You have to search for the small red tassels that are the female wild hazel (Corylus avellana) flowers that will be the nuts. They’ve probably been there for some time as the male flowers or catkins are almost over in this very mild winter. I’ve read that the wild hazel is a good pollinator for large nut hazel varieties, but there is hardly any overlap in flowering times here.
A new species of fungi discovered growing on an old wild hazel nut in the garden this week, nut disco (Hymenoscyphus fructigenus), not found earlier in Malvik kommune. Thanks to Edel Humstad for the ID.
Last night we made a green pea soup and apart from the Hablitzia (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde), I used perennial vegetables growing in a wild part of the garden. With little or no help from me there’s a bounty of wild edibles in this area under wild hazels (Corylus avellana) and this made for a delicious pea soup with masses of greens. Campanula latifolia is documented as used in spring soups in the 16th century in my area in Norway and Heracleum shoots are also a tradional soup ingredient, in particular Russian borsch now thought of as a beetroot soup was originally made with hogweed shoots.
Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower) and Urtica dioica (stinging nettle)….in a dry shady area under trees, the productivity here is equal to my annual vegetables!
Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower) has almost outcompeted ground elder / skvalelrkål (Aegopodium podograria)
Hablitzia tamnoides in front of the wild greens
Heracleum (hogweed / bjørnekjeks) stems
Ramsons (right) were also used from an increasing patch naturalised in the shade of the north side of the house!
A new species for the garden is The Grooved Bonnet (Sølvhette) or Mycena polygramma, a bioluminescent fungi important in decomposing organic matter, recycling nutrients and forming humus in the soil, growing in the wild part of the garden next to a hazel. No bioluminescence seen though! Thanks to Berit Elle for the ID and Per Marstad for the verification!
Feeling tired but good having worked hard for several hours with my bow saw and axe coppicing this Hazel. A surprising amount of wood on a tree like this. It was probably 15 years ago I did this last… The green bush below the Hazel is a box (Buxus) which is probably 25 years old!
Added a few more pictures today, worked about an hour sorting the wood into different piles: firewood, tops for peas to climb into, long runner bean stakes and the rest which will be piled up in the garden for wildlife…. It always amazes me how little effort it is in my relatively cold climate to cut enough wood by hand for firewood…
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
