We occasionally eat wild fish and bacalhau is a favourite made from Norwegian dried cod that can be found in supermarkets here. More or less anything goes in bacalhau (bacalao) and although most people make it in the same way – layers of potato, fish, tomato and onions, often with chili – the Portuguese have … Continue reading Rhizo-bacalhau
Presenting this year’s 30 rhizosphantastic Xmas vegetables, all roasted in the oven, served as every year in the last 40 with nut roast, bedecked with the following seeds / bulbils: alpine bistort / harerug (Polygonum viviparum), Himalayan balsam / kjempefringfrø (Impatiens glandulifera), evening primrose / nattlys (Oenothera biennis) and opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). The tubers … Continue reading Xmas diversity from the rhizosphere
I have a large bucket on the balcony where i grow greater burdock (Arctium lappa) for the birds, Both goldfinches (stillits) and greenfinches (grønnfink) eat burdock seed in winter and by growing the plants on the balcony I have close views of both species from where I’m typing this! Last year, the plants flowered and … Continue reading Burdock harvest
Somebody asked me a few days ago if one could eat Angelica gigas (Korean Angelica) as you can Angelica archangelica (see my book Around the World in 80 plants for more about that). In my book, I do mention gigas as one of several other Angelica species used in other parts of the world, but … Continue reading Sweet Gigas stalks
With heavy wet snow overnight weighing down all the plants in the garden together with plummeting air temperature, a flock of goldfinches (stillits) (collectively known as a Charm) were at the bird feeder this morning. I guess it’s more difficult for goldfinches to get at their preferred food, burdock seed (Arctium spp.) in these conditions. With … Continue reading A Charm of Goldfinches
WELCOME TO MY NEW SEED TRADE LIST FOR WINTER 2021-22, THIS YEAR WITH 323 VARIETIES19, 20, 21 indicate the harvesting year for the seed. Concerning seed quantity: as I don’t have many plants of each species, seed quantity is limited in most cases. Therefore, for some species you may only get a few seeds. Many … Continue reading THE NEW EDIMENTALS SEED TRADE LIST FOR 2021-2022
I’ve written a series of articles in 3 parts “Fuglevennlige planter i hagen” (Bird friendly plants in the garden) for the magazine of our national bird society (NOF, now Birdlife Norge) called Vår Fuglefauna (Our Bird Fauna). The first part (6 pages) has already been published (the first two pages are shown below; deliberately blurred … Continue reading Burdock for goldfinches
NB! The album and information at the bottom will be added to over timeWhen I was a student in Edinburgh in the late 70s, I started in earnest to learn the names of birds, butterflies and wild plants. Then, when I moved to Norway I became interested in fungi, but really didn’t have the time … Continue reading Moths in The Edible Garden
WELCOME TO MY NEW SEED TRADE LIST FOR WINTER 2020-21, THIS YEAR WITH 334 VARIETIES18, 19, 20 indicate the harvesting year for the seed. Concerning seed quantity: as I don’t have many plants of each species, seed quantity is limited in most cases. Therefore, for some species you may only get a few seeds. Many … Continue reading THE NEW EDIMENTALS SEED TRADE LIST FOR 2020-2021
Feeding birds in winter isn’t necessarily a good thing and at least one study has shown that birds lay lower numbers of eggs when fed well, perhaps due to an unnatural unbalanced oil-rich diet: https://blog.nature.org/science/2015/01/05/winter-bird-feeding-good-or-bad-for-birdsHowever, there are many studies showing the opposite. But is good winter survival and artificially high populations necessarily a good thing … Continue reading Is feeding birds a good thing?