Here are just a few pictures of lupins I’ve grown in my garden (click the pictures for more information)! Lupins have been grown for food since ancient times in the Mediterranean countries (>3000 years) and in the Andes (>6000 years)….. There’s been an upsurge in interest and cultivation of lupins for food in recent years as they can be made into the gluten-free lupini flour, but some people with peanut allergy (peanut is also a legume) are also allergic to these…look carefully at the ingredient list as lupini flour is even used in Norway!
I’ve never tried Lupinus angustifolius which I’ve heard is cultivated for food in Germany (recently developed low alkaloid varieties)!
However, it’s the development of low alkaloid varieties of perennial Lupinus nootkatensis that I most look forward to trying as there are few perennial bean crops!!
Lupinus mutabilis – an annual cultivated in the Andes since ancient times. Read more in Lost Crops of the Incas…my summer is too short and cold for them to mature outside, but I’ve grown a few in my old cold greenhouse… I prefer not to have a greenhouse now and only grow hardy crops, so I won’t be trying again until someone selects a more cold-hardy variety :) They are also sometimes grown as ornamentals and I grew a variety called Sunrise once. Others I’ve tried are K’ayra and var. cruickshankii
Lupinus mutabilis “Sunrise” on my balcony in 2014, flowered well but produced no mature pods..
Lupinus mutabilis “Sunrise” on my balcony in 2014
Lupinus albus – this picture was taken in October 2016 in the Stavanger botanics in an area devoted to pulses (it’s the International Year of Pulses! The seed were almost ripe. I once grew a variety called “Edible Large Seed” sourced from Seed Savers Exchange in the US, but yield was poor (1 bean!!)
Lupinus albus in Stavanger
Lupinus albus in Stavanger
Lupinus luteus has been used as a green manure in Norway; low alkaloid varieties were selected in the past for food
Lupinus nootkatensis is black listed here in Norway (invasive). In Iceland, I’ve heard that some work has been carried out on low alkaloid varieties (I’ve just been in touch with an Icelandic researcher about this). This is very exciting to me as lupins represent probably the best cold hardy perennial bean!! More later!
Last week, I blogged about the opening of an exhibition in Trondheim by a photographer Terje Visnes who must have taken thousands of pictures for the local newspaper Adresseavisen over the years. He had taken pictures of one of my salads two years ago:
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=7849
I was chuffed then that he should choose one of the pictures taken that day for the exhibition and, naturally, had to go along and see it for myself! I visited unnanounced today and, to my surprise, Terje had also popped in, so there was an opportunity for a photo and a chat…and it turned out that Ingrid who runs the gallery knows my artist daughter….
The exhibition was nicely put together and the key to the salad ingredient picture (see the following link: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/536181539210264576) was made available to visitors and was apparently quite popular – you can look at the picture and guess what the vegetables are and check afterwards their identity! And of course there are several other great pictures that Terje has taken over the years on show!!
That photo shoot in my garden turned out to be an expensive day…as I just had to have one of the few copies that are being sold :) If you’re into vegetable diversity art, you’ll have to be quick to get one of the remaining pictures!! Perfect for better restaurants!
Terje Visnes and his great photo of my salad ingredients! The frame and the use of the Enviromesh netting was a spur of the moment decision! He found both just lying around in my garden!Ingrid Oliv Olava Sørgjerd who runs RAMM gallery and picture frame workshop in Trondheim, where Terje Visnes’ exhibition is running to the end of November!
For Xmas dinner 2007, I made nut roast with roast vegetables including two members of the Basellaceae family (known as the Madeira vine family). It contains the following genus: Anredera, Basella, Ullucus and plantlist.org also assigns Tournoniahookeriana (previously Basella) to the same family.
Roast green Ulluco with Madeira vine (at the back) and potatoes and Basella greens!
I also cooked some Basella alba (malabar or ceylon spinach) greens to serve with the dinner.
Is this the only time all 3 main members of the Basellaceae have been served together? ;)
Harvested some of my bedside Basella greens tonight for a stir-fry with garlic, chili, chicory, parsley, dried chantarelle, broad beans and perilla…. served with soba (organic buckwheat noodles). Basella is perennial but I’ve never managed to overwinter it…
A few pictures from this weekend’s course on perennial vegetables based on my book for Haugaland sopp- og nyttevekstforening (Haugaland useful plant society). I gave two 4 hour talks on Saturday and Sunday, but still had to skip a few plants….
Thanks to Gro Hetland for inviting me!
Nesheimtunet: a historic farm which has been in one family since the 1400s…this weekend’s course for Haugaland Sopp og Nyttevekstforening was held in a wonderful renovated 150 year old barn!! Good food and good company!
My room this weekend was the Bridal Suite ;)
All sorts of love potions for my use…but there was no bride :(
Elisabeth Kallevik Nesheim, our lovely knowledgeable host at Nesheimstunet!
Course participants..
Course participants with their teacher on the balcony of his bridal suite :)
Back home from my visit to south western Norway and this is probably THE autumn of all autumns I will ever experience here…..high pressure weather with clear skies for 3 weeks, record number of sun-hours in any month ever and little wind to blow the leaves off the trees…the autumn colours keep going and going, so here’s an album of leaf pictures, all taken today 25th October 2016…
After my weekend course in Haugaland, member of Norwegian Seed Savers, Tone Lise Østboe kindly showed me around gardens in Stavanger and we also visited Rogaland arboretum outside the city and also a producer of bumble bees for the greenhouse industry!
Thanks very much Tone Lise :)
The stairs up to the flat I’d been loaned for my stay :) I hope I don’t sleepwalk :)
Tone Lise was one of the first to receive seed from Paolo in Italy who had crossed our Dagnøytral Jerusalem Artichoke with wild JAs in Italy and her flower heads were full of seed! I’ve never seen so much JA seed produced in Norway and Stavanger isn’t teh warmest part of Norway :) Let’s hope these are viable seed!
Tone Lise’s seed were darker than the original seed I received from Paolo, seen in this pictrue.
The tubers on Tone Lise’s plants were not worth keeping, inheriting the wild genes…
Soya beans +++
Tomatillo and Peony seed
My first taste of African Sukuma Wiki kale….some varieties are perennial….
Tone Lise tried to defeat me with this super chili hot pizza, but failed…it was delicious!
Interesting brussel sprout seed head which had developed sprouts…is this common?
Swelling ovaries on Tone Lise’s Elephant Garlic!!
A tree in the street where Tone Lise lives has the tallest dandelion ever growing out of it ;)
The arboretum was disappointing….that an oil town can’t afford to make a good arboretum is very sad….
The arboretum…
We visited a producer and breeder of bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) for pollinating in greenhouses…
Multi-colour pollen from different plant species!
Tone Lise has a “kolonihage” (allotment with small cottage) here
Kolonihagen
All the street names are vegetables—blomkålveien = Cauliflower Way
I wonder if this is Aralia spinosa? It remebles Aralia elata, but that one is already in seed in my garden. Does spinosa flower later?
Aralia spinosa?
Turnip Way…
Tone Lise lives on Asparagus Way…
…and she has asparagus in the front of her garden :)
A lot of work has gone into developing the garden with masses of organic matter…
Tone Lise is now the main guardian in Norway of Herrgårds artichoke! Artichoke is most likely to survive the winter in Stavanger…I sent this to her this spring!
Tone Lise’s Artemisia annua plantation, inspired by a stay in Africa
A strange long-leaved kale, probably deriving from one of Chris Homanic’s perennial kale mixes
Tone Lise’s garden is sadly far and above the most productive garden here, most people growing no food at all….
Lablab bean in the greenhouse…
Tone Lise has a good taste in reading material in her greenhouse
A neighbour has a monkey puzzle tree, a good indication of a mild winter climate!
Tree tomatoes…but they don’t smell strongly like my plants did…why?
It’s forbidden to use Round-up in Stavanger and this also applies to allotments!
..and to end the day, a look through Tone Lise’s seed collection including several packets of unknown seed from Africa! These both seem to be cultivars of Solanum nigrum or similar, an important leafy green vegetable in Africa!
On 10th June 2014, journalist Hilde Østmoe, with photographer Terje Visnes, interviewed me for regional newspaper Adresseavisen’s Saturday magazine UkeAdressa. It was for a special extended article about urban growing!
I had hoped this post would be ready before Terje Visnes’ exhibition this week in Trondheim, but I just missed the “deadline”. I don’t know if one of these photos were used as I also couldn’t make it to the exhibition at the last minute! I remember being impressed by his work that day!
…and Terje made this wonderful animated picture of the salad ingredients….if you hover with your mouse over the picture the (Norwegian) names will appear: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/536181539210264576
