Daily Archives: July 23, 2016

Food, Fungi, Perennial vegetables, Spice

Soba with stir-fried Golpared veggies

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The veggies: Allium senescens x nutans hybrid onions, Malva moschata (musk mallow), Broad bean tops, Atriplex hortensis “Rubra” (red orach), Sonchus oleraceus (common sow thistle), chili, puff balls, Leccinum versipelle (orange birch bolete / rødskrubb), piggsopp/hedgehog fungus and at the top young parsnip roots (thinnings)
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Heracleum maximum is the North American Cow Parsnip…
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Heracleum maximum is the North American Cow Parsnip…

I made soba with stir-fried golpared veggies and wild fungi for tonight’s dinner. Soba is buckwheat noodles. Golpar is the Turkish spice usually made from the ground seed of Heracleum persicum (Tromsøpalme). To me the taste of “golpar” made with different Heracleum species isn’t very different. Tonight I used Heracleum maximum seeds fresh harvested from the garden to spice the stir-fry (instead of cumin which I used to use).

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Harvested cow parsnip seed heads

 

 

 

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Harvested cow parsnip seed heads

 

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Cow parsnip seed

 

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Ground cow parsnip seed

 

Edible flowers, Forest Gardening, Perennial vegetables

Giant purple throat bellflower

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Noticed this rather attractive purple throated Giant Bellflower, reminiscent of Codonopsis! This patch came from AGS (Alpine Garden Society) seed, received as a cultivar “Gloaming” although pictures of that one all seem to show a purple flowered variety…
Campanula latifolia is one of top favourite edimentals as anyone who has read my book will realise!

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Normal white throat

 

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A closer look shows that Purple throat also has a little purple in the petals ..
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A closer look shows that Purple throat also has a little purple in the petals ..

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Perennial vegetables, Wild Edibles

Persian Cornflower

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There are several knapweeds (Centaurea spp.) that have been used as wild vegetables in the Mediterranean countries. I haven’t yet found and evidence of this beauty (Centaurea dealbata “Steenbergii”) having been used but it’s flowering in my garden at the moment!
I’m interested in seed of any of the following, all recorded as food plants (shoot, leaves and stems):
Centaurea aspera
Centaurea calcitrapa
Centaurea dumulosa
Centaurea hyalolepis (syn Centaurea pallescens)
Centaurea nicaeensis
Centaurea nigrescens
Centaurea solstitialis

Birds, Nut trees

Scruffy Siberian Nutcracker

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There’s always something to distract me here. This morning it’s a Siberian Nutcracker (sibirsk nøttekråke) sitting atop a pine tree in my Hazel woodland (the reason it’s here), checking out the ripeness of the nuts and declaring ownership!

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