On Sunday I finally found the opportunity to visit my friend and fellow Norwegian Seed Savers (KVANN) board member Andrew McMillion who lives on a small farm in Nes, Akershus! We were joined by Amandine from France who is doing an Msc in Agroecology in Ås (Norway). She had joined us in Trondheim and Malvik at the KVANN weekend in June!
In Andrew’s tunnel greenhouse I saw several plants I’d never seen before and Andrew’s belief in the importance of diversity in a secure food production is evident everywhere! His greenhouse reminded me in fact of Alan Kapuler (Mushroom)’s amazing kinship (biodiversity) gardens in Oregon, USA (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=3325)
It’s amazing how Andrew grows what for many are impossible vegetables with minimal additional heat!
Outside, he is developing the ravine on the side of the property with perennial vegetables! He is also a champion of Shetland Cabbage as a future hardy vegetable in Norway and this is one of many vegetables he offers each year through Norwegian Seed Savers!!
I look forward to following Andrew’s projects over the next years!!
Udo (Aralia cordata)
Atomic Red carrots being grown for the Norwegian seed company, Solhatt
Atomic Red carrots being grown for the Norwegian seed company, Solhatt
One of Alan Kapuler’s tomatoes…very distinctive…I saw his breeding lines on my visit there, but was asked not to publish pictures (here’s an album of pictures from my visit with Kapuler)
Diversity
Watermelon
Amaranths
Melon
Udo (Aralia cordata)
Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Chinese liquorice
German hardneck garlic with massive bulbs!
Papaw (Asimina)
Ligularia fischeri and udo (Aralia cordata)
Bhutanese? melon!
Bhutanese? melon! It looks like a cucumber when young…
Bhutanese? melon!
Peloria on bhutanese? melon
Fenugreek (methi) seed
Udo (Aralia cordata)
A Japanese variety of runner bean is the last producer
Aster scaber (Korean aster)
Andrew grows Indian ginseng / Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)
Andrew grows Indian ginseng / Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) – enough for Andrew to hibernate for the winter?
Ligularia fischeri
The biodiversity tunnel!
An area in the ravine where Andrew is planting udo (Aralia cordata) and other perennials
American chestnut
Amaranth
Amaranth diversity
Even aubergines thrive…Andrew says that varieties with small fruits are easiest in a marginal climate
Andrew McMillion kindly picked me up early on Friday morning from the night train at Oslo airport and we drove together to the location of the KVANN / Norwegian Seed Savers annual meeting in Leikanger on the Sognefjord. As we were to arrive earlier than the other board members, I suggested going to Balestrand, about an hour further on as I’d heard that Norway’s largest Monkey Puzzle tree (apeskrekk) could be seen there! Andrew didn’t hesitate as he wanted also to go to Balestrand as he actually had family roots just a kilometer away from the tree!! There was much more than that though! It was an amazing day, first the wonderful trip over the mountains in perfect weather…to see what else we experienced, see the album!!
On the way over Hemsedalsfjellet to Sogn
On the way over Hemsedalsfjellet to Sogn
On the way over Hemsedalsfjellet to Sogn
On the way over Hemsedalsfjellet to Sogn
On the way over Hemsedalsfjellet to Sogn
Rock man
Just before this point, Andrew tells me that the last time he passed thjis place there were birdwatchers looking up at an eagle…I looked out of the window and there WAS an eagle high above us ;)
Ferry crossing from one tunnel to the next
Ferry across to Balestrand….Andrew coming home ;)
Approaching Balestrand
Above Balestrand
Kviknes Hotel was the largest wooden building in Norway when it was built…in Swiss style. Balestrand was a popular destination for Brits in the late 19th century and English climbing pioneer Margaret Sophia Green married one of the Kvikne family who owned the hotel and an English church was built in her memory after her death (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Olaf%27s_Church,_Balestrand)
To our surprise there was a little botanical garden in the grounds around the hotel!
Frame dedicated to an artist colony from Balestrand
We had a taste of the young shoots of these giant stonecrops (bergknapp), Hylotelephium spectabile
Andrew inspecting a lovage plant emerging next to a grape..
Cornus kousa
The Golden House is an art gallery with an observation dome and meditation spot on the roof
Looking towards Andrew’s ancestral farm
Andrew with his ancestral farm in the background
Looking towards Andrew’s ancestral farm
Looking towards Andrew’s ancestral farm
Driving up to Andrew’s ancestral farm was a carpet of emerging ramsons (ramsløk)…he took a couple of plants for his own farm in Nes!
View from the ancestral farm!
View from the ancestral farm with a carpet of crocus
Above the farm
Day lilies (dagliljer) on the farm
A new roof on the old farm house!
Andrew taking cuttings from one of the oldest fruit trees
Lunde Arboretum was established in 1973 with the help of Professor Oddvin Reisæter from Oslo University due to the threat of developing the area for housing! However, some of the trees go back to the time of the first rector Harald Ulrik Sverdrup and his son HUS jr. who began to plant foreign trees in 1849 and fruit. By the end of the 19th century there was a collection of 46 pears here! The collections here were described by Professor Schubeler in the 1880s. Schubeler is well known for getting the help of local priests to test out plants throughout Norway. Both Reisæter and Schubeler figure in the Hablitzia tamnoides story in Norway!
Norway’s champion monkey puzzle came from England in 1873! It was long alone but several more trees were planted in 1984!
Enjoyable visit this weekend from Andrew McMillion from Nes, MdG politician, seed saver and soon to be a pioneering farmer! Great to have you here, Andrew!
Harvesting seed from my Heligoland perennial kale, the hardiest I’ve grown here!I thought my Heligoland perennial kale was flowering itself to death,but no, new shoots appearing from the base and it’s in flower again too!Hosta seed savingAndrew couldn’t resist a few seed of the world’s top 3 hottest chilis!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
