Inspired by my visit in the spring to Tokyo’s underground blanching of Udo (Aralia cordata), see link below, I dug up a couple of roots that I will force inside the house in late winter :) I will keep them cold in the cellar and then move them into probably my living room to force in February!
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=8299
My Udo (Aralia cordata) has crushed two blackcurrant bushes….
Here’s an album of my own pictures from our visit to Tokyo’s underground Udo forcing holes…
More about Udo (Aralia cordata) on my web site www.edimentals.com
Thanks again to Ken Minatoya-Yasuda for liaising with the agriculture industry Tourism Division in Tachikawa city!! We were the first Europeans to ask for this particular tour!! Thanks also to Tei Kobayashi for acting as interpreter and great to meet local gardening blogger Joan Lambert Bailey and friends on the day!! We all had a great day I think!!
Please help translating the text on some of the pictures!
Other Udo posts on this blog:
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=8284 (Udo cavern video and Tei’s pictures)
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=7499 (My “The Many Uses of Udo” Permaculture Magazine article and pictures taken by Naturplanteskolen who joined me on the trip!
To see an underground Udo (Aralia cordata) farm has long been a dream. My dream was finally fulfilled this spring and below you can see a short video I took in the Udo cavern! I’ve also added 3 videos above the ground where you can see piles of spent Udo roots…the roots themselves have been used medicinally, but at the moment are going to waste :(
Below the videos is a gallery of photos taken by my friend Tei Kobayashi who acted as interpreter!
More pictures from the visit can be seen here: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=7499
Thanks to my friend Tei Kobayashi for the following pictures taken during our visit to the underground udo farm in Tokyo.
A few pictures of seed I cleaned and packed for trading, offering to Norwegian Seed Savers and using in the kitchen today!
131116: Added a few more that I was sorting today!
151116:…and a few more today
161216:…and a few more today
For the first time freely available is my article in Permaculture Magazine about my largest and most exciting vegetable Udo (Aralia cordata)! See the link near the bottom of the page and please subscribe here, they do a great job, but need our support! Go to https://www.permaculture.co.uk/subscribe…………….
To witness the underground cultivation of Udo in large caverns under Tokyo (mentioned in the article) was one of the reasons for embarking on a study tour of Japan with Naturplanteskolen in Denmark in Spring 2016, and during the visit we discovered that you can have one more layer in a forest garden……..
The Permaculture Magazine article: is an excerpt from my book Around the World in 80 plants (to buy the book please follow this link: http://www.green-shopping.co.uk/books/pp/around-the-world-in-80-plants.html
Here’s a FB album by Naturplanteskolen of the underground Udo tour!
https://www.facebook.com/naturplanteskolen.dk/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1517532741605972
Thanks to Tei Kobayashi who acted as interpreter and liasing with the local authorities, to Ken Minatoya in the Netherlands who also initially called the city clerks for me and Joan Bailey for helping out, accompanying us on the visit and also for writing a local article, see here http://metropolisjapan.com/more-than-cherry-blossoms
I will write more about this visit as well as my other encounters with Udo in Japan as soon as I can!!
A collection of pictures from last weekend in the garden!
The rate of growth of Udo (Aralia cordata) from Japan is phenomenal in cool spring weather, even outgrowing Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach)!
The first picture was taken by Christian Odberger during my permaveggies course and just two weeks later the plant is taller than me! The view is or less the same and the apple tree at the back is now in full bloom! The fern is ostrich fern.
I’ve had a couple of meetings in Copenhagen over the last couple of days and I visited Naturplanteskolen again. The nursery was looking really good and plants had grown dramatically since I gave the course there only 3 weeks ago!
