I’ve been growing Siberian Ginseng / Russisk Rot (Eleutherococcus senticosus) since I was given a cutting in May 2010. Although flower buds appear each autumn, flowers have never opened here. Nevertheless, it doesn’t freeze back at all. In my extensive Japanese foraging book, Hamimoto’s Wild Food Lexicon, it states it flowers there in August, so I guess the late flowering here is a day-length sensitivity. I propagated it and have a clone now at the Væres Venners Community Garden which is a sunnier site and a few flowers have now opened at the end of October!
The translated by Google Lens entry in Hamimoto follows, hinting at overharvesting for medicinal purposes. Only the latter use is mentioned in Hu’s Food Plants of China, the stem and root used for tea. It states that it was introduced to the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, USA in 1872 and the original plant is still living in good condition (2005). Is it still there?
Eleutherococcus (Acanthopanax senticosus): A deciduous shrub 2-4m tall. The branches and petioles are covered with soft, downward-pointing spines. The spines are thin and densely distributed lower down the trunk, thicker and more sparsely distributed in the middle, and often absent higher up. It is believed that the plant grows its finely arranged spines as a defense against small animals like rabbits, and then thickens and sharpens its spines to protect itself from Hokkaido deer and Japanese serows. Flowers bloom in August and are dioecious. The slightly liquid drupes appear in late September. Young shoots and leaves are great for tempura. The liquid drupes and branches can be used to make a spicy liqueur, but they are best left alone to protect the environment. Found also in Sakhalin, the Amur region, China, and Korea. Dug for medicinal purposes, populations are small.
400g of St. George’s Mushroom / VårfagerhattSand leek / Bendelløk, even though smaller, are more productive than leeks / purre here
Two gourmet ingredients (and many more) for tonight’s green pasta sauce are just doing their own thing in my edible garden with little interference from me, apart from the picking. First the patch of St. George’s Mushroom (vårfagerhatt; Calocybe gambosa) growing under a large birch tree next to a large patch of nettles and then sand leeks (bendelløk; Allium scorodoprasum) which self-sow from bulbils on the seakale bed (strandkål; Crambe maritima) in the seaweed mulch. The St George’s mushrooms are growing to the right of the chair The seakale / strandkål bed is full of sandleeks / bendelløk
Please subscribe to my youtube channel! 1. Perennial Edge https://youtu.be/qRsQt_U0Ujo The edges of my annual beds in the garden are not so productive as they are drier because of overhanging branches of the hazel,/birch/aspen woodland adjacent to it. I therefore allow perennial vegetables to colonise these areas as they are much less impacted by summer drought conditions, growing most actively in the spring time. In this video I show garlic (hvitløk) being grown as a perennial together with Hablitzia tamnoides (trained up into the trees), stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), hogweed (bjørnekjeks), dandelion (løvetann) and ground elder (skvallerkål). This area at the same time supports a large biodiversity of, in particular, insects. 2. Hydrophyllum in the World Garden https://youtu.be/gLC7XLYTG5A The genus Hydrophyllum or the waterleaves consists of seven or eight species restricted to North America, half of which are restricted to the east and half at higher elevations in the west. I have best experience with Hydrophyllum virginianum (Eastern waterleaf) and Hydrophyllum tenuipes (Pacific waterlef) and both are growing well as you can see in the World Garden (Verdenshagen). We see both in the video at harvest time and introducing a beginning battle for dominance with fellow Appalachian rhizomatous Rudbeckia laciniata (Cherokee greens or sochan). The young and the tips of stems are best in salads; having a mild sweetest taste, the older leaves usually being cooked (boiled or steamed). I usually use them mixed with other seasonal greens in salads and vegetarian dishes. Indian salad or Shawnee (no, not Pawnee which I say in the video) salad and west coast H. tenuipes is known as squaw lettuce. The name John’s cabbage is also used in the east, vouching for the fact that white settlers also learned to use this spring vegetable. In 1818, William Barton wrote that, ‘The Indian Salad and Shawnee Salad of Kentucky and Ohio are praised by the white settlers’, and, ‘The young shoots are praised by all who eat them’. Please read more in my book Around the World in 80 plants! 3. The Oldest Habby Bed https://youtu.be/_ErX8IcTq04 My oldest Hablitzia tamnoides (Habby) is now 23 years old and rapidly approaching 1/4 of a century and just as vigorous as ever. In this short video I introduce some of its offspring which love the shady sheltered conditions in this plant of the garden. I reckon that blanched Habby shoots would be a winner in gourmet restaurants, a bit like Jet de Houblons (blanched Belgian hop shoots). Also starring probably Smyrnium olusatrum (Alexanders / sorte løpstikke), Allium paradoxum var paradoxum (few-flowered leek) and Viola odorata (sweet violet / marsfiol) 4. Prunus tomentosa at Være https://youtu.be/fbJmv-d9Gug One of the more unusual berry / fruit bushes in the collection at the Væres Venners Conmunity Garden in Trondheim is the very hardy Nanking cherry / kinesisk kirsebær (Prunus tomentosa), a native to northern and western China (including Tibet), Korea and Mongolia. As the video shows, it is already in full flower and is therefore valuable for both wild bees and bumble bees in early spring, but it was a bit too windy when this video was made on 24th April 2025. We see two varieties purchased from Steen and Wormsen, a nursery in northern Norway who imported from a great plant nusery in Finland: Blomqvist’s Planteskola. The variety with snow white flowers is Snøhvit Lumikki. It looks promising for a good crop! 5. The Moss Leaved Dandelion https://youtu.be/m1Y6iKBRuFw The moss leaved dandelion is depicted in Vilmorin’s amazing book The Vegetable Garden from 1920 (I would encourage anyone to access this book which shows the amazing vegetable diversity we had 100 years ago). After much searching I was sent seed and a root by Guy Dirix in Belgium who may have been the last person growing this variety, although it turns out that this is actually the species Taraxacum tortilobum, a relatively common species in Western Europe (https://www.gbif.org/species/5394131). Here’s a short video of it in the World Garden in Væres Venners Community Garden in Trondheim, Norway. 6. An edible self-sustaining perennial community https://youtu.be/ksfo6FoZOyc A shady bed in the garden which has had various uses over the years starting as a little garden where my daughter Hazel grew her strawberries to an area where I grew various seed propagated trees and bushes before planting them out elsewhere in the garden (the lilac is from that time). Although I planted various shade loving perennial edibles in this bed originally, others have moved in from neighbouring beds to form this complex edible perennial community which has become more productive with time. I do little more than harvest, observe and weed out tree seedlings. Polygonatum spp. (purple-leaved solomon’s seal / konvall, perhaps P. biflorum) Hydrophyllum virginianum (Easter waterleaf / vassblad) Campanula latifolia (Giant bellflower / storklokke) Campanula trachelium (nettle-leaved bellflower / nesleklokke) Heracleum sp. (hogweed / bjørnekjeks) Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde) Allium schoenoprasum (chives / gressløk) Parasenecio maximowiczianum Parasenecio hastatus
To celebrate that the life-timer clicked over from 69 to 70 yesterday, the Barstow household’s tradition of making an equi-age permaveggie diversity MacCheese for dinner was followed once again, except we were out of macaroni and it was therefore a 70 species FusCheese with whole grain Fusili pasta! Curious as to what was in it, please see the plant ingredient list below the pictures:
An edibles walk and talk to myself at Kew Gardens on 12th April 2024! Pictures of spotted edimentals and other edibles below (names with the pictures):
Growing winter vegetables is easy and sustainable without the use of plastics, fleeces, expensive greenhouses and energy by exploiting the “talents” of perennial and biennial plants that are naturally cold tolerant! End of February greens, many harvested in the garden in this very mild weather, used in a delicious green Mac and cheese! See the list of plants added below the pictures. The plants: Forced inside: Aralia cordata (udo) Hosta Aegopodium podogaria (ground elder / skvallerkål) Cichorium intybus “Witloof Væres Venners” (chicory / sikori) Allium senescens x nutans Petroselinum crispum (parsley / persille) Brassia oleracea (various perennial kales / flerårige kål) Cirsium oleraceum (cabbage thistle / kåltistel) Outside: Allium carinatum “Pulchellum” Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde) Allium stipitatum shoots (Persian shallot / Persisk sjalott) Rumex acetosa “Abundance” (sorrel /engsyre) Taraxacum sp. (dandelion / løvetann) Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard / løkurt) Dystaenia takesimana Scorzonera hispanica (scorzonera / scorsonerrot) Ranunculus ficaria var chrysocephalus (lesser celandine / vårkål) Cardamine raphanifolia Hemerocallis sp. Allium cernuum (nodding onion / prærieløk) Allium oleraceum (wild onion / villøk) Allium sativum (garlic / hvitløk) Allium paradoxum var normale Allium paradoxum var paradoxum (few-flowered leek) Armoracia rusticana ( horseradish / pepperrot) Smyrnium olusatrum (alexanders / sorte løpstikke); not a very hardy species, but I’ve kept it alive for many years growing up against the house wall protected by a leaf and sacking mulch (I overwinter tender plants in pots here):
The year’s first taste of Hosta and Udo shoots (dug in the autumn, stored in the cellar and forced in the living room in the dark), used in today’s delicious salad. Easy when you know how! The ingredients list is below the pictures!
Aralia cordata, udo
Aralia cordata, udo
Hosta
Hosta
Hosta
Horseradish shoots
Salad with udo, Hosta, sea kale, Begonia flowers and more
Salad with udo, Hosta, sea kale, Begonia flowers and more
Salad with udo, Hosta, sea kale, Begonia flowers and more
I’ve shared my list of plants that I’ve planted in Trondheim’s World Garden to a few people who’ve asked and now it’s available to anyone who is curious (follow the link). The World Garden (Verdenshagen) is a garden I’ve created, starting in 2017, to show off the diversity of perennial vegetables, essentially my book Around the World in 80 Plants as a formal garden. Many are edimentals, edientomentals and ediavimentals (i.e, edimentals that are also useful to insects and birds respectively) and demonstrates how growing food can both look good and promote a large biodiversity. The plants are placed geographically around a 12m diameter circle with the centre representing the North Pole, where edibles from arctic and mountain regions of the world are planted. A few are annuals or biennials, planted in the gaps as the perennials grow and expand. For those of you who like lists, a list of the 359 plants I’ve planted so far is included below the new drone pictures taken in 2024! (thanks to board member Dan Smith). NB! A few of the plants have died, so this isn’t a list of current plants in the garden! I’ve noted this in the list. In addition, a few are planted each spring and overwintered indoors, such as some of the South American tuber crops.
Happy Dandy Lions forced in the living room, glad to have been invited into the warmth. Little do they know though that I had a cruel plan to put them into last night’s quiche!
Quiche is one of some 20 generic dishes I’ve evolved over the years for using perennial veg as there are no recipes for the veggies I grow. As always, we use coarse whole grain flour (organic emmer wheat and svedje rye flour). We also used forced Allium senescens onions and leeks and swiss chard from cold storage in the cellar as well as garlic and rehydrated winter chantarelles. Super tasty and healthy!
When giving talks I like to renew myself and talk about something different each time. For my talk in Copenhagen at the Future Heirloom event last weekend I focussed during part of my presentation on edimentals in the Asteraceae or Compositae (the aster or daisy family / kurvplantefamilien). These are tbe edible perennial vegetables that are most obvious in the autumn garden and often underutilised by chefs in the west. Visiting the World Garden a few days before my talk on 17th October, I gathered flowers from all the flowering Asteraceae and here they are with names:Most are used for their tasty spring shoots and leaves, used cooked and raw, and most have a characteristic fragrant taste / aroma loved in the Far East (as also Chrysanthemum tea is popular and a refreshing accompaniment to spicy dishes). Aster scaber and Ligularia fischeri are nowadays both cultivated in a big way as “sannamul” in Korea and even exported to Korean markets around the world. Young shoots of other Aster sp. are foraged in Asia as is big-leaf Aster, Aster macrophyllus, in North America. Also from North America, cutleaf coneflower Rudbeckia laciniata or sochan was a popular vegetable for the Cherokee first people and in recent years has, maybe not unsurprisingly become a commercial vegetable in Korea. Annual shungiku or chopsuey greens Glebionis coronaria hails from the Mediterranean but is today an important vegetable in the Far East! Others currently in flower are best known as root crops, including (in the picture) Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) and Dahlia. Yacon (Polymnia sonchifolia) is also autumn flowering but doesn’t manage to flower here (is moved indoors to flower and bulk up). The final flower in the picture is marigold Calendula officinalis, whose culinary use includes decorating and flavouring salads, soups and other dishes. Late flowering also means that the Asteraceae are also particularly important for a range of insect pollinators like hoverflies, drone flies and bees as can be seen in the pictures below, all taken in the World Garden:
Aster scaber
Aster scaber and, behind, taller Aster yomena
Aster yomena
Ligularia fischeri
Ligularia fischeri
Ligularia fischeri
Cardoon
Ligularia fischeri
Ligularia fischeri
Dahlia
Ligularia fischeri from Himalaya is late flowering
Dahlia
Dahlia
Dahlia
Glebionis coronaria
Glebionis coronaria
Aster yomena
Aster scaber
Chicory, sikori
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
The St George’s mushrooms are growing to the right of the chair 
The seakale / strandkål bed is full of sandleeks / bendelløk
The plants:
Most are used for their tasty spring shoots and leaves, used cooked and raw, and most have a characteristic fragrant taste / aroma loved in the Far East (as also Chrysanthemum tea is popular and a refreshing accompaniment to spicy dishes). 
