Pakora or bhaji is a popular snack in Indian and surrounding countries. Growing up in the UK, vegetarian Indian food has always been part of my diet since I was a student. It is basically various vegetables dipped into a batter made from gram (chick pea) flour and stir-fried. It would be fun to use broad bean flour as we can’t grow chick peas here. The flour was mixed with water, salt and pepper, chili, cumin and coriander until you get a batter with the consistency of cream.
The pictures show the 15 perennials I used (2 types of dandelion) and the final delicious and simple veggie dinner served with sour cream (or yoghurt), Most of the plants are forest garden species.
These are Aralia elata (devil’s walking stick / fandens spaserstokk) young leaves which I had forced inside (I’d cut the tree down to stilmulate new shoots from the root as all the young shoots were too high to reach. More in my book.
From the top left and clockwise: Allium victorialis, dandelions, Rumex acetosa, Hemerocallis shoot, Hablitzia (stjernemelde), ground elder (skvallerkål), Primula elatior (flower stems), garlic, nettle and (bottom left) Campanula latifolia)
Dandlions with a little of the root
Aralia paradoxum, Aralia elata, Myrrhis odorata, and bulb onions
Campanula, garlic, Primula, nettle and Aegopodium
Allium victorialis, Aegopodium (ground elder) and Hemerocallis (day lily)
Ready to eat pakora: Top and clockwise – Allium victorialis, Aralia elata, ground elder and Campanula mixed, dandelion (bottom), and bulb onion!
I’m appearing at two events at National Trust property Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland this summer. I’ll be doing talks and walks and talks at both events
9th June: BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time Summer Garden Party (see also http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/415rx5ZndyLb1gz3jnQ0SJV/gqt-on-location)
22nd and 23rd September: Planter’s Seminar (with Bob Flowerdew and Ken Cox)
On a break in my journey from Trondheim to Hvaler I had a few hours edible-spotting in the Oslo Botanical Garden (full of – not allowed to pick – food at this time of year) ;)
NB! Not all plants shown here are edible!
I’ll add captions later!
Cirsium spinosissimum is recorded in the Italian Alps to be used like artichoke (as a snack)
Taraxacum bessarabicum is from SE Europe
Hop shoots
Fine leaved young leaves of horseradish
Cochlearia, scurvy grass
Hylotelephium ruprechtii has mild tasting leaves
Allium victorialis #1
Allium fistulosum
Allium flavum
Allium lusitanicum
Ruscus aculeatus – will be interesting to see if this has actually survived the winter
Hosta sieboldiana
Tradescantia ohiensis (one of the 80 in my book)
Angelica atropurpurea
Viola canadensis
Magnolia kobus (the buds are delicious)
Prinsepia sinensis, an unusual fruit that apparently only ripens in a long hot summer in the UK…I’ve not manage to overwinter it…
Tulipa urumiensis
Tulipa kaufmanniana (Waterlily tulip)
Heracleum mantegazzianum
Heracleum mantegazzianum
Camassia leichtlinii ssp suksdorfii
There’s a good collection of Trillium in the woodland garden, here Trillium kurabayashii
Opuntia compressa
Allium siskiyouense?
Asarum canadense, wild ginger
Trillium
Trillium albidum
Trillium chloropetalum
Trillium chloropetalum
Trillium nivale
A nice group of Allium tricoccum
Streptopus roseus var perspectus
Erythronium albidum
Ostrich fern
Allium victorialis #2
Allium victorialis #2
Allium victorialis #3
Allium victorialis #3
Allium victorialis #2
Rheum alexandrae
Allium schoenoprasum subsp sibiricum
Mini rhubarb, Rheum pumilum
Primula denticulata “Alba”
Primula denticulata “Alba”
Erythronium
A nice broad leaved Allium nutans
Allium victorialis #4
Allium victorialis #4
Allium jesdianum
Allium humile with flower bud
Tulipa kaufmanniana
Campanula collina
Aruncus dioicus shoots are used in Japan
Caltha palustris “Flore Pleno”
Crepis aurea
Bog myrtle (pors)
Bog myrtle (pors)
Not Allium carolinianum
Allium victorialis #5
Primula marginata
Oxyria digyna
Rumex acetosa var serpentinicola
Cardamine bellidifolia
Not edible but Mogop, Pulsatilla vernalis, is one of the beauties of the Norwegian mountains
Smilacina racemosa
Taxus baccata “Repandens”
Reynoutria japonica, Japanese knotweed
Allim fistulosum from the turf roofs of Gudbransdalen
Allim fistulosum from the turf roofs of Gudbransdalen
Ligularia x hessei “Gregynog Gold” has mild tasting leaves (Ligularia dentata x wilsoniana)
Ramsons (Allium ursinum)
Not edible Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
Vossakvann (Angelica archangelica)
Arctium lappa (greater burdock)
Tøyen has a small collection of the old Norwegian onions I’ve collected
On the second day, we started with the second part of my talk and then had a walk on the beach at the Ytre Hvaler National Park looking for edibles. Randy Gunnar Lange works here and talked a little about the park.
Introduction by Randy Gunnar Lange… a species of sand wasp was active in the sand below our feet!
The course participants…a wonderful diverse group!
It was a bit early for most of the spring edibles such as sea kale (strandkål), but we did see a few young shoots of strandarve / sea sandwort (Honckenya) and sea aster (strandstjerne), young seedlings of Atriplex (strandmelde / beach orach), Rumex crispa and silverweed (gåsemure)
Randy shows us a speciality of the park, Strandmaurløve / ant-lion (Myrmeleon bore), a threatened species in Norway See https://www.artsdatabanken.no/Pages/223124
Randy found an ant-lion in the first depression in the sand he checked…it waits in the depression in the sand for an ant or other insect to fall in
…og tusen takk til Mariann Bekkevold Hovda who baked a sugar-free birthday cake for me <3
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What a perfect present….an evening with Anders Often, one of Norway’s leading botanists and a lovely person too! Thank you Randy Gunnar Lange and Ingunn Bohmann. I’d never met him before, but had emailed with him about old relic locations of Hablitzia some years back.
We walked from Eikeløkka through an amazing varied landscape, in places extremely poor with twisted pine trees and ground covering spruce, in others rich where marine sediments had been deposited, to the highest point on Kirkøy, Hvaler (Botneveten) at just over 70m from where there were amazing views showing a forest covered island and with spectacular panoramic views towards the Koster Islands (where I’ve been a couple of times: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=4225), Strømstad, Svinesund and Torbjørnskjær (where we had a buoy measuring marine environmental parameters in the 90s!)
Anders showing us a pincushion moss (blåmose)
Pincushion moss (blåmose)
Spruce trees had a very special form in places hugging the ground under a pine tree!
The pine trees seemed to be growing on almost nothing and were much older than one would think…
Anders counting annual rings on one small tree…it was around 20 years old!
Anders called these special pines “knausfuru” and told us they could be very old
One of 3 information boards on the top
A tumulus (gravrøys) from the iron or bronse age on top (they were placed with a good view during that period)
View towards Svinesund bridge (the boundary with Sweden)
Another ground hugging spruce under a pine
Anders told us here of the difference between the native and cultivated forms of spruce. The latter more often have several tops and irregular growth…this one had probably been damaged as a small tree…and a kink in the trunk can also be seen high up on the right
This was a hybrid oak
One branch of this rose was sprouting from the warnth of the rock
Cirsium palustre
What made this perfectly round hole in the ground?
We didn’t see any, but woodlark (trelerke) breed here!
One small patch of ostrich fern
Anders explained that this was an old beach, where waves crashed at one time
Fantastic spring weather for the first day of our weekend permaveggies course arranged by Hvaler Hagelag on the Hvaler islands in southern Norway. Great group of old and new friends. The local NRK Østfold TV were also there and interviewed us! The day started with a guided tour of Randy Gunnar Lange and Ingunn Bohmann‘s new home and extensive grounds (Eikeløkka) where we discussed their plans of developing the land to a multispecies biodiverse permaculture farm with forest garden including nut trees, fruit, perennial vegetables, carp pond, beneficial animals etc.
Randy’s plan is to beat my species count :) Good luck!!
I look forward to following Ingunn and Randy’s labours over the next years…
This was followed by a talk about perennials and their role in a more resilient future!
Published this month is a new Norwegian Fruit and Vegetable Encyclopedia written by Kari Vetlesen
Among its pages you will find both Hablitzia and Hosta (mentioned for the first time in a Norwegian book as edible?)
Unreleated, I hadn’t seen the following article about eating Hosta before: https://www.pressherald.com/2017/06/04/flower-power-on-your-plate
The picture is mine (entitling me to a free copy of the book!), taken in the Oslo Botanical Garden some years ago! Note that older leaves are also good (cooked)!
During my trip to Switzerland I had a fantastic day together with Mountain Gardener Joe Hollis in Zurich, first in the new (larger) Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich where some 7,000 plant species can be seen and later in the old botanical garden which is still maintained as a public park!
Joe is incredibly knowledgeable about useful plants and we spoke mostly latin!
Thanks to Matthias Brück and Kala Serafim for bringing us together!
More about Joe here: https://www.mountaingardensherbs.com
Joe Hollis botanising
Camassia leichtlinii
Malva (Lavatera) olbia
Umbilicus horizontalis (horizontal navelwort)
Joe and I were surprised to find liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) planted and spreading in dry soil under a pine tree
Crocus sativus (saffran)
Muscari comosum bulbs are commonly sold on markets in the Meditteranean countries at this time of year
Yucca filamentosa
Allium ampeloprasum
Not one to eat, Mandragora officinarum, Mandrake
Peltaria alliacea
Butcher’s broom, Ruscus aculeatus
I hadn’t heard of this species before, but it’s a synonym for Hosta rectifolia
Zanthoxylum simulans
Cornus mas
Centranthus ruber
There was a great display of native Swiss Cardamine kitaibelii in the woodland rock garden
Cardamine kitaibelii
In the company of ramsons (Allium ursinum), this was labelled Cardamine x killiasii, a natural hybrid between C. pentaphyllos and C. kitaibelii
I don’t know of any uses of this one, but a nice plant, Valeriana triptera
Joe Hollis
Caltha palustris
Bunium bulbocastanum (Great pignut)…I wonder if this is the real thing, most often it’s wrong!
There was a good display of Allium victorialis from the high Alps, confirmation that it can also be grown in the lowlands as a forest garden edible
Allium victorialis
Primula veris / elatior / vulgaris and hybrids
Primula veris
The only reference to this species, Lactuca uralensis, when I google it is from the Zurich Botanical Garden
Aster (Kalimeris) mongolicus may wel be used in Mongolia
Hemerocallis middendorfii
Pachyphragma macrophylla is a beautiful edible woodlander in the cabbage family
Pachyphragma macrophylla is a beautiful edible woodlander in the cabbage family
There was also a cone display, Pinus pinea, one one of the pine nut trees
..and another, Pinus cembra
Pine cone display
A familiar one from Joe Hollis’ neck of the woods, Trillium sessile
Ramsons (Allium ursinum) is everywhere in Zurich, loved to eat and hated as a weed…
Ramsons (Allium ursinum)
We didn’t get time to visit the domes
Equisetum telmateia is a native…also found in the Pacific North West in North America where I saw it on Vancouver Island on the coast
These were collected to eat at the symposium. However, it wasn’t Equisetum arvense (too large) and knowing there are poisonous species in the genus, I persuaded them not to use them and they were thrown out. I now know it was E. telmateia which I know was used by native americans in Western North America
Gunnera tinctoria from Chile, one of my Around the World plants
Another Around the World plant is Apium nodiflorum
Yet another Around the World plant, Polygonum bistorta
We also visited the interesting library…ethnobotany is important at the University. This is a Goji (Lycium) display
A distant redwing (rødvingetrost) in full song today (high volume required)!
I remember whilst still living in Scotland hoping to hear redwing singing in June in North West Scotland on a summer cycle ride around the coast of Scotland. They are red listed in the UK because of the small breeding population, but just over the North Sea here in Norway they are everywhere. Scottish breeding seems to be declining (climate change?), less common now than when I was there!
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