The long delayed (by COVID) opening of the Onion Garden Chicago took place at the Ringve Botanical Gardens in Trondheim on Friday. Here we grow over 400 different Alliums including over 100 botanical species and some 60 old (with a history from 60-980 years; yes the oldest history goes back to 1040!) Norwegian onions. To officially open the garden, Elise Moltzau Wanderås from the Norwegian Agricultural Authority (LDir) was given Felco garden shears to clip Allium pskemense flowering stems and our new sign was simultaneously revealed (received the day before)!
Thanks to all that donated onions to the collection in my project (2008-2016) funded by the Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre and LDir, to Vibekke Vange and the staff at Ringve who gave me the chance and support to create this garden and make a dream come true, to volunteer Kim Wallace, daughter Hazel and Meg Anderson for help maintaining the garden! Thanks also to KVANN (kvann.no) for support for purchasing seed and bulbs for the garden and support for sending plant material from the garden to members each autumn!
Notice that we used an Alliophone (Allium microphone) under the event (patented by Søren Holt of Danish Seed Savers some years ago!):
See over 550 pictures from the garden in my big album here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156846106840860 Talking abour Allium pskemense with alliophone in hand!A good crowd of some 50 had found their way to Ringve on a lovely warm evening
Many thanks to all who turned up for my talk in Atlanta last night. I’m told there were almost 200 people :) The book store sold all 25 books they had bought from Chelsea Green! Great also to talk to so many interesting folk after the talk at the book signing :)
An unexpected surprise was a meeting with Bob Pemberton, main author of a paper on the Wild food plants in South Korea from 1996, which I reference several times in my book (picture below).
Writing this in transit in the Chicago O’Hare airport….Chicago onion (Allium cernuum) was the first picture on my presentation!
Thanks also to my hosts Cornelia Cho, who suggested to the garden I might do a talk, and Sam Landes who are president and board member of the Mushroom Club of Georgia! Some 20 of their members were at the talk! Pemberton, RW and NS Lee (1996) ‘Wild food plants in South Korea: Market presence, new crops and export to the United States’ in Econ. Bot. Vol 50, pp57-60.
A little video showing various Alliums about to burst into flower on a bed I’ve always called the Perennial Bed as it was the first bed devoted to perennials. It’s in the shade most of the day.
0-11 secs: Various forms of Allium cernuum (Chicago onion, nodding onion / prærieløk) and broad-leaved Allium wallichii (Sherpa onion)
11-20: Allium cernuum, Hemerocallis (daylily/daglilje) and Clinopodium vulgare (wild basil)
31: Norrland Onion / Norrlandsløk
(all of the onions above are in my book)
38: Allium cyathophorum v. farreri (Farrer’s onion)
Video Player
Media error: Format(s) not supported or source(s) not found
I’m still alive and well after last night’s noxious pizza. I’ll explain. I used pea shoots from the living room, onion, Allium cernuum shoots harvested from the garden (I forgot to include Hablitzia shoots), garlic and chili…on top of the pizza, I added seed of Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), one of the “worst” noxious (invasive) species…
Pea shoots grown in soil on the window sill in the living room
Allium cernuum leaves can be harvested year round even when it’s -10C in the middle of the day as it was yesterday!
Allium cernuum, Chicago onion, Nodding onion (Prærieløk)
I used a whole grain emmer, spelt, rye sourdough base to the pizza (much more tasty and nutritious than standard pizza dough)
A bit overdone…the oil rich brown noxious himalayan balsam (kjempespringfrø) can be seen on top.
..I forgot the Hablitzia shoots (also fun to harvest fro the garden when it’s very cold!)
Himalayan balsam (kjempespringfrø) was the noxious element of the pizza….the seeds were used. Here from July along the Monk’s Brook in my home town Eastleigh, Hampshire!
This album was first published on FB in June 2012, now “regurgitated” here:
“What for dinner? “Burdock flower stalk, nettle and the onion that nods curry” sounds interesting, so why not. So it was to be… I had completely missed this amazing vegetable and this experiment was prompted by foraging author Leda Meredith waxing eloquent about it a few days ago, so thanks to her. How did I miss it? Well, Cornucopia II doesn’t mention this part being eaten, just the leaf stalks – I’d tried them and they were fiddly to peel and bitter. The flower stalks were easy to prepare and once peeled had an excellent sweet crunchy taste with no bitterness.”
(https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151007155680860.476401.655215859&type=1&l=b287a87f09)
A pile of nettles (brennesle) and Burdock (borre) flower stalks
Burdock (borre) flower stalks
Peeled burdock (borre) flower stalks – the outside layer is fibrous and bitter, but the inside has a pleasant sweet crunchy taste that could be used in salads.
Peeled burdock (borre) flower stalks with Allium cernuum (Nodding Onion/Praerie-løk), easy to grow and excellent cooked and in salads at this time of year with flower buds.
Peeled and chopped burdock (borre) flower stalks are delicious raw – this really must be one of the best vegetables ever!
Stir fried Nodding Onion with Indian spices
…add the burdock which maintains an excellent flavour after cooking with spices…
Discarded burdock (borre) leaves are great slug traps – I’d noticed that slugs are very keen on the leaves and they hide underneath the large leaves
Two pictures from the end of June 2014 of possibly my favourite onion, the nodding onion (Allium cernuum) from North America in some of its myriad of forms…beautiful and useful at all times of year….see more in my book Around the World in 80 plants!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
The long delayed (by COVID) opening of the Onion Garden Chicago took place at the Ringve Botanical Gardens in Trondheim on Friday. Here we grow over 400 different Alliums including over 100 botanical species and some 60 old (with a history from 60-980 years; yes the oldest history goes back to 1040!) Norwegian onions. 
(patented by Søren Holt of Danish Seed Savers some years ago!):
