Most of the snow disappeared in the garden after rain and high temperatures over the last 24 hours…revealing this old man’s beard in seed. I’ve grown Clematis vitalba as a spring edible (cooked young shoots) for a number of years, but after a long mild summer and autumn this is the first time the seed has matured and the beard has emerged…this is a good one for the Forest Garden, but remember that it needs to be cooked as poisonous raw like most members of the Buttercup family, Ranunculaceae…
Clematis vitalba is an important wild foraged edible particularly in Italy!
Category Archives: Forest Gardening
Sowing a Vermontian woodland
I tonight sowed various perennial edibles I found and collected seed of in the woods near Woodstock, Vermont while visiting a friend and my US distributors Chelsea Green in White River Junction in September! Excited to be creating my little bit of Vermont in Malvik :)
Asclepias (Milkweed)
Asclepias (Milkweed)
Asclepias (Milkweed), Viola canadensis…..
Asclepias (Milkweed)
Amphicarpaea (the small beans), Osmorhiza (longest) and
Honewort
Amphicarpaea (the small beans), Osmorhiza (longest) and
Honewort
Norwegian article from a local Ostrich Fern forage
A Norwegian article from Trondheim’s street magazine Sorgenfri in 2013 about foraging locally here in Malvik for Ostrich Fern, a plant which few people realise is edible and tasty!
Interview in Malvikbladet
An interview in connection with my book and forthcoming talk was published in our local newspaper on 13th December 2014. Here it is, in Norwegian of course…
BBCRadio Solent
The distributor who has worked to arrange interviews this week while I’m in the UK didn’t mention I’m a local Hampshire lad. Nevertheless BBC Radio Solent in Southampton and Hilliers Arboretum near Romsey, both within 10 miles of where I grew up, both picked up on it (the latter will be in May). Interviewed today about the book on BBC Radio Solent….lots more I wanted to say, but with only 20 minutes available, its not easy…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02cj91b at 1:11:00ish
World Record Salad Invite
Sunday 24th August 2003, I earned my title Extreme Salad Man :) when I made a salad comprising 538 varieties of edible plant. I’m still looking for the recipe I made, and in the process I found the attached invitation to the garden open day when I made that salad, shown below:
For English speakers, here’s what it says:
“”Open organic herb garden
Bergstua organic garden, Malvikvn. 418, Malvik
Sunday August 24th from kl. 1200
Co-organizer: Malvik Gardening Club
http://www.oikos.no/aapenhage
Other Activities: Plant sale and plant swap
(Bring plants for swopping)
World Record Salad attempt (500 varieties of edible plants in a salad)
Garden tour (over 1500 varieties)
Focaccia, herbal tea, coffee, poppy cake
Fungi control (bring fungi to be checked)
Plant Sales and plant swap
Preliminary sales list (NB there are few plants of each cultivar and many are small plants from seed this year).
(There follows a list of 219 plants I had for sale that day!!)””
8 years later…
The first time I gave my talk “Around the world in 80 plants” was 8 (eight) years ago on 6th November 2006 for the local group of the Norwegian Botanical Society (NBF-TLA) under the Norwegian title “Verden rundt med 80 arter – som smaker”. After the meeting, the leader of the group, Arne Odland told me I should write a book. The thought had occurred to me, but this was the spark I needed….but that it would take 8 years is surprising, but there was still a lot of testing of plants, trying of many recipes, a full time job, a large garden to look after and some rewriting……….
I was invited back to the Botanical Society to give a quick 10 minute introduction to the book. Then this afternoon I had a panicky call whether I could make a longer talk as the main lecturer had to cancel…..
I used the same picture from my 2006 lecture and just changed the date, here it is :)
The book is now shipping…and at a special price from Permanent Publications!
Around The World in 80 Plants : An Edible Perennial Vegetable Adventure For Temperate Climates, by Stephen Barstow
What has underground gardening in Tokyo, the origin of garlic and an English bishop got in common? They are all stories from the original, groundbreaking book, Around The World In 80 Plants. Perennial gardening will never be the same again, nor will be your kitchen repertoire!
Around The World In 80 Plants takes us on an inspiring edible adventure across the continents, introducing us to the author’s top 80 perennial vegetables, with inspiration along the way from local foraging traditions and small scale domestication. Each plant has its own ethnobotanical story to tell; introducing Sherpa vegetables of the Himalayas; forest gardened and foraged vegetables of the Sámi people of Arctic Scandinavia; a super-vegetable of the Maori of New Zealand; an onion with a 1,000 year history linking the author’s home and Iceland ; a plant which earned the name ‘supermarket of the swamps’; the traditional veggie roof gardens of Norway; clifftop perennial vegetables of Dorset’s Jurassic coast; the Hampshire perennial vegetable triangle; Scandinavias best kept secret, a long-lived spinach that climbs; Prince Charles’ Forest Garden, and inspiring multi-species dishes of the Mediterranean countries.
A thorough description is given of each vegetable, its propagation, cultivation and uses, and also how to source seed and plants. As many of the author’s selections are what he calls ‘edimentals’ – edible and ornamental –Around the World in 80 Plants will be of interest to traditional ornamental gardeners as well as anyone interested in permaculture, forest gardening, foraging, slow-food, gourmet cooking, traditional preservation techniques and ethnobotany.
Stephen has devoted over 30 years trialling the world’s perennial vegetables. He grows more than 2,000 edible plants in his garden close to the Arctic Circle in Norway, and in 2003 earned the title ‘Extreme Salad Man’ after creating a salad using 537 varieties, inspired by multi-species Mediterranean dishes! Sprinkled with recipes inspired by local traditional gastronomy, this is a fascinating book, an entertaining adventure and a real milestone in climate-friendly vegetable growing from a pioneering expert on the subject.
Foreword by Alys Fowler.
Continue reading The book is now shipping…and at a special price from Permanent Publications!
A little salad recipe :)
Somebody was asking if I still had the ingredients list for my record salad from 2003 with 537 varieties – it used to be on the net but has been taken down. Haven’t found it yet, but in the process of searching I found the RECIPE for the first of my MegaSalads from 2001…just in case you want to have a go
WORLD RECORD SALAD RECIPE
On 19th August 2001, Stephen Barstow decided to attempt to break the world record for the greatest number of plant varieties in a salad in his garden in Malvik, Norway at 63.4deg N. However, from searches beforehand on the Internet, it didn’t seem that anyone had been daft enough to try this before. The salad was composed and put together in connection with the Norwegian National Open Organic Garden Day. The final salad had a grand total of 363 distinct plant varieties and 382 distinct plant parts (i.e., including flowers and leaves from the same variety). All bar two of the varieties were collected in the garden.
The recipe:
Take some leaves of Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), leaves of Alpine Calamint (Acinos alpinus); leaves of Basil Thyme (Acinos arvensis), leaves of Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria), chopped wood mushroom (Agaricus silvicola), some leaves and flowers of Agastache “Licquorice”, some leaves and flowers of Anise Hyssop (Agastache anisata), some leaves and flowers of White Anise Hyssop (Agastache anisata alba), add some leaves of Agastache aurantiaca, some leaves and flowers of Mexican Giant Hyssop (Agastache mexicana), leaves of Agastache pringlei, some leaves of Korean Mint (Agastache rugosa), some leaves of Agastache scrophulariaefolia, leaves of Agastache speciosa, a few leaves of Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata), some Continue reading A little salad recipe :)
Article in Adresseavisen (Trondheim’s newspaper); 28th June 2014
An article in Trondheim’s newspaper in June 2014 about edible Trondheim including one of my diversity salads…
Artikkel fra Ukeadressa i juni om spiselig Trøndelag!!
….and if you hover your mouse above the picture of all the ingredients in the linked picture you will see that all the plant names come up (common names in Norwegian, plus latin names) Enjoy!
http://www.thinglink.com/scene/536181539210264576