Broad bean (fava) pakora


A little over a year ago we made pakora (Indian fried vegetables) with 65 perennial vegetables to celebrate my 65th birthday (see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=25405)
I made the following comment: “Just wish I’d had broad / fava bean (bondebønne) flour available for the pakoras rather than gram flour (chick peas)…next time I hope :)”
Well, my wish came true and a Swedish guy kindly sent me a packet (sorry, I forget your name, but I think he produces this great slow food product; see http://svensk-fava.se). 
(I don’t have the equipment to grind my own broad beans). So here you are. The album below shows the flour,  the pakora mixture, the 30 veggies used (list at the bottom) and the final delicious product, a dream come true, something I’ve wanted to make and talked about for years!!

The veggies:
Ostrich fern / strutseving (Matteuccia struthiopteris)
Horseradish / pepperrot (Armoracia rusticana) – blanched
Stinging nettle / brennesle (Urtica dioica)
Topset onion / luftløk (Allium x proliferum)
Common wintercress / vinterkarse (Barbarea vulgaris)
Giant ulleung celery / kjempe ulleung selleri (Dystaenia takesimana)
Allium hymennorhizum
Garlic / hvitløk (Allium sativum)
Himalayan water creeper (Houttuynia cordata)
Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) yellow and red varieties
Ground elder / skvallerkål (Aegopodium podograria)
Patience dock / hagesyre (Rumex patientia)
Gomchwi (Ligularia fischeri)
Common sorrel / engsyre (Rumex acetosa)
Pink-flowered dandelion / roseløvetann (Taraxacum pseudoroseum)
Victory onion / seiersløk (Allium victorialis)
Sweet cicely / spansk kjørvel (Myrrhis odorata)
Welsh onion / pipeløk (Allium fistulosum)
Hogweed / bjørnekjeks (Heracleum spp.)
Parasenecio hastatus
Udo (Aralia cordata) – blanched
Douglas’ onion / Douglas-løk (Allium douglasii)
Bistort / ormerot (Polygonum bistorta)
Ramsons / ramsløk (Allium ursinum)
Pacific onion / Stillehavsløk (Allium validum)
Devil’s club (Oplopanax horridus)
Sea kale / strandkål
Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde (Hablitzia tamnoides)
Great waterleaf (Hydrophyllum appendiculatum)
Moss-leaved dandelion / mosebladet løvetann (Taraxacum sublaciniosum “Delikatess”)

Marie Gaden RIP

I was very saddened to hear that Marie Gaden has died at 91. I learned so much from Marie about gardening and I have so many plants that originated from her. She was from England and married a Norwegian just after the war and had a fantastic garden up in the hills above Trondheim and Jonsvatnet. I remember that she grew seed at one time for UK seed company Thompson and Morgan. She belonged to various international seed clubs like the Alpine Garden Society and Scottish Rock Garden Club and tried many new plants from seed each year! 

Marie (and my ex – Eileen) at home at Jonsvatnet (she always had a trowel at the ready in her hand to dig up plants)
Marie gave me so many plants over the years. I had little to give back which taught me that it isn’t about exchanging but passing on to the next generation!

One of the plants I got from Marie was a Maianthemum racemosum, which grows vigorously in the garden in a really dry spot under a large birch tree. I call it Marieanthemum and I mention this in my book:

Her husband died and she sadly had to leave that fantastic garden and downsized but still had a small garden crammed full of perennials and her living room table and chairs were as ever full of seed packets, seed catalogues and reference books! She was a wonderful generous woman! RIP Marie. You are here no longer but your plants and memories live on :)

It was Marie that taught me to fold seed packets. She was still doing this in her 80s.

Marieanthemum racemosum lives on in my garden (picture taken this week):