Tag Archives: Hablitzia

Norwegian sansai

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)

P1580160

Bear Spinach comes out of hibernation

Bear Spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides)?
Well, my friend William Whitson in Washington State recently reported “I finally had a couple of plants withstand our typical 2.5m of rain winters. They started sprouting again in January. Then a bear dug them up and ate them. No kidding.” ;)
Hence, I’ve renamed it Bear Spinach….Bears in its homeland in the Caucasus surely feast on it too in the spring. Ramsons or Allium ursinum is known as Bärlauch or bear onion in German as bears are known to eat it in spring and if you eat ramsons you’ll become as strong as a bear. I’m sure Hablitzia has the same effect!

Anyway, my plant reappeared from under deep snow this week and the roots are probably fully frozen as a result of the previous very cold, dry and snowless period. It clearly doesn’t mind this treatment :)

P1510848 P1510850 P1510851

Hablitzia anno 2001!

I just discovered that Hablitzia was one of the ingredients in my first world record salad in 2001…. I had received both cuttings and seeds from Mona Hellberg in Alunda, Sweden in May 2000 after my first attempt from seed had failed the year before. Therefore, the leaves I used in that salad were from a plant about a year old, possibly the first time I tried them. Interestingly, I wrote in the recipe you’ll find in the link that I used “steamed leaves of Hablitzia tamnoides”, suggesting that I was unaware that they could be eaten raw!
Also, looking at the email correspondence with Mona Hellberg, I see that I’d told her that the Hablitzia seedlings (from my first attempt) had been eaten by a slug! I’ve never had problems with slugs since then….

http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=206