fischeri
Ligularia fischeri
Ligularia fischeri
Agastache (Anise Hyssop)
Agastache (Anise Hyssop)
Allium wallichii
Allium wallichii
Silene vulgaris “Rosea”
Campanula cervicaria
Campanula cervicaria
Cirsium eriophorum (with larva)
Zizia aurea
Prenanthes purpurea
Oplopanax horridus
Crambe orientalis….not many seed…
Angelica gigas
Sanguisorba stipulata
Allium macranthum
Allium macranthum
Valeriana officinalis
Tricyrtis (toad lily)
Tricyrtis (toad lily)
Allium narcissiflorum
Allium narcissiflorum
Allium angulosom
Sonchus palustris
Ragged Jack Kale
Ragged Jack Kale
Clintonia borealis seed
Clintonia borealis berries
Phyteuma orbiculare
Phyteuma orbiculare
Taraxacum rubifolium (red-leaved dandelion)
Phlomis tuberosa
Polygonum divaricatum
Allium “Purple Sensation”
Allium “Purple Sensation”
Parasenecio maximowiczianum
Allium schoenoprasum “Black Isle Blush” (chives)
Dianthus deltoides “Albus”
Allium insubricum
Allium insubricum
Sonchus kirkii
Chaerophyllum bulbosum (Turnip-rooted chervil)
Allium nutans “Broad Leaved”
Seed of “invasive” Himalayan Balsam / Kjempespringfrø (Impatiens glandulifera) will be used on winter baked dishes!
Uncleaned Quinoa “Stephe”
Good quinoa seed sinks in water whereas the chaff floats, an easy way to clean the seed, just dry the seed quickly afterwards
Cleaned Quinoa seed
…but not all the seed sank and some remained in the chaff. Afer 2 days in the damp chaff, they were germinating. Therefore I planted them in a large pot chaff and all,covering afterwards with a thin layer of sterilised soil….this will hopefully give me quinoa microgreens in a week or two!
081117: Rumex patientia (patience dock / hagesyre)
Sambucus nigra “Samyl” is a new Danish variety of elderberry / svarthyll. It is very productive, the earliest elderberry I’ve grown (they are marginal here), hardy and it has large berries and large umbels of flowers…
I’ll be offering hardwood cuttings to members of Norwegian Seed Savers (Kvann) this winter (to be a member go to http://kvann.org and click on “Bli medlem”!
Begonia flowers are edible and taste sour. The leaf stalks of some species have also been eaten.
This Begonia was given to me by Grennessminde nursery just outside of Copenhagen. They don’t know what species it is, but it’s a real beauty and stays in flower for a long time…a great indoors Edimental!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden