Tag Archives: Quinoa

Quinoa greens

Tonight’s 22 greens from the garden with yacon used in a quinoa stir-fry (with garlic and chili in addition):
Brassica oleracea (perennial kale / flerårig kål)
Hydrophyllum virginianum (waterleaf, indian salad)
Tragopogon pratensis (Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon / geitskjegg)
Angelica spp. (kvann)
Allium carinatum
Allium ursinum (ramsons / ramsløk) 
Primula elatior (oxlip / hagenøkleblom)
Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde)
Carum carvi (caraway / karve)
Myrrhis odorata (sweet cicely / spansk kjørvel)
Polymnia edulis (yacon)
Urtica dioica ( stinging nettle / brennesle)
Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower / storklokke)
Ficaria verna (lesser celandine / vårkål)
Rumex acetosa (sorrel / engsyre)
Dystaenia takesimana (giant Ulleung celery)
Hemerocallis spp. (day lily / daglilje)
Taraxacum spp. (dandelion / løvetann)
Rheum ribes
Armoracia rusticana (horseradish / pepperrot)
Allium nutans
Aegopodium podograria (ground elder / skvallerkål)



Væres Venner Community Garden 29th August 2018

I worked a couple of hours extending KVANNs garden at Væres Venner community garden in Trondheim this week…I have some 50 perennials waiting for a temporary place until next year. I also cut down the vegetation in the rest of KVANNs area in preparation to cover with the thick paper donated by the Ranheim Paper&Board factory and straw from a neighbouring farmer!
The quinoa is approaching maturity and I harvested some more broad beans (bondebønner)! It seems that the soil is fertile (no compost or other fertiliser was added)
See the video:

Andes in Malvik 2008

In 2008 I still had a greenhouse. After it was destroyed in the 26th December 2011 I decided not to rebuild it and to only grow hardy vegetables. However, in 2008, I grew a number of less hardy vegetables including several from the Andes mountains. One of these was Achocha (Cyclanthera pedata), although yields of fruits wasn’t very big  (I grew it for several years from 2002-2012) and I would have probably been better off eating the shoots and leaves which are also edible and pretty good! Interestingly, my Nepalese guests (see  http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=6118) told me it was commonly grown in Nepal and they not only used the small green fruits, but the top shoots and the black seeds. The latter are roasted, ground and mixed with salt, chili and perhaps lemon. The powder is also used as a flavouring in chutney!

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Picture: Achocha “Fat Baby” fruits 

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Pictures :  Various Andean vegetables in my garden on 12th July  Quinoa, Yellow Finn, Ulluco#1, Shetland Blue Eye; Achocha Fat Baby, Amaranth, Russepotet, Oca, Blå Congo, Ulluco#2, Mashua

Jicama-ahipa à la Henry quinoa

One of the culinary highlights of the year is the annual Jicama (hee-ka-ma) meal….if you’ve never eaten yam beans or Jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus), you haven’t lived!
I grow this subtropical vegetable in my office, which only gets sunlight for maximum 1 hour a day which isn’t optimal conditions (they are usually grown in open fields), but being a climber originates in forests, so it tolerates shade. I grew it’s brother on-climbing Ahipa (Pachyrhizus ahipa) beside it, but that species didn’t produce much (perhaps it’s more sensitive to light?). I also didn’t think the taste was as good.  Both species died down at the end of the year and I harvested the tubers in early January!
Jicama tubers are best eaten raw and are crispy and a little sweet. Being one of the lost crops of the Incas, much more popular in the Americas than in Europe, I served them sliced with a cooked quinoa mix – mixed home grown Quinoa and black-grained Henry quinoa from Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus), flavoured with chilis and lemony sanshō seeds (Zanthoxylum piperitum or Japanese pepper).
NB! Both species, Ahipa and Jicama are normally started from seed which I haven’t succeeded in growing myself!
Day Two: I didn’t eat it all yesterday, I needed a bit more, so I cooked up a third species quinoa, Fat Hen quinoa (Meldestokk quinoa), from the seed of one plant of Fat Hen or Lamb’s Quarters (Chenopodium album). It was added to yesterday’s to give a Three species quinoa and jicama salad (two pictures added)

Cleaning quinoa seed

I’ve found the easiest way to clean quinoa and seed of other Chenopods is using water…the seed sinks and the chaff floats…after separating, the seed is dried…

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Quinoa seed froths up because of the saponins in the seed…

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Cleaned seed


 

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I used the same method with Chenopodium album / Fat hen / meldestokk seed (on the left)…the seed doesn’t froth much, so not such high content of saponins..

 

Home grown quinoa patties

A long way from home, I composed these Malvik grown quinoa patties tonight and they were pretty damned good! I boiled the quinoa, mixed with fried leek, garlic, chili, Angelica seed spice, salt and pepper and then added some egg so that the mix could be formed into patties, fried over the wood stove and decorated with some colourful greens from the cellar: parsley, a wild celery from New Zealand, Apium nodiflorum (fool’s watercress), unfool’s watercress and chicory “Rossa de Treviso”…

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Garden pictures 24th-25th September 2016

A collection of pictures from last weekend in the garden!

 

Climate Festival garden tours!

Lovely bunch of people on the two tours of my garden today! Forgot to take any pictures during the first tour, so just a couple from the second during the only shower…it had threatened to be a very wet afternoon this morning!!

050916: Added some pictures taken during the first tour by Elin Anita Mosbakk. Thank you!