Tag Archives: Around the World in 80 plants

Perennial vegetables

A video tour of the World Garden

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A video tour on my youtube channel showing what’s emerging in The World Garden (Verdenshagen) at the Væres Venner Community Garden in Ranheim, Trondheim, Norway on 7th May 2024. I’ve planted some 160 perennial vegetables here (including mostfrom my book Around the World in 80 plants – signed copies can be ordered from me). The plants are arranged geographically around a 12m diameter circle with the mid-point representing the North Pole and the arctic regions of the world. The garden has been created with support from the KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) network Schubelers Hager (see https://kvann.no/schubeler). These are the plants I mention in this video:
Angelica archangelica “Vossakvann” (Voss Angelica)
Urtica (two stingless stinging nettles; brennløs brennesle)
Matteuccia struthiopteris (ostrich fern; strutseving)
Allium angulosum x nutans “Norrland Onion” (Norrlandsløk)
Allium victorialis (victory onion; seiersløk) from naturalised populations in the Lofoten Islands)
Rumex patientia (patience dock; hagesyre)
Artemisia dracunculus sativa “German” (German tarragon; Tysk estragon)
Polygonum bistorta (bistort; ormerot)
Cirsium eriophorum (wooly thistle; ulltistel)
Humulus lupulus “Aureus” (golden hops; gullhumle)
Cirsium oleraceum (cabbage thistle; kåltistel)
Levisticum officinale (lovage; løpstikke)
Allium x cornutum (St. Jansuien; Johannesløk)
Phyteuma spicatum and P. nigra (spiked rampion; vadderot)
Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach; stjernemelde)
Rumex acetosa “Champion” (sorrel; engsyre)
Allium stipitatum (Persian shallot; Persisk sjalott)
Allium pskemense x fistulosum “Wietse’s onion” (Wietsesløk)
Rhodiola rosea (roseroot; rosenrot)
Allium fistulosum “Takløk fra Gudbrandsdalen” (roof onion from the Gudbrandsdalen valley; old variety growing on turf roofs)
Arabis alpina (alpine rock cress; fjellskrinneblom)
Hemerocallis (day lilies; dagliljer)
Hosta
Ligularia fischeri “Cheju Charmer” (gomchwi; Koreansk nøkketunge)
Cryptotaenia japonica “Atropurpurea” (purple mitsuba)
Aralia cordata (udo)
Ligularia fischeri “Himalayan accession”
Allium senescens or nutans (or hybrid)
Arctium lappa (greater burdock; storborre)
Taraxacum pseudoroseum (pink flowered dandelion; rosablomstret løvetann)
Hemerocallis middendorfii
Secale cerale x montanum “Mountaineer” (perennial rye; flerårige rug)
Allium douglasii (Douglas’ onion; Douglas-løk)
Allium cernuum “Alan Kapuler” (nodding onion; prærieløk); wild collected by Kapuler on the coast of Oregon
Camassias
Allium cernuum “Major” (nodding onion; prærieløk)
Maianthemum racemosum “Emily Moody” (false spikenard; toppkonvall)
Oenanthe javanica (seri)
Sagittaria latifolia (wapato)
Urtica dioica subsp gracilis (California nettle)
Agastache foeniculum “Aureum” (golden anise hyssop; anisisop)
Hydrophyllum tenuipes (Pacific waterleaf)
Allium x proliferum “Catawissa” (walking onion; etasjeløk)
Rudbeckia laciniata “Hortensia” (cutleaf coneflower; gjerdesolhatt, Kyss-meg-over-gjerde)
Tradescantia occidentalis (prairie spiderwort)
Crambe maritima (sea kale; strandkål)
Perennial vegetables, Spring

Hablitzia beginnings

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If I’m asked what my favourite perennial vegetable is, I will struggle to only mention one (I wrote a book about my 80 favourites after all), but the one I will mention most frequently is the Caucasian spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides) as it has an interesting history, it was discovered as an edible plant in Scandinavia and remained a closely kept secret here until the 2000s, it provides the first spring greens together with various Alliums , its productive and probably grows best in cold climates!
This video describes how I discovered this amazing vegetable and its history in Scandinavia and in particular the role Swedish author Lena Israelsson played!
The video can be seen here: HABLITZIA BEGINNINGS
Book, Magazine article, Talks

Free temporary access to my book and articles!

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Thanks to my publishers Permanent Publications and Permaculture Magazine, free browsing access is available until Thursday to both my book Around the World in 80 plants, two articles I wrote for the magazine on Hablitzia (the Caucasian Spinach) and Hosta (Oriental Spinach) as well as the current issue of the magazine! This is related to my talk tomorrow (Sunday) at the Hilt in Chandlers Ford (see more at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/hiltingburycommunityassociation/1043494)! Please consider subscribing to Permaculture Magazine!
Signed copies of the book can also be purchased from the author in Norway.

READING ROOMS access to

Around The World In 80 Plants:
https://delta.exacteditions.com/room/aroundtheworldin80plants/issue?Expires=1700750203&KeyId=eki_SCmNVK_BXtL6jBT5pB79pg&Signature=af330c3cc54ded5394321786f68e4653ec01e614

Permaculture Magazine Issue 52 (with my feature on Hablitzia):
https://delta.exacteditions.com/room/issue/permaculture/no52summer2007?Expires=1700750848&KeyId=eki__qmo_tE1uyPllYXLzdKPeQ&Signature=3a539b6fb0838d9a3d3f13246d93a25ff2458d8f

Permaculture Magazine Issue 83 (with my feature on Udo, Aralia cordata):
https://delta.exacteditions.com/room/issue/permaculture/no83spring2015?Expires=1700750817&KeyId=eki_B9S2HnkVYdIq-mFiherR3w&Signature=c51878e63e6533a09446fad9657ee20b3ea41456

Permaculture Magazine Issue 118 (the current issue):
https://delta.exacteditions.com/room/permaculture/issue?Expires=1700750013&KeyId=eki_xaPVsD8OQLOUo-N4lKnL-g&Signature=8507c6913aa8e30363d61d95d9d07b749fe68f16

Uncategorized

Tim Harland RIP

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I was shocked and saddened to hear the other day that Tim Harland from my publishers Permanent Publications (PP) and Permaculture Magazine died unexpectedly on 30th September. He was such a lovely man…and just as they had started their new life…
Although he didn’t suffer, those who knew him and remain on this wonderful planet that he worked so hard for are the ones to suffer………
I remember the last time I met Tim and Maddy when they attended a talk I gave in Alton, Hants, invited by the Curtis Museum, part of the Sea Kale story in my book (see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=10962)! Commiserations to Maddy and colleagues.

Tim kindly drove me home to my parents’ in Chandlers Ford afterwards.
I’ll lift a glass to Tim’s memory…what a lovely person he was!
Picture of Tim with the first books at PP HQ below; he was my main contact at PP during the publishing process.
See also appreciations at https://www.facebook.com/PermacultureMag

Garden tour, Perennial vegetables

God Save the King’s Hostas!

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My only post on last weekend’s big news item. This memory came up on my feed this morning. In October 2015 I talked about my book Around the World in 80 plants at the Walled Kitchen Garden Network Forum weekend at the National Trust Property Croome Court in Worcestershire, England. As usual I joked about Prince Charles having the most productive Forest Garden in the UK as he had a national collection of large-leaved Hostas in woodland at Highgrove. Little did I know that the Prince’s head gardener was sat near the front. After the talk, he introduced himself, astonished that Hosta were edible. I thought quickly and presented him with a copy of the book and signed it “To HRH Prince Charles, Good luck with your Hosta eating!”. I had known of the Prince’s good works within the organic gardening movement since the 70s and indeed Highgrove is managed as an organic farm.
I was surprised to receive this letter later that winter and it resulted in a correspondence about Hosta cuisine which lead to me being invited to Highgrove to talk more and see the Hosta collection (sadly, there are no pictures of that day as cameras are strictly forbidden nor was I allowed to see the pictures the staff took). I had a hope that the Prince might turn up, but he had a lame excuse that it was his Mum’s birthday…..and now I’ve had to modify the slide about Hostas and Highgrove (see the comments).
God Save the King’s Hostas!

My Highgrove Hosta slide:

Climbers, Food, Perennial vegetable shoots, Talks

Hablitzia Pinaattiohukaiset

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Yesterday, I was preparing my talk for the Finnish Permaculture Association (see https://youtube.com/live/CYBqioWTr6U) and was reminded that I had mentioned in my book that Hablitzia could be used in place of spinach in Finnish spinach pancakes (pinaattiohukaiset). With my Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach; köynnöspinaatit) shoots having grown well recently, I decided to make these Finnish-style habby pancakes for lunch to get in the mood for the talk. I must admit, I didn’t look up a recipe and just improvised (recipes make cooking complicated in my mind!) using ingredients I felt should be in there. Apart from plentiful Hablitzia shoots I mixed in whole grain oat flour, eggs, garlic, chili and pepper and fried them in butter. It was served with a salad which also included Hablitzia! First, the quotation from Around the World in 80 plants (suggested by Jonathan Bates in the US in his article on Hablitzia):


 

 

Food, Perennial vegetables

Around the World in 80 Mac-Cheese

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Many thanks to all who sent birthday wishes as I transitioned to become a bonafide pensioner ❤
As usual, my celebration dinner was a green macaroni cheese (https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?s=macaroni), this year an Around the World in 80 Mac-Cheese with 80 different perennial greens harvested from the garden, some for the first time!

Talks

Edimentals Goes Mainstream

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On the 12th June, I gave my first webinar at a mainstream gardening conference in the US, the Southeastern Plant Symposium, hosted by the JC Raulston Arboretum and Juniper Level Botanic Garden in Raleigh, North Carolina.  I had thought that the invitation was on the back of a successful talk I gave at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens in September 2019. However, it turned out not to be the case and one of the organizers horticulturist and owner of Plant Delights Nursery, Tony Avent, had read my book, enjoyed it and had suggested to the committee to invite me!

My talk lined up to start on the right screen with Tony Avent on the left screen

I was sandwiched between some great ornamental gardeners and plant breeders including Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter in the UK. I particularly enjoyed Aaron Floden’s talk  (from the Missouri Botanical Garden) on unexploited native plants (in an ornamental context) and plant breeder Peter Zale’s talk on Hosta breeding (the market for Hostas in the US is enormous….time for a small segment dedicated to Hostas for food!). Edimental gardeners can, as I have over the years, get a lot of inspiration from ornamental gardeners.

The feedback after the event was very positive. One of the participants, Marty Finkel, wrote an article about the talk which has just been published on page 10 of the Granville Gardeners Gazette (available for all to read!)
see http://www.thegranvillegardeners.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Gazette-2021-07.pdf (after an article about human composting!)

Onions

Tall Swamp Onion

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Years ago, I was at a work meeting in San Francisco with my colleague Harald Krogstad who sadly died in 2020. It’s very easy to put a date on this as we flew back on the day of the September 11 attacks, almost 20 years ago. After the meeting we hired a car and drove up to the Sierra Nevada and walked for a couple of days in the Tuolumne Meadows area. I remember finding a patch of a large Allium that I later found out had to be the tall swamp onion or Pacific onion (Allium validum). A few seeds from those plants later germinated in Malvik and this became one of the 80 plants in my book Around the World in 80 plants. A few years ago I renovated my pond area and associated damp area where I was growing this onion which grows in large clumps in damp meadows at elevations of 1200-3350 m in the Sierra Nevada. It was finally possible to harvest again this year and yesterday I used it in scrambled eggs. The flowers umbels are unusually small for such a large Allium and for that reason has never become popular as an ornamental.  See an earlier blog post with pictures that didn’t make it into the book here: https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=5994