Mallows (Malva spp.) are now in season for harvesting and will from now until autumn be an important source of greens and edible flowers. The best part are the flower buds with surrounding leaves. We started earlier in the week with musk mallow / moskuskattost (Malva moschata), a reliable perennial here that also self-sows in just about the right quantity. Traditionally, Malvas were often used in soups, so it was a good addition to pea soup along with Hybrid onions (Allium senescens x) Rumex acetosa (mixed Russian cultivars); sorrel / engsyre Campanula trachelium tops (nettle leaved bellflower / nesleklokke) Myrrhis odorata unripe seed pods (sweet cicely / spansk kjørvel) Origanum vulgare (oregano / bergmynte)
Sweet cicely (spansk kjørvel) is considered to be one of the worst invasive plants here and is now banned for sale and we don’t offer it through the Norwegian Seed Savers catalogue / yearbook. However, it’s one of the best edible perennials. It’s never spread in my garden as I’ve always eaten it, the best way to stop it spreading. In particular, eating the delicious flowers (in salads) and immature seeds (the best candy for kids) and collecting the mature seeds for winter sprouting, the best sprouts for winter stir-fries (sweet anise taste and a good size). This year, I sowed the large seeds in a large pot and stratified outside for a couple of months before moving into the cellar where the temperature is warmer than usual this winter and there was mass germination a couple of weeks ago. A few will be used in a chinese style stir-fry tonight! Eat your invasives!
Tonight’s garden foraged perennial veggies for an oriental stir-fry!
Lots of Hablitzia (stjernemelde), ground elder (skvallerkål), Svenskelauk (a form of Allium fistulosum), sweet cicely (spansk kjørvel), dandelion (løvetann), day lily shoots (daglilje), blanched horseradish shoots (pepperrot) and a variety of Allium victorialis (victory onion, seiersløk) which is the earliest form I grow along with one from the Kola peninsular in northern Russia; other varieties have hardly grown yet!
I spent a couple of hours in Muséhagen (the old botanical garden) in the centre of Bergen before taking the train to Oslo on Sunday and spent the time edimentals spotting amongst all the sun-worshippers, a strange experience in a town best known for its rain…
Sweet cicely (spansk kjørvel) is a “noxious weed ” (svartelistet), but also one of the best edible introductions to our flora, only invasive as we eat too little of it ;)
Hostas
My favourite formal part of Muséhagen is this bed with Hostas and Gunnera tinctoria from South America, both in my book Around the World in 80 plants!
One of Norway’s tallest Ginkgo trees, but alone it will have a hard job producing ginkgo nuts!
A splendid clump of Allium victorialis (victory onion / seiersløk)
A splendid clump of Allium victorialis (victory onion / seiersløk) towering over Egyptian onion to the left
Camassia cusickii
Camassia cusickii
A large clump of hybrid Trillium
Hemerocallis dumortieri is an early flowering species
A hybrid day lily to the left with much smaller Hemerocallis dumortieri to the right
Marshmallow (legestokkrose)
Asparagus, asparges
Gaultheria shallon
Rudbeckia (a vegetable used by native americans)
Tropaeolum polyphyllum
Darmera peltata
Hosta planted with conifers
An area with Myrrhis odorata, sweet cicely
Invasive claytonia sibirica
Hostas
Hostas
Hostas
Hostas
Pignut / jordnøtt was also growing wild in the garden
Scorzonera (scorsonnerot) tops are also delicious and sweet tasting
Allium senescens hybrid
Sweet cicely (spansk kjørvel) flowering tops (the flower stems need to be removed as they are woody) are also sweet.
Giant bellflower (storklokke) tops are also sweetish
Sorrel (surblad) leaves from my patch of 6 Russian cultivars
Somebody once said that solstice greens are the best…I’d add that solstice perennial greens are even better :) Here’s what I used in tonight’s soup: Sea kale(strandkål), Scorzonera (scorsonnerot), Allium senescens, Sweet cicely (spansk kjørvel), Giant bellflower (storklokke), Sorrel / surblad, Nettle (nesle), Dandelion (løvetann) (all are in my book)…and I almost forgot that there’s chickweed (vassarve) in there too, perennial in that it’s there every year!
