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):
Somebody asked me to show how I force veggies indoors in winter, so here you have a link to a short video showing what is available at the moment! At this time of year, most of our leafy greens used in salads and cooking are either harvested from the forcing pots shown in the video or directly from the cold cellar under the house. Here is a mixture of perennials, biennials and annuals. Still looking for a good perennial chicory for forcing. See the list of plants shown below. Follow the link to the video. Witloof Festive Chicory (sikori / julesalat) Witloof Væres Venner mix (my own selection from the community garden based on several varieties from various gene banks) Hristo’s onion (Allium flavescens x nutans?) Kandahar cress (karse) from the Experimental Farm Network (seed harvested in the community garden) Wild buckwheat / vill bokhvete (seed harvested in The Edible Garden) Garlic bulbil sprouts / spirte hvitløk bulbiller Nodding onion / prærieløk (Allium cernuum) Dandelion / løvetann
We’ve been eating dandelions every day this year and now the first batch that I brought up from the cellar is flowering: We ate that one yesterday, but there are several more stretching upwards, and the background today is much brighter after a heavy snow fall:…and a bucket of chives can also now be harvested from:
Being the focus of an art installation wasn’t something I ever imagined, but since February an installation has been exhibited at the Trondheim Art Museum Gråmølna based on my January winter vegetables and very nicely put together it was too, by a group of international artists working on the Meatigation (get it?) project through the MOREMEATLESSMEAT exhibition. This was designed to stimulate debate on why it is difficult to get Norwegians to reduce their meat consumption in the face of climate change. They visited me in January filmed me harvesting in the cellar, in the living rooms and outside and took away about 30 of my winter vegetables that were then scanned and exhibited with narrative provided by yours truly: JANUARY HERBARIUM For those that don’t know me, I am more or less 100% self-sufficient in vegetables and fruit all year round without using a greenhouse, additional heating or light (we use far less heating than most) and not owning a freezer.
Last Sunday (30th April 2023) between 14 and 16 the closing event focussed on the myth that one cannot avoid importing vegetables in winter here in Norway through the UNPACKING THE EDIMENTALS HERBARIUM event. It was fittingly also the #internationaldayofthedandelion a plant I eat most days year round (forced from roots in winter in my cellar and living rooms). To accentuate that vegetable diversity is possible even in cold Norway in winter, with snow showers outside the venue, at a time of year known as the Hungry Gap (I call it the Full Gap as it really can be the time of greatest abundance!) I (#extremesaladman) prepared my most diverse winter/spring salad ever (and probably anywhere) with 163 botanical species, 199 different plants (including cultivars) and in total 211 ingredients (includes different plant parts, such as flowers and leaves from the same plant). I prepared two different looking salads from the same ingredients! The list of ingredients can be found at the bottom (a list was also hung up on the wall so that the participants could read what they were eating!)
The second salad:
The centrepiece of both salads was a complete rosette of the moss-leaved dandelion (Taraxacum tortilobum) in recognition of the International Day of the Dandelion!
I was asked a series of questions and gave answers supported by various plants I’d brought with me: Allium cernuum (nodding onion / prærieløk) Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde) (both are available most of the winter outside) Allium pskemense x fistulosum (Wietse’s onion / Wietsesløk) Allium stipitatum (Persian shallot / Persisk sjalott) Vicia faba (dried broad beans / bondebønner) Beta vulgaris “Flavescens” (swiss chard / mangold) Angelica archangelica “Vossakvann” (Voss angelica / Vossakvann) Taraxacum spp. (dandelion / løvetann – demonstrating dandichokes / løveskokker and dandinoodles / dandinudler)
The questions were: BIODIVERSITY: Why is agricultural biodiversity important? PRESERVATION: Why preserve heritage varieties of edible plants?EMOTION: Why joy, pleasure & humor in food and farming? WINTER: What could we eat in the winter? Preservation & fresh. FUTURE: What could a Norwegian food future taste like if plants were at the center?
There were of course also many questions from the participants about what different plants were in the salads. I mentioned that the salads were originally not just the result of a slightly mad collectomanic’s work in Malvik but also had an important message. My second and still current world record salad was made 20 years ago in August 2003 (see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=294). It had been inspired by the Mediterranean diet, where ethnobotanical studies on the back of the discovery of the low levels of cardiovascular disease in people eating traditional diets had revealed a huge diversity of plant species used in the Mediterranean region (over 3,000 species). Not only that, but traditional multi species salads, soups, calzones etc., often with over 50 different species had been discovered – more in my book Around the World in 80 plants). This week just 4 days before the event national broadcaster NRK had published an article once again pointing to the Mediterranean Diet as being the healthiest one! See NRK article.
The previous winter / spring record with 140 ingredients was made for Credo Restaurantat the Kosmorama Film Festival in 2017.
PREPARING THE SALAD ON MY BIRTHDAY The pictures below show me collecting the salad ingredients the day before which was my birthday, what better way of spending the day :) Picking nettles (which were cooked)Documenting as I went along! On the way to the event, waiting at the bus stop with salad and plants as the snow came down!
Pictures from the event (taken by Anne Maisey from TKM Gråmølna): Organising before the event The opening talk Voss Angelica / VossakvannAnswering questions about the salad ingredients
Wietse’s onion (Allium pskemense x fistulosum and Persian shallot (Allium stipitatum)Dried broad beans (bondebønner), leaf beets (mangold) and forced chicory (sikori)Svedjenepe / svedjerova – an old Scandinavian turnip variety grown in the Svedjebruk tradition (slash and burn), A variety that KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) are popularising again in the area in south eastern Norway where this tradition was practised (with Vossakvann roots)The list of salad plants was hung up next to the saladsAn Instagram postAn Instagram postAn Instagram postAll the plants (forced Hosta bottom right) and the salads, Allium cernuum (nodding onion / prærieløk) near the centre
Many thanks to Liz Dom who lead the event and project leaders Cat Kramer and Zack Denfeld and Anne Maisey from the museum, who took part remotely from Porto in Portugal at the start, for a great collaboration!
I was showing a journalist around the winter edible garden and cellar this morning and dug up some nodding (Chicago) onions (Allium cernuum) and picked a few Hablitzia shoots, so why not turn it into lunch! I sliced an oca (Oxalis tuberosa) in with the vegetables. Scambled Habby Chicago eggs is simple gourmet midwinter food from garden to table in no time!
The greens that went into last night’s wholegrain spelt quiche are listed below the picture! CELLAR: Dystaenia takesimana shoots; Forced hogweed (bjørnekjeks) shoots (Heracleum spp.); Forced Taraxacum (dandelion / løvetann); nederst til høyre: Witloof chicory (sikkori); øverst til høyre: swiss chard (mangold) GARDEN: Various hybrid onions (Allium senescens x nutans) and Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde)
We’ve been eating dandelions for lunch every day now for almost 3 months from the roots dug in the autumn and there’s still loads (see my post in January and February here: https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=27183 and https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=27343). We basically cut at the base with scissors and yesterday accidentally dissected a flower bud! The dandelions will respond with new leaf and flower shoots.
Forcing pots of dandelions and other perennial vegetables in the living room; ease of access in what permaculturists call Zone 0 Dissected dandelion flower bud
In order to lengthen the season for harvesting of perennial vegetables, I dig up roots of a selection in the autumn and plant them in garden soil in large buckets (which I have a surplus of through my Allium project, now moved to the botanical gardens). As I explain in the video, all of these can be stored outside exposed to the cold as they are very hardy (minimum about -20C here), but some get a head start by moving into my cold cellar where they start growing slowly in the dark. Welcome to my living room:
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These were the forced veggies used one day last week, from top left and across – Heracleum sibiricum (hogweed / bjørnekjeks); Campanula latifolia (giant bellflower / storklokke); Myrrhis odorata (sweet cicely / spansk kjørvel); Taraxacum officinale (dandelion / løvetann); (bottom row): Allium angulosum; Ficaria verna (lesser celandine / vårkål); Allium flavescens and Armoracia rusticana (horseradish / pepperrot); (centre right): wild buckwheat / vill bokhvete shoots – Fagopyrum tataricum)
Since New Year, only one day had been slightly above zero with temperatures regularly below -15C, but then a big shift in the weather happened a few days ago and it’s now 25C warmer than it was a week ago! It’s interesting to see how hardy some Alliums are, even when not insulated by snow and here are 3 of the most hardy: Allium carinatum (keeled garlic / rosenløk), Allium flavum (small yellow onion / doggløk) and Allium cernuum (nodding onion /prærieløk) can all be harvested even though the soil is frozen solid. Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde) shoots are also developing nicely and I’ll have a few for lunch today along with the onions.
Allium flavum
Allium carinatum
Allium cernuum
My oldest almost 20 year old Hablitzia tamnoides
My oldest almost 20 year old Hablitzia tamnoides
Allium flavum, Hablitzia tamnoides, Allium carinatum and Allium cernuum
I started this week sprouting the first garlic bulbils of the winter. Of the garlic varieties I grow, Aleksandra, Estonian Red and Valdres are all very similar (I suspect they may be the same) have the perfect size and number of bulbils for sprouting. I counted 90 bulbils on one typical head this evening. They are planted on ordinary garden soil (picture) and covered with a few cm of sterile soil so that seeds in the soil don’t quickly appear. The pot is put in a kitchen window to sprout and the shoots can be harvested two or three times before they give up. Some people remove the scapes (flower stems) of hard neck garlic in summer to get a better yield. I have compared the size of garlic on plants with and without removing the scapes and found little or no difference here. I therefore leave the bulbils to develop on most of my plants. For me it maybe adds maybe 50% to the value of the plants, so more than compensates a small yield decrease! The only ones I remove are harvested for the scapes which are delicious in summer stir-fries.
Head of garlic Aleksandra
There were 90 bulbils in one head
Planted on garden soil
Mid-winter emerging delicious garlic sprouts (another year); moved outside for the contrast!
Summer harvest of garlic scapes (Aleksandra) are great in various stir-fry dishes or finely chopped in salad or in garic scape pesto
It took just a week for the first shoots of the garlic bulbils to appear. It’s mostly less than 16C in my living room where I have the pot.
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
The plants:
We ate that one yesterday, but there are several more stretching upwards, and the background today is much brighter after a heavy snow fall:
…and a bucket of chives can also now be harvested from:
The second salad:
CELLAR: Dystaenia takesimana shoots; Forced hogweed (bjørnekjeks) shoots (Heracleum spp.); Forced Taraxacum (dandelion / løvetann); nederst til høyre: Witloof chicory (sikkori); øverst til høyre: swiss chard (mangold)
Forcing pots of dandelions and other perennial vegetables in the living room; ease of access in what permaculturists call Zone 0
Dissected dandelion flower bud
