For the unusual vegetable enthusiast, the place to find seed are the alpine garden clubs’ seed exchanges: Scottish Rock Garden Club (SRGC), Alpine Garden Society (AGS) and the North American Rock Garden Society (NARGS) are the main international ones and each puts out a seed list of several thousand varieties donated by the members…by no means just alpine garden plants! I remember reading an article in the North American Herb Companion with a recommendation to source seed of unusual herbs from NARGS.
My SRGC seed arrived today and here they are, a mixed bunch including the yellow form of Kamchatka Lily (Fritillaria camschatensis “Aurea”), one I’ve been looking for for some time! You can probably read some of the names but there are Phyteumas, Ligularias, Alliums, Dahlias, Lilium, Polygonum macrophyllum, Agastache, Zanthoxylum simulans and Boehmeria…
Category Archives: Invasive plants
The Live in London tapes
While I was in London in December I met London Permaculture’s Stefan Geyer at St. Athan’s Hotel in London for a chat and it’s now available for all to hear on Stefan’s 21st Century Permaculture radio show live on Shoreditch radio:
www.mixcloud.com/21stcenturypermaculture
Amongst other topics, we talked about the book, how I travelled the globe researching the world of edible plants (both for real and through reading foraging and ethnobotanical literature from all continents), talked about some of the best perennial vegetables like Udo from Japan and Korea (now sold on markets in London), Sea Kale (the most British of all vegetables?), Sea Kale’s giant sister from the Caucasus (Crambe cordifolia), how a popular vegetable was harvested from the chalk cliffs of England using ropes and was shot down from cliffs by a friend of Charles Darwin (Death Samphire), and how a famous UK garden may have the most productive food forest (forest garden) in the UK unbeknowns to the owner…
See also http://www.permaculture.co.uk/news/2001155978/stephen-barstow-permaculture-radio
Electronic release of Around the World in 80 plants
The PDF version is now available through Green Shopping and you can download a free sample!! ATW from Green Shopping
The Kindle and iTunes versions are also on the way (coming real soon!). It will also be added to the Kobo list (WHSmith and Barnes & Noble).
My way of sharing FUN – write about it!!!
Thanks very much to Joan Lambert Bailey for the nice remarks and great review! Yes, you’re absolutely right when you say “I am convinced this book is his way of sharing the fun” :) :) :)
http://www.japanfarmersmarkets.com/2015/01/my-review-of-around-world-in-80-plants.html
Must check out your blog….never been to Japan and had planned to make the trip this spring but it wasn’t to be, highest on my places to visit….next spring :)
The new Edimentals seed trade list for 2014-2015
SEE THE NEW SEED LIST
Welcome to my new seed trade list for 2014-15.
12, 13 and 14 in brackets indicates the harvesting year for the seed. Concerning seed quantity: as I don’t have many plants of each species, seed quantity is limited in most cases. Therefore, for some species you may only get a few seeds. Many species are harvested in my garden. Others are surplus from trade and purchase. OUT: Means out of stock.
Sometimes I sell surplus seed (if time allows), although Continue reading The new Edimentals seed trade list for 2014-2015
Shoreditch Radio Interview on Around the World!
An Interview with the Extreme Salad Man Stephen Barstow at www.Shoreditchradio.co.uk on Sunday 18 January at 20:00 UTC
This is an interview I did in London with London Permaculture’s Stefan Geyer when I was in the UK on 12th December!
If you miss the broadcast, you can listen at your leisure by going to www.21stCenturyPermaculture.com
From the vaults: my Edible and Useful Plant Seed Trade List from 2000!
14 years ago and my seed list had some 1,000 entries and I even added a usage code (from Plants for a Future)………
Edible and Useful Plant Seed Trade List
for November 2000 to October 2001
About the Garden: Most of the seed offered is collected in my own garden here on the edge of the Trondheimsfjord at close to
64 deg. N an area of extreme climatic variability. The grass can be green on 1st January and snow might lie for a short while on
1st June. We talk about having two seasons – the green and the white winter. It is, however, surprisingly mild for the latitude. A
remarkable number of species survive the winter (or should I say summer) and seem to thrive. However, a number of the plants
are grown in pots and are moved in to a cold cellar (temperature just above zero in mid-winter) in the winter without extra
warmth.
The garden is one of a network of organically run gardens in Norway and can be visited by agreement. We are just at the end of
our 17th season here. We use no input apart from compost, an important ingredient of which is seaweed which we collect every
spring.. We grow a wide range of vegetables many of which are not commonly grown here (e.g., Runner Beans, Broad Beans, Continue reading From the vaults: my Edible and Useful Plant Seed Trade List from 2000!
#ATWselfie
The ATW selfie is going viral worldwide…. ;) Send me yours and it will be added…you will be showing support of a very good cause: the conservation and promotion of the amazing diversity of food plants Around the World!
One of my first interns, Daina Binde from Latvia, helped out in my garden in Malvik in 2014. She sent me this series of pictures this week of little Andris learning about perennial vegetables :) She is nowadays giving zoom lectures on permaculture and perennial vegetables!
I met Isaac Coblentz at Mountain Gardens (Joe Hollis’ place) – https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=26460. Isaac wrote to me: “This is one of my favorite books. I keep it in my backpack and never tire of re-reading. Your book has also expanded my diet and improved my health. It is a real treasure. It was so nice to meet you and spend time with you and Joe Hollis at Mountain Gardens”. He lives and gardens in Ashtabula, Ohio.
Presenting Norwegian forager and teacher Fru Johnsen of https://www.frujohnsenssoppognyttevekster.com. Cathrine is known as TanteGrusom (Aunty Cruel) on FB. I had a memorable visit from her and partner Edvin last summer: https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=23045.
Thank you Maxime Dufresne!!
Guinness Megasalad Record Book Rejection email from 2001
The first time I made a megasalad in 2001 with 363 different plants (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=206) I approached Guinness to claim a world record. They were not interested and I accidentally found the rejection email today (from 10th October 2001). Their reply: “Unfortunately, we would not be interested in a record for the most diverse salad. I recommend that you choose a salad of some particular variety and attempt the largest salad of its kind.”
After this, I was glad that I’d been refused as the Guinness Records represent greed and an inorganic product. I tried half seriously to find an organic brewery that would be interested in starting a record book of records with a sustainable message…..still looking…
“If you can’t beat them, eat them…”
During my talks I make the suggestion that although there are justifiably invasive unwanted species in our part of the world, there are many “black-listed” plants in my view that we may in the future thank our generation for having introduced due to their being valuable and healthy edibles (the positive impacts of such plants haven’t as far as I know been included in the total evaluation of black listed plants. There are other positive factors such as Fallopia japonica (Japanese knotweed) being an important bee plant as it is late flowering and also a cultivated source of medicinal resveratrol (an antioxidant also found in red wine and peanuts). In my book Around the World in 80 plants, there are about 7 species categorized as having “severe impact” (SE) on the Norwegian Black List, 2 with “high impact” (HI) and at least 6 with “potential high impact” (PH). At least two others in the book (Dandelion and Ground Elder) are often referred to as invasive, but as they are well established and introduced before 1800 are not on the black list! As they say “If you can’t beat them, eat them…” and I might (jokingly) add “If you can’t eat them, beat them”…. ;-)
The link is a recent one arguing against the hysteria by a US based ecologist pointing out that “our panic about invasive species might be a major mistake”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/battling-invasive-species-can-be-a-mistake-ecologist-says-1.2861822