The last two nights, Barley Garlic Weedotto (or Garlic Weed Barlotto) was on the meny at the Edible Garden!
I have a relaxed approach to weeds and weeding and don’t mulch my beds like no dig gardeners do as I consider the weeds to be an important edible resource which increases the yield rather than decreasing as most people think! If weeding becomes harvesting, it becomes less of a chore!
The greens in the barlotto were mostly weeds harvested when weeding my garlic which has grown well despite the ground cover of weeds (the garlic roots are deeper than the weed roots).
NB! Barlotto (Barley risotto) is a local and more nutritious and healthy food as we can’t grow rice !
Garlic with ground cover of “weeds” ready to harvestAllium oleraceum (wild onion / villøk), Allium scorodoprasum (sand leek / bendelløk), Stellaria media (chickweed), Urtica dioica (nettle / nesle), Taraxacum officinale (dandelion / løvetann), Urtica urens (annual nettle / smånesle), Scandix pecten-veneris (shepherd’s needle / Venuskam; an endangered annual edible weed of grain fields in the UK, in the carrot family, deliberately introduced as a weed in my garden and encouraged by letting some plants self-sow), Sonchus oleraceus (common sow thistle / haredylle; see my book for more on my most productive and most used “weed”) and Chenopodium album (fat hen / meldestokk)!Barley Weedotto!Scandix pecten-veneris (shepherd’s needle / Venuskam) in parsnip / pastinakkFlowering Scandix pecten-veneris (shepherd’s needle / Venuskam) in a reconstruction of a traditional wheat field in Utrecht Botanical GardenThe characteristic seed heads of Scandix pecten-veneris (shepherd’s needle / Venuskam)
On Sunday 16th June 2019, KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) had a stand at the open day at the Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim! There were record crowds and good weather and many edimentals passed on to new owners! We sold about 30 different plants! We went plastic free which went very well! Plants were dug up the same morning and the almost bare-root plants were kept moist in glass jars and packed for customers in newspaper, writing the name of each plant on newspaper. We had a full grown flowering Angelica (KVANN) plant on display and both Bordalen and Markusteigen lines of Voss Angelica (see my book) / Vossakvann seedlings were sold. Many people thought the Angelica plant was a Tromsøpalme (similar to Giant Hogweed) and were amazed to see the difference in size between the seedlings and (2 years older), the full grown plant.
Thanks for Meg and Elizabeth for helping out on the stand!
We could have doubled the number of ramsons (ramsløk) plants which sold out quickly!
Thanks also to all the members who came along! Plants were half price for members!
Unlike me, my oldest Udo (Aralia cordata) is showing no signs of ageing….well, it’s only 18 years old!
My tallest vegetable is a herbaceous perennial!
Thanks to Maria Hammarsten from Jönköping University who visited today for the pictures!
Last night’s pizza, perennials apart from Atriplex hortensis “Rubra”; including sea kale broccolis, perennial kales, Allium nutans, sorrel, Malva moschata, Anise hyssop, nettles etc.
My youngest seakale Crambe maritima “Lily White” which isn’t that young longer (17 years old), is in full flower a couple of weeks earlier than my other plants and its looking better than ever this year! In the winter, I dug a trench along the “ex-driveway”, now path to the house, to stop tree roots invading and drying up the shallow soiled beds in this part of the garden.
I had almost given up that my mulberries would ever flower and then I noticed a plant the other day, that I planted in 2008 (11 years ago), from seed sowed in 2002 in flower!!
It was sown as Morus alba “Purple”, so we’ll see what colour the fruit are!
Last night’s pizza, perennials apart from Atriplex hortensis “Rubra”; including sea kale broccolis, perennial kales, Allium nutans, sorrel, Malva moschata, Anise hyssop, nettles etc.
