Tag Archives: Ground elder

Centro d’Ompio and Pettenasco

June 6, 2018 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

On 2nd April 2018, Matthias Brück who had invited me to Switzerland to take part in the Perennials for Resilience seminar in Stans asked me along on a trip through the Alps to the Piedmont area of NW Italy! This is the first of three blog posts about this trip to an area that I think one day Matthias and his good lady Katharina will have a big impact in this area! This is also written as a thank you to Centro d’Ompio’s founder Pius Leutenegger who invited us to stay at the centre, wined, cheesed and dined us and took us on a wonderful tour of gardens and nature in the Lago d’Orta / Lago Maggiore area! I hope to come back one day and repay your kindness in helping developing the Centre’s gardens and maybe holding a course to start the process!

Pius Leutenegger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eqlyG9GyvM

Centro d’Ompio:
https://www.ompio.org/en

On the way across the alps from Zurich to Domodossola in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy where we were picked up

On the way from Domodossola to Lago d’Orta where we were staying!

Arriving at Centro d’Ompio, the view from where we were staying

Our host and founder of Centro d’Ompio, Pius Leutenegger sampling a familiar plant in the grounds (next picture)!

Ground elder (skvallerkål)…we won’t starve then :)

Matthias leads the way to a bed of bulrushes (cattails / dunkjevle)

Erthronium dens-canis in the village next to the centre

The next pictures show many edible and other wild plants seen on a walk around the village where we were staying!Rumex acetosa

We passed what’s left of an old Camellia nursery

Nice pink wood sorrel, Oxalis acetosella

Potentilla micrantha? (pink barren strawberry)

Empty chestnuts on the ground after the winter

We also walked along the lake at Pettenasco!

Mild climate with palms and monkey puzzle tree

Matthias, me, Pius and ? (another founder of the Centro)

Edible flowers, Food

Tonight’s slow quiche

August 1, 2017 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

100% coarse organic rye and emmer pie crust (flour and butter) kneeded into the pie dish (not rolled out), then a layer of blue cheese, then mixed vegetables and the rest of yesterday’s chantarelles, hedgehog fungi and Russula….and then filled with egg/milk/oregano mix and finished off with Mallow flowers which retain some of their colour at the end!
Greens: Allium fistulosum (spring onions), swiss chard, ground elder, nettle

Perennial vegetables

Monster ground elder

June 1, 2017 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

My ground elder breeding efforts are paying off…. ;)

…just kidding…I’m really not trying to breed a monster ground elder, but this one was growing next to my compost heap!

Onions, Perennial vegetables

Geirlauk

May 25, 2017 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Sand leek (rocambole) or Allium scorodoprasum gives bigger yields here than leeks, so it’s not surprising to learn that this perennial onion was probably cultivated by the Vikings (it is found naturalised near many old Viking settlements in Scandinavia) and I believe it is the original “geirlauk” (meaning spear onion) and the root of the word garlic in English… See also pages 215-217 in my book!

I hadn’t noticed the red base to the stems seen in these pictures before…
I used it in a quick scrambled egg dish together with Amish onion (Allium x proliferum), sorrel flower shoots, ground elder (Aegopodium), nettle (Urtica dioica), Hydrophyllum virginianum (water leaf) with golpar spice.
These pictures can also be seen on my 700 plus album of Allium pictures on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150966880345860

*The scapes of Allium scorodoprasum could certainly be described as spear-like*

P1730096 — Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) flowering stems

P1730104 — Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) flowering stems

Food, Perennial vegetables

2nd May Abundance

May 3, 2017 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

The change from winter to spring abundance happens very quickly…here’s last nights haul for a very green pasta sauce (it took about 30 mins from garden to table, fast slow food), including the following stars of spring:

Hablitzia

Allium nutans

Allium sativum (garlic)

Rumex acetosa (sorrel)

Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower)

Aegopodium (ground elder)

Alliaria (hedge mustard)

Angelica archangelica

Heracleum (hogweed greens and seed spice)

Urtica dioica (nettle)

Taraxacum (dandelion)

Carum carvi (caraway greens)

Tragopogon pratensis greens (Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon)

Perennials

Perennial veggie quiche 2014

April 19, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Almost 2 years ago on 29th April 2014, this quiche features perennial vegetables, starring Hablitzia / Stjernemelde, Allium victorialis / Seiersløk, Ground Elder / Skvallerkål, Stinging Nettle / Brennesle, Garlic / Hvitløk and homegrown chili, with a 100% wholemeal barley, rye and spelt crust, parmesan cheese and served with Jerusalem artichokes and Blue Congo potato and topped with dried with dried Alpine Bistort / Harerug bulbils!! Doesn’t get much better!!

Anredera cordifolia, Dandelions, garlic bulbils, Perennials

Norwegian sansai

April 14, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Good to be back from Japan to Norwegian sansai (foraged vegetables)….
From top left, left to right: Angelica archangelica “Vossakvann”, various dandelions / løvetann (Taraxacum), Rumex patientia (patience dock/hagesyre), Garlic bulbil shoots (forced indoors), ground elder / skvallerkål, Rheum palmatum (petiole), Rumex acetosa (sorrel / engsyre), Myrrhis odorata (with root ; sweet cicely / spansk kjørvel), chervil / hagekjørvel, Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower / storklokke), horseradish / pepperrot ( shoot), Anredera cordifolia (Madeira vine; grown inside), Alliaria petiolata ( garlic mustard / løkurt), Hemerocallis (daylily/daglilje), Ranunculus ficaria (lesser celandine / vårkål), Urtica dioica (nettle / nesle), Allium senescens x nutans, Hablitzia tamnoides (Hablitzia, Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde)…made into a stir fry with soba (buckwheat pasta)

Edimentals !