First and second harvest of broad beans for drying to eat and next year’s seed. This is my “Væres Venner Mix” land race selected for maximum bean diversity each year – a joy to work with and candy for the eyes! The first sowing (first picture) were sown on 18th May and harvested on 19th September; the second sowing was on 2nd June and were harvested on 24th September (both were 5 different colour selections from last year’s crop; sown in 5 adjacent rows!)
Monthly Archives: September 2023
Black mustard seed
Seed processing season is upon us once again and all available space on window sills is full 🙂
Grow your own spice! These are seeds of black mustard /svartsennep (Brassica nigra / Rhamphospermum nigrum) grown in the Væres Venner Community Garden this year. I use them most in Indian food.
Beautiful garden spider
Found this beautiful coloured European garden spider / korsedderkopp (Araneus diadematus) this morning!
Promoting Perennial Vegetables seminar
Earlier this summer (23rd May; https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=31209) I spent a great few hours together with Eva Johansson and Annevi Sjöberg from Sweden in my 3 gardens. They were on a fact-finding mission in connection with the project ”Främja fleråriga grönsaker i svensk matförsörjning” (Promoting perennial vegetables in the Swedish food supply). Link to my blog post in comments.
Everyone can now take part via zoom in a one-day seminar on this topic by signing up here (it’s free and some of the talks are in English!): https://perennagronsaker.se/seminarium-framja-flerariga-gronsaker-i-svensk-matproduktion-16-oktober
The project is financed with funds from the Swedish Agency for Agriculture (Jordbruksverket) within the framework of the Swedish food strategy (den svenska livsmedelsstrategin) and runs until Dec 2023. The Skillebyholm Foundation manages the project.
As usual, Sweden is way ahead of Norway with innovation!
Ringve’s 50th Biodiversity Celebrations
Fantastic day at Ringve Botaniske Hagen’s 50th anniversary garden party for the city. The theme for the day was Biodiversity and Sustainability! KVANN had a stand with a focus on perennial food plants that double as ornamental plants, insect-friendly or bird-friendly. We brought with us a number of such edi-ento-mentals and edi-avi-mentals (insect- or bird-friendly, edible ornamental plants) and many toom home plants or seeds! Eventually, all the flowers attracted biodiversity in the form of two admirals and a number of hoverflies!
Thanks to all KVANN members and others who visited and helped us, and especially Jurgen Wegter who helped and brought flower meadow seeds from Fagerli Naturgård!
Thanks also to Vibekke Vange and my colleagues at Ringve!
Pictures by Jurgen Wegter, Stephen Barstow and Meg Anderson!
Robin in my indoors forest garden
The latest avian visitor to my indoors forest garden, also known as my living room (as it’s full of life!) is this young robin, maybe the same bird which regularly comes right up to me when I’m sat outside…