Category Archives: Salad

February Hosta-Udo salad

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!

Salad ingredients:
Udo (Aralia cordata)
Hosta sp. 
Begonia flowers
Watercress / engelsk brønnkarse
Apium nodiflorum
Celery / selleri
Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde)
Crambe maritima (sea kale / strandkål); forced in the cellar
Dandelion / løvetann
Chicory / sikori (3 varieties)
Allium senescens
Allium triquetrum 
Garlic / hvitløk (including shoots from bulbils)
Dioscorea polystachya (Japanese yam)
Horseradish / pepperot shoots (forced inside) 
Turnip / nepe
Jerusalem artichoke / jordskokk
Carrot / gulrot (orange and white varieties)
Parsley / persille
Perennial kale / flerårige kål
Cress / karse

Mid-January Salad

In connection with Cathrine Kramer’s (Centre for Genomic Gastronomy) third visit to Malvik from her base in Amsterdam to make an around the year artistic film of The Edible Garden, I made a winter salad to show what is currently available to harvest in the living room, cellar and outside.  
Living rooms: forced Witloof chicories / sikori (my own Væres Venner community garden grex), Allium senescens hybrid perennial onion, forced wild dandelions / løvetann, cress / karse and wild buckwheat / villbokhvete sprouts (in sterlised soil), garlic bulbil sprouts, Begonia flowers, oca (2 varieties), parsley / persille, watercress / engelsk karse, Allium triquetrum shoots, garlic / hvitløk, Plectranthus amboinicus (Cuban oregano) and the last of the tomatoes / tomat!
From the cellar: carrots / gulrot, swede / kålrot, 3 varieties turnip / nepe, Jerusalem artichoke / jordskokk, apple /eple, sea kale / strandkål (roots dug in the autumn that had sprouted in the warmer than normal cellar), 2-3 varieties celery, beetroot / rødbete “Chioggia”, wild chicory / vill sikori (Cichorium intybus), 4 salad chicories and perennial kale shoots.
Outside: Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde (Hablitzia tamnoides), several dandelion species (leaves and flower buds) and Chicago onion / prærieløk (Allium cernuum).

23rd December H for Hablitzia salad

I made this salad for lunch today (ingredients below the pictures)


Ingredients:
2 varieties Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) 
Turnip (nepe) roots and sprouts
Carrot (gulrot)
Chicory (sikori) “Rossa di Treviso”
Parsley (persille); moved to an unheated room
Caucasian spinach (stjernemelde); Hablitzia tamnoides
Begonia flowers
Garlic (hvitløk) bulbil sprouts in living room
Dandelion (løvetann) sprouted indoors
Allium senescens sprouted indoors
Apple (eple) “Aroma” 
2 varieties celery (selleri) 
Olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

World Garden November Salad

14th November 2024:  Although the World Garden I’ve created at the Væres Venner Community Garden in Trondheim is mostly perennials, I fill up gaps with some annuals and biennials and some of them continue right up to the first frosts when they become mush. Most of next week is forecast to be sub-zero day and night, so this was the last chance to harvest. See below the pictures for the ingredients list.
All the following were used in the salad and all were harvested in the World Garden!
Perennials:
Rumex acetosa subsp vinealis (wine sorrel / vinsyre)
Rumex acetosa “Abundance” (sorrel / engsyre)
Taraxacum tortilobum (Moss-leaved Dandelion / mosebladet løvetann)
Allium sativum (garlic / hvitløk)
Cirsium canum (Queen Anne’s thistle / Dronning Annes tistel); tubers
Helianthus tuberosus (Jerusalem artichoke / jordskokk); tubers
Annuals/Biennial:
Anthriscus cerefolium (chervil / hagekjørvel)
Petroselinum crispum (parsley / persille)
Fedia cornucopiae (horn of plenty)
Glebionis coronaria (chopsuey greens / kronkrage
Daucus carota (carrot / gulrot)
Brassica rapa “Målselvnepe” (turnip / nepe)
Flowers:
Calendula officinalis (pot marigold / ringblomst)
Malva moschata “Alba” (musk mallow / moskuskattost)
Fedia cornucopiae (horn of plenty)
Raphanus sativus (radish / reddik)

78th Birthday Party Salad

In connection with my daughter Hazel’s birthday yesterday, she wanted me to make a salad for her and her friends she’d invited for dinner, so no birthday cake, it was a birthday salad with candle, and 78 ingredients was the plan! 78? Well, it was a double celebration as this week was also 40 years since the titles to my house were signed over to us by the previous owner Ragnhild Austvik. I told Hazel it would be a 78th birthday party and didn’t reveal all until we were at the dinner table! She didn’t guess why, believing I’d miscalculated as the combined age with her brother (his birthday is on Monday) would be 79, although on her birthday it was still 78, so it could have been that! So, here’s the over-the-top flowery salad I put together with ingredients list below the pictures (yes, I miscalculated and it turned out to be more than 78…40 more in fact ;)) 

Ingredients:
FLOWERS
1-3. Dahlia; Georginer (3 varieties)
4-6. Begonia (3 var.)
7. Malva alcea (hollyhock mallow; rosekattost)
8. Althaea officinalis (marshmallow; legestokkrose)
9-11. Raphanus sativus (rasish; reddik) (3 var.)
12. Apium graveolens (celery; seller)
13. Spilanthes oleracea (toothache plant; tannpineplante)
14-17. Lycopersicon esculentus (tomato; tomat) (4 varieties: Tante Cis, Linda Sibirsk, Sjokolade Plummer and German Pink)
18. Oxalis triangularis “Rubra”
19. Impatiens glandulifera (Himalayan balsam; kjempespringfrø)
20. Pelargonium
21. Brassica nigra (black mustard; svart sennep)
22-26. Hemerocallis (day lily; daglilje) (4 varieties / species)
27-28. Allium wallichii (Sherpa onion; Sherpaløk) (2 var.)
29. Sedum
30-32. Hosta (3 var.)
33. Calendula officinalis (marigold; ringblomst)
34. Fedia cornucopiae (African valerian)
35. Fuchsia magellanica
36. Diplotaxis tenuifolia (perennial rocket; flerårig rucola)
37. Oenothera biennis (evening primrose; nattlys)
38-39. Chrysanthemum coronarium (shungiku; kronkrage) (2 var.)
40-41. Mentha sp. (2 var.)
42-45. Allium schoenoprasum (chives; gressløk) (4 var.)
46. Tulbaghia violacea (society garlic)
47. Allium montanostepposum
48. Allium thunbergii
49. Allium cernuum x stellatum “Hammer”
50. Allium fistulosum “Salatniy” (Welsh onion; pipeløk)
51. Allium spirale
52. Allium nutans x senescens
53. Allium suaveolens
54. Allium cyaneum
55. Allium moschatum
56. Allium lusitanicum (German garlic; kantløk)
57. Allium boreale (Arctic chives; sibirgressløk)
58. Taraxacum officinale (dandelion; løvetann)
LEAVES
59. Aegopodium officinale (dandelion; løvetann)
60. Allium x cornutum (St. John’s onion; Johannesløk)
61-62. Allium thunbergia agg. (2 var.)
63. Allium schoenoprasum
64. Allium tuberosum (Chinese chives; kinagressløk)
65. Allium spirale
66. Allium fistulosum “Mysusæter” (roof onion; takløk)
67. Allium nutans x senescens
68. Allium schoenoprasum ssp. sibiricum (Japanese chives; Japangressløk)
69. Allium x proliferum (walking onion; luftløk)
70. Allium fistulosum x pskemense (Wietse’s onion; Wietsesløk)
71. Allium lusitanicum (German garlic; kantløk)
72. Allium hookeri var muliense (yellow Hooker’s onion; Gul Hookersløk)
73. Gynostemma pentaphyllum (sweet tea vine)
74-76. Brassica oleracea (perennial kale; flerårige kål) (3 var.)
77. Oxalis tuberosa (oca; oka)
78. Spilanthes oleracea (toothache plant; tannpineplante)
79. Coriandrum sativum (coriander; coriander)
80. Artemisia dracunculus sativa “German” (German tarragon; tysk estragon)
81. Anethum graveolens (dill)
82. Aegopodium podograria (ground elder; skvallerkål)
83. Stellaria media (chickweed;
84. Lactuca sativa (lettuce; salat)
85-88. Apium graveolens (celery; selleri) (4 var)
89. Oxalis sp.
90. Vitis vinifera (grape vine; drue)
91-94. Pisum sativum (pea; ert) (4 var.)
95. Petroselinum sativum (parsley; persille)
96-97. Cucumis sativus (cucumber; agurk) (2 varieties: Passandra and Epleagurk)
98-99. Brassica rapa (turnip ; nepe) (2 var.)
100. Plectranthus amboinicus (Cuban oregano)
101. Basella rubra
102. Oenanthe javanica (seri)
103. Angelica archangelica “Vossakvann” (Garden angelica; Vossakvann)
104. Brassica oleracea “Ragged Jack kale” (kale; grønnkål)
105. Campanula rapunculoides (creeping bellflower; ugressklokke)
106. Malva moschata (musk mallow; moskuskattost)
107. Sanguisorba minor (salad burnet; pimpernel)
108. Campanula punctata
109. Rumex patientia (patience dock; hagesyre)
110. Rumex scutatus (French sorrel; Fransksyre)
111. Sonchus oleraceus (common sow thistle; haredylle)
112. Nasturtium officinale (watercress; grønn engelskkarse)
113-114. Mentha sp. (mint; mynte)
115. Ribes divaricatum (Worcesterberry; Worcesterbær)
116. Rubus idaeus (raspberry; bringebær)
117. Prunus domestica “Sviskeplomme” (plum; plomme)
118. Ficus carica “Bornholm” (fig; fiken)

A conventional salad!

I didn’t know if I could make a salad just with ingredients you can buy in the supermarket (but all home grown of course!), but last week I DID IT when I had a family visit!!
The picture of me looking cool and conventional with my favourite grandson Johannes was taken by favourite son Robin (yes, I have one of each)

RINGVE OPEN DAY 2024

There were some 1,500 people who came along to Sunday’s Open Day at the Ringve Botanical Garden and as usual KVANN Trøndelag (Norwegian Seed Savers; kvann.no) had a stand where a wide selection of perennial vegetables could be bought and a 130 variety salad could be sampled, mostly perennials! It was non-stop for us 3 on the stand from the start at 11 am and many plants found new homes in the course of the day. Many members of KVANN joined us in the course of the day.
Thanks to Meg and Elizabeth for helping on the stand once again! 

I’d previously agreed to lead a group around the Onion Garden Chicago from the Regionalt Nytteveksttreff i Trondheim which was organised that weekend. I’d never seen so many people in the onion garden before as there was also a large group of people, many with insect nets, on a Humlevandring (walk around the garden learning about bumble bees organised by La Humla Suse). It turned out that the Alliums were attracting the largest concentrations and number of species, so we had to events together in the garden! FUN!!
Nyttevekst Treff

Pot luck salad

On Sunday 26th May we organized a potluck party in Væres Venners Community Garden in Trondheim for the first time! It was a fantastically successful event in glorious summer weather close to 30C (and a record for May) and with 40 participants, both members of the community garden (and supporters) and KVANN Trøndelag members. The participants brought a large variety of food dishes as we had hoped! The highlight was Anders (and Barbro) Nordrum’s introductory lecture on food preparedness!
Thanks to everyone, we will be doing this again!
My contribution was naturally a salad and I had to apologise as there were only 50 plants in it ;)
The white flowers: ramsons (ramsløk), sweet cicely (Spansk kjørvel), Allium zebdanense and sea kale (strandkål).
General pictures by Dan Smith!