What to do with the very last Sarpo Mira potatoes from the cellar? Last night’s dinner was Gnocchi made with Hablitzia leaf, Laportea canadensis (Canadian wood nettle tops) and stinging nettle tops. I must admit that our first attempt turned into a gnocchi soup, so we had a starter with exactly the same ingredients as the main course :) The second attempt was excellent though!
Hablitzia tamnoides leaves:
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I remember years ago ordering seed of a special heirloom heritage radish “rat’s tail” (Raphanus sativus var caudatus) through the Heritage Seed Library in the UK. I remember that it was the gardener at naturalist Gilbert White’s House and Gardens at Selbourne in Hampshire that offered the seed and I remember that we ended up trading seed as they were looking for plants that Gilbert White mentioned; see https://gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk/gilberts-gardens The resultant plants had long green pods. However, I lost them eventually. Subsequently I’ve tried seed of rat’s tails several times and the pods have never been as long as those original plants. Radishes are difficult to grow here in spring as our long days result in them quickly bolting (still looking for a good day neutral variety). I remember reading that when wild radish Raphanus sativus was originally domesticated in China that it was for the young seed pods rather than the swollen tap roots. I therefore decided this winter to source various rat’s tail radishes from commercial sources and also obtained seed of 4 (of 8 available) accessions from the German genebank IPK Gatersleben. There was no available descriptons, so this was a random selection. They were sown in May in the World Garden (Verdenshagen) at the Væres Venner Community Garden (NB! I do grow a few annuals on the world garden if they have an interesting geographical story associated). Yesterday I harvested a few of each and was blown away by the diversity with long red, thin green and two more stumpy varieties like I had been getting in recent years when ordering rat’s tails. Below is what Cornucopia II says on this interesting vegetable. Assuming like me that you will want to grow your radishes to seed for the following year, the land is occupied all season in any case, so rat’s tails produce more than root radishes. The flowers are also also rather pretty bicoloured pink and white and area also attractive to pollinators! I think I will save seed and deveop a mixed grex of these and more varieties from the gene bank next year! And this gave the opportunity for a unique rat’s tail salad for lunch with radish flowering tops too, also delicious (see the pictures at the bottom) :)
The rampions (vadderot in Norwegian, Phyteuma in Latin) has been naturalizing in my garden but so far keeping to the cultivated beds. I needed to dig up a few this week as it was outcompeting some other plants I wanted to keep. I cooked the roots and they were delicious and almost fibre-free and used in a salad. Along with other plants in the Campanulaceae this is a very useful root crop for the root hungry gap! And just look at the bumble bees swarming over the flower tops, always the most popular plant for the white-tailed bumblebees (jordhumler), one of the most useful plants to grow, both tasty (I use also spring leaves and flower buds), nice to look at and a pollinator friendly, ticking all 3 boxes required to categorise it as an edi-ento-mental! Thr film shows bumble bees on a white-flowered patch of Phyteuma spicatum (spiked rampion). See also these posts about Phyteuma: https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=21018 (an article I wrote on the ethnobotany of Phyteuma “The perennial rampions: Shade tolerant edientomentals”) https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=18624 (Rampions for dinner) https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=11910 (Rapunsel)
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We may know that some of are most spectacular butterflies like red admiral (admiral), painted lady (tistelsommerfugl), comma (hvit C), small tortoiseshell (neslesommerfugl) and peacock (dagpåfugløye) may lay their eggs on nettles (Urtica), but did you know that just here in Norway there are 51 species of moths that do the same and two of the most beautiful were in the garden this morning: 1. The burnished brass / mindre båndmetallfly (Diachrysia stenochrysis) 2. The small magpie / nesleengmott (Anania hortulata) So, please keep a patch of nettles in the garden all summer (you can still eat the young shoots)…there are also several birds such as bullfinches (dompap) and finches such as brambling (bjørkefink) that eat the seed in winter!
Continuing a series of visits and projects where art meets my perennial vegetables. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of welcoming a delegation from the National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet), https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en Thanks to Heidi Bjerkan of Credo Restaurant who suggested that they should also visit my garden when in Trondheim on a fact-finding mission in connection with a planned exhibition celebrating 20 years of “New Nordic Food” in 2024 (see https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/aktuelt/2022/nasjonalmuseets-utstillingsprogram)! Credo are one of Trondheim’s acCREDOited Michelin restaurants whom I’ve had the pleasure to work with and advise several times in the past. Here are a couple of pictures from the couple of hours they were here on a wonderful summer day with the garden at its most seductive :) 3 from Nasjonalmuseet with Martin Braathen on the far right with two Hablitzia plants to be planted outside the museum, with two also from Credo including Heidi Bjerkan!
We’ve had a lovely 3 day visit this last weekend from artist Elin Eriksen from Nesodden starting a project based on my perennial vegetables. She sketched and photographed candidate plants in all 3 of my gardens, The Edible Garden, Ringve Botanical Gardens Onion Garden and the World Garden at Væres Venner! We look forward to seeing the results!
Elin has earlier created a poster of birds for Birdlife Norway (also for kids) and recently lead a course in botanical drawing for Sopp og Nyttevekstforbund at Valdres.
Photographing in the Onion Garden Chicago Fotografering i Løkhagen Chicago
Sketching in the Onion Garden Chicago Skissering i Løkhagen Chicago
Wietse’s onion in the Onion Garden Chicago Wietsesløk i Løkhagen Chicago ved Ringve Allium pskemense x fistulosum
Documenting perennial vegetables in the World Garden in the Væres Venner community garden at Ranheim! Dokumentering av flerårige grønnsaker i Verdenshagen hos Væres Venners Felleshagen på Ranheim
Relaxing with a multispecies perennial vegetable quiche in The Edible Garden!
Tonight’s perennial vegetables from the garden, used in a stir-fry: Top right and clockwise: Sochan / Cherokee greens tops (Rudbeckia laciniata); Norsk: Kyss-meg- over-gjerde (picture at the bottom) Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) “Skomvær”; Norsk: engsyre (picture at the bottom) Garlic shoots (Allium sativum) from a clump grown as a perennial; Norsk: hvitløk Perennial chicory tops (Cichorium intybus) Urtica platyphylla (a Japanese nettle species; later than Urtica dioica) Cabbage thistle (Cirsium oleraceum); Norsk: kåltistel From top and down Sherpa onion (Allium wallichii); perfect time for harvesting; Norsk: Sherpaløk Hogweed tops (Heracleum); Norsk: bjørnekjeks Hosta fortunei var. albopicta f. aurea Allium nutans; Norsk: Sibirsk nikkeløkSochan tops are excellent A sorrel I collected at Skomvær, an island outermost in the Lofoten Islands; it is floriferous and has a compact growth form!
Growing your own seed often has a positive impact on pollinating insects as here with a female orange tip butterfly (aurorasommerfugl) sitting on flowers of mustard greens / sennepsalat “Giant Red” (Brassica juncea). Eggs of orange tip (Anthocharis cardamines) are always deposited on inflorescences of crucifers like this one (I had seen both male and female early the same day in the same area).
Presenting this year’s udo (Aralia cordata) almost fully extended Thanks to Elin Eriksen for the picture (she has been Artist in Residence at the Edible Garden the last few days with focus on perennial vegetables)!
There are two new salsify/havrerot relatives flowering in the garden! Presenting: Tragopogon coloratus (first 3 pictures) ranges in the mountains of Turkey to Iran Tragopogon balcanicus (Balkan goatsbeard) (last 3 pictures) is found throughout the Balkans.
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
Making the gnocchi (potato used instead of grain for pasta):
From top and down
Sochan tops are excellent
A sorrel I collected at Skomvær, an island outermost in the Lofoten Islands; it is floriferous and has a compact growth form!
