I used to grow Oxalis triangularis, also known as the False Shamrock for the leaves and flowers. It’s also a perfect edimental house plant here as it likes cool indoor temperatures and struggles / goes dormant if it gets too warm.
I was given a couple of plants the other day, surplus to the plant sale at the botanical gardens. Repotting the plants yesterday, I noticed that there were quite a number of sizeable tubers and I had a taste for the first time. I was surprised how sweet they tasted!!
A multispecies barlemmotto for dinner last night. Barlemmotto? Think risotto made instead with wholegrain BARley and EMMer wheat grains :) The ingredients are shown with the pictures!
Perennial kales, chicories, onions, leeks, turnip shoots, parsnip (root and shoots), swiss chard, lesser celandine, forced dandelion and ostrich fern, forced perennial onion (Allium senescens x nutans), tuberous pea (Lathyrus tuberosus), chorogi (Stachys affinis), Oca (2 varieties), parsley, yacon, skirret, forced and blanched horseradish shoots, garlic, winter chantarelles, chinese yam, chinese wapato (Sagittaria) and Hablitzia
The cooked grain is simply mixed with cooked vegetables and chili and served with a strong cheese like parmesan! Delicious and easy (if you have all the ingredients that is!)
Merry St.Stephen’s Day (aka Edimentalmas!) to all edimentalists :)
This year’s Xmas dinner had the following tubers: Lathyrus tuberosus, Dioscorea polystachya (tuber and tubercules aka mukago), Madeira vine (anredera) , Dahlia, Carrot (2 varieties), Chorogi, Chinese duck potatoes ( Sagittaria trifolia subsp. leucopeta), Lilium martagon, Scorzonera, Yacon, Potato (Sarpo tominia and King Edward), Oca (Oxalis tuberosa – 4 varieties) and Taro (Colocasia esculenta). Together with nutroast, taro greens, perennial kale and leek this made for a delicious slow christmas dinner!
Norske ingredienser: Kortreist julemiddag 2018: Nøttestek, med knoller av jordflatbelg, kinesisk yam (knoll og bulbiller / mukago), Madeira-vine, georginer, kinesisk wapato, gulrot, potet, krøll-lilje, scorsonerrot, yacon, 4 sorter oca og taro….samt taro kål, flerårige kål fra hagen og purre!
My ocas (Oxalis tuberosa) are grown on to harvest just before Xmas in a cool extension to my house!
Two years after receiving bulbils of Chinese yam or cinnamon vine (Dioscorea polystachya) from my friend Søren Holt, I was able to harvest this curious tuber! I grew it as an “auedible” house plant….yes, it even makes a noise…as the numerous bulbils fall reverberating on my wooden floor in autumn! The bulbils are the reason it has become an invasive species in North America, the vines swamping native vegetation! The first picture below shows the tuber after its first season….I was quite pleased and was about to eat it when someone encouraged me to wait a year…I’m glad I did!
Although Chinese Yam has been grown in Europe since the middle of the 19th century, it never became popular as the tubers bury themselves very deep (up to one metre) as in my pot where it went as far down as it could! According to Vilmorin (1920) (see pictures), there were successful attempts to breed varieties that didn’t bury themselves so deep…with round tubers clustering near the surface, but these varieties were not so productive.
Any suggestions for good recipes?
Early December 2017 after one season
October 2018 harvest at the base of the bucket…it had buried itself as deep as possible!
Nothing like the promised “giant” 5-10 cm tubers, I was nevertheless surprised to get maybe 3 times the yield of what I planted of chinese arrowhead tubers – Sagittaria trifolia subsp. leucopeta (syn. S. trifolia var. edulis)…a much bigger yield than when I tried North American wapato (Sagittaria latifolia).
211018: I finally got round to trying some. I didn’t peel them and didn’t trim away the edible shoots and started steaming them (as I usually cook potatoes). Then halfway through I remembered a post by Alison Tindale (see https://backyardlarder.co.uk/2017/11/ducks-eat-duck-potatoes ) where she mentions that they were slightly bitter after boiling, I therefore boiled them (to reduce bitterness for the second half). The verdict: one of the tastiest tubers I’ve ever eaten…the texture is like floury potato, but the taste not unlike chestnuts and yes a slight bitterness of the good sort, adding to the overall taste experience…and to cap it, the shoots taste like artichoke hearts!!
I think I will just steam them the next time!
I hope I will manage to overwinter them as I really need to grow more next year! I’m trying to overwinter in the cellar (about 3C and dark), on a window sill in a cool room and in my pond about 10 cm deep to protect from the worst frost…maybe also covered with spruce branches!
The first small potato harvest in KVANN’s (Norwegian Seed Savers) vegetable sanctuary at Væres Venner Community garden.
I planted 10 varieties of potatoes in the spring…these were virus-free mini-seed potatoes offered to members. They were planted close at about 15 cm apart to produce full size seed potatoes for the 2019 season!
The varieties were a mixture of old Norwegian heirlooms and modern day varieties. The following Norwegian page gives the background for all the varieties seen here: http://www.norwegianseedsavers.no/potet-bestilling/
Left to right in rows (from top left): Peik, Sarpo Mira, Raudar Islandkar, Sverre, Abundance, Blå Kongo, Buddhisten fra Snåsa, Eggeplomme, Rød Gulløye, Troll (see http://www.norwegianseedsavers.no/potet-bestilling for more information (in Norwegian) on the different varieties
Rød gulløye is a variant of Gulløye (Golden eye), a popular variety in the far north of Norway
This week is Norwegian potetferie or potato holiday. This was originally to give kids time off school to help on the home farm to harvest potatoes! Good to see that my grandkids are following this tradition :)
Kurrajong is an Australian tree, Brachychiton populneus, which along with other species of the genus make interesting house plants due to their interesting leaves. Kurrajong leaves resemble poplar leaves as the epithet populneus suggests. It’s a common tree of sandy plains in Eastern Australia. The seeds are remarkably nutritious and were popular Aborigine tucker (wild gathered food). It is unlikely I will ever be able to harvest seed of this tree in the Malvaceae (mallow family), but Rowan White on the Radix Root Crops FB group reminded me that the swollen roots of young trees could also be eaten. My tree wasn’t exactly young at 9 years (seed propagated along with Brachychiton acerifolius), when I first decided to have a go in 2012, at the same time as I moved it to a bigger pot…
Brachychiton acerifolius (Illawarra flame tree) is another beautiful tree growing in my living room forest garden….making an attempt to escape…it’s been suggested I make a hole in the ceiling so that it can grow on up into my bedroom where it could flower and produce nuts that I could harvest from bed ;) (this tree is often planted as an ornamental street tree in the tropics, see https://tinyurl.com/yaqnnm65)
Brachychiton acerifolius leaves
There were 3 young roots worth trying so I harvested them and baked them in their skins together with potatoes. They seem to need a bit longer than potatoes. The skins peeled easily off after baking and they were crispy with a good mild taste. If you have a ready supply of seed, they can be grown and harvested a bit like carrots when quite young!
Kurrajong doesn’t often if ever experience snow, here’s my plant with earth removed (December 2012)
The small young roots were harvested
Roots removed, hope it doesn’t kill my tree (it didn’t!)
Ready for baking
After 45 minutes in the oven
They peeled easily
Crispy non-fibrous roots
Kurrajong leaf
Kurrajong leaf
This spring the tree died (at 15 years old) with no sign of life in the above ground parts, but when disposing of the plant I noticed that the young roots looked healthy, so I harvested them and repotted the remainder of the root to see if it might resprout and after several weeks in the window sill it now has fresh leaves, so not dead after all!
I didn’t get round to eat the young roots…they were left inside for a month and looked withered and inedible, but cutting in to one it looked good inside and indeed it was tasty and almost free from fibre….so we ate it in a stir-fry dish last night!
I was transplanting some Allium canadense bulbs today and disturbed this large spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) tuber only just below the surface! I’ve tried growing this species from different sources and in different parts of the garden, but it’s only in this shady place has it grown well, sourced from a woman in Marathon, Wisconsin in 2004! It has been spreading slowly in recent years and is totally hardy! So this tuber could have taken 14 years growing to this size! Must have a taste this autumn!
The tubers are known as firy spuds and measured in at 7-8 cm long! According to Sam Thayer they are “far superior to potatoes, softer and mildly sweet”
This picture of the edible flowers was taken in mid-May this year! Spring leaves can also be eaten!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
