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
On Sunday 16th June 2019, KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) had a stand at the open day at the Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim! There were record crowds and good weather and many edimentals passed on to new owners! We sold about 30 different plants! We went plastic free which went very well! Plants were dug up the same morning and the almost bare-root plants were kept moist in glass jars and packed for customers in newspaper, writing the name of each plant on newspaper. We had a full grown flowering Angelica (KVANN) plant on display and both Bordalen and Markusteigen lines of Voss Angelica (see my book) / Vossakvann seedlings were sold. Many people thought the Angelica plant was a Tromsøpalme (similar to Giant Hogweed) and were amazed to see the difference in size between the seedlings and (2 years older), the full grown plant.
Thanks for Meg and Elizabeth for helping out on the stand!
We could have doubled the number of ramsons (ramsløk) plants which sold out quickly!
Thanks also to all the members who came along! Plants were half price for members!
Apart from being a well known singer / songwriter over the last 40 years, Neil Young is also an environmental activist and through his 2015 album “The Monsanto Years” with its obvious anti-GMO, pro organics theme, he reached out to many. From 2015, he has invited the permaculture movement to man a stand in a tent called ‘News You Can Trust’ in his Global Ecovillage which follows his tours! Permaculture magazine in the UK had been entrusted to organise local people to take part and I was offered two free tickets to take part. Having never seen Young live and seeing the opportunity to promote both permaculture and my book to a new audience, I jumped at the chance. Helene Bøhler joined me on behalf of the Norwegian Permaculture Association for a memorable day in Stavern!
Here is a selection of pictures from my visit to the Stavern Festival and Stavern :)
Luan Van Le from GMO Free USA has been travelling around Europe and the US with the Neil Young tour and was the coordinator of our News You Can Trust stand :)
Luan Van Le with Helene C. Bohler of the Norwegian Permaculture Association!
Freebies on our stand including Permaculture Magazine special number with Neil Young, Norsk Permakultur Forening, Nordic Tidlskrift on Permakultur, Ren Mat (Oikos) and the LAND project and Planteklubben for Grønnsaker !
The neighbour stand was run by the Center for Biological Diversity
We tried different techniques to attract attention…the issue of Permaculture Magazine with Neil Young on the cover was being used here as bait to haul in the punters… Maddy Harland and Tim Harland: Mission accomplished…all the PMs went to good homes :)
Neil Young’s global ecovillage
Neil Young’s global ecovillage
Helene C. Bohler talking to one of the visitors interested in Permaculture!
Helene C. Bohler fell for this chap from the Center for Biological Diversity stand!!
Threatened species… During the visit I spotted only one :(
Neil Young intro
Breakfast in the BnB…it’s always nice that AirBnBers plant for the guests :)
Alliums follow me around on tour it seems! The BnB had both Allium senescens (Siberian chives / sibirsk kantløk) and Egyptian onions (luftløk)
Bunias orientalis (Turkish Rocket / russekål) en masse at Stavern…nam nam
Bunias orientalis (Turkish Rocket / russekål) en masse at Stavern…nam nam
Memorial for the fallen at sea during the two world wars!
Memorial for the fallen at sea during the two world wars!
