Seed from Korea

Many thanks to my friend Misoni Sandvik for sending me some more seed on her recent visit to Korea….
Misoni figures in both Aster scaber and Bunias orientalis stories in my book Around the World in 80 plants!
See http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?tag=misoni-sandvik

From left to right in the picture udo (Aralia cordata), Angelica acutiloba, Cirsium setidens and udo (Aralia cordata) again!

 

Bygdø Kongsgårds Mangfoldsalat

Thank you Marianne Leisner​ for inviting me to Gartneriet (literally, the plant nursery) to pick and tell about the ingredients in Bygdø Kongsgårds Mangfoldsalat (the Bygdøy Royal Diversity Salad)! Another lovely evening with lovely people grooving with veggies!
I was very impressed by your Allium tuberosum bed!!

Edibles in Bergen’s Muséhagen

I spent a couple of hours in Muséhagen (the old botanical garden) in the centre of Bergen before taking the train to Oslo on Sunday and spent the time edimentals spotting amongst all the sun-worshippers, a strange experience in a town best known for its rain…

Sweet cicely (spansk kjørvel) is a “noxious weed ” (svartelistet), but also one of the best edible introductions to our flora, only invasive as we eat too little of it ;)

Hostas 

Perennial vegetable course at Landås

The main reason for my visit to Bergen was the Saturday course on perennial vegetables for the organisation Bærekraftig Liv (literally Sustainable Living). We had perfect weather for the day which started with a beginners course followed by foraging around the garden of Landås hovedgård (lysthus), a historical building where Edvard Grieg spent much of his youth! The afternoon session was my normal Around the World talk. Bærekraftig Liv have a long term lease here in collaboration with Bergen kommune where the gardens and house will be restored! https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land%C3%A5s_hovedg%C3%A5rd
A great mixed crowd of folk turned up and, yes, I’d love to come back next year!
Perennials can be a partial solution to the problem that Bergen has with the Iberian slug (brunsnegl) which disillusions many new vegetable gardeners in Bergen!

Food forest at Landås in Bergen

Landås  matskog (food forest) is situated under Mount Ulriken in Bergen, Norway. The area was until just a few years ago spruce forest, but when it was felled, an agreement was struck with the kommune in 2013 for the organisation Bærekraftig Liv (literally, Sustainable Living) to develop the area as a food forest (matskog). I have long wanted to visit, so was happy to finally get to  spend a day there with food forest enthusiasts Lars Ove Kvalbein, Benedicte Brun and others during my May 2018 visit to Bergen to give a course for Bærekraftig Liv!

More Fast Slow Food

Fast Slow Food: From garden to table in 20 minutes or less…
As related in my book and my talks over the years, some of the best food is in this category and one common way of using wild and garden veggies in the Mediterranean countries is simply to gather a selection of greens, boil and fry in olive oil with garlic and chili, mix with scrambled eggs. Two of the wild foraged species mentioned at the beginning of the Mediterranean chapter are
a) Clematis vitalba (Old man’s beard / Tyskklematis)….must be boiled to detoxify as it’s related to buttercups (smørblomst)
b) Anchusa azurea (large blue alkanet): quote from the book “Anchusa azurea is a perfect perennial edimental with superb azure-blue flowers in summer. Young leaves and flowering shoots of this species and others in the same family have been gathered from the wild in most Mediterranean countries. In Cyprus, for example, they were boiled alone, boiled with beans or fried. Like its annual cousin borage, Borago officinalis, the flowers are an attractive addition to salads or just freeze them in ice-cubes.”