When giving talks I like to renew myself and talk about something different each time. For my talk in Copenhagen at the Future Heirloom event last weekend I focussed during part of my presentation on edimentals in the Asteraceae or Compositae (the aster or daisy family / kurvplantefamilien). These are tbe edible perennial vegetables that are most obvious in the autumn garden and often underutilised by chefs in the west. Visiting the World Garden a few days before my talk on 17th October, I gathered flowers from all the flowering Asteraceae and here they are with names:Most are used for their tasty spring shoots and leaves, used cooked and raw, and most have a characteristic fragrant taste / aroma loved in the Far East (as also Chrysanthemum tea is popular and a refreshing accompaniment to spicy dishes). Aster scaber and Ligularia fischeri are nowadays both cultivated in a big way as “sannamul” in Korea and even exported to Korean markets around the world. Young shoots of other Aster sp. are foraged in Asia as is big-leaf Aster, Aster macrophyllus, in North America. Also from North America, cutleaf coneflower Rudbeckia laciniata or sochan was a popular vegetable for the Cherokee first people and in recent years has, maybe not unsurprisingly become a commercial vegetable in Korea. Annual shungiku or chopsuey greens Glebionis coronaria hails from the Mediterranean but is today an important vegetable in the Far East! Others currently in flower are best known as root crops, including (in the picture) Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) and Dahlia. Yacon (Polymnia sonchifolia) is also autumn flowering but doesn’t manage to flower here (is moved indoors to flower and bulk up). The final flower in the picture is marigold Calendula officinalis, whose culinary use includes decorating and flavouring salads, soups and other dishes. Late flowering also means that the Asteraceae are also particularly important for a range of insect pollinators like hoverflies, drone flies and bees as can be seen in the pictures below, all taken in the World Garden:
Aster scaber
Aster scaber and, behind, taller Aster yomena
Aster yomena
Ligularia fischeri
Ligularia fischeri
Ligularia fischeri
Cardoon
Ligularia fischeri
Ligularia fischeri
Dahlia
Ligularia fischeri from Himalaya is late flowering
Presenting yesterdays greens used on a veggie 100% whole grain barley/spelt/rye sourdough pizza were: Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach /stjernemelde) (eaten now every day since the beginning of March and there’s more to harvest now than at any time since I started!) Crambe maritima (sea kale / strandkål) Allium ursinum (ramsons / ramsløk) Levisticum officinale (lovage / løpstikke) (I call blanched lovage “spring celery” as it’s not that much stronger than celery…and much easier to grow than celery organically) Ligularia fischeri (Gomchwi; Fischer’s Ligularia / Koreansk nøkketunge) (King of the Sannamul: see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=3114) Rumex patientia (Patience dock / Hagesyre) Bistorta officinalis (Bistort / Ormerot)
Sea kale (strandkål)
Blanched lovage (løpstikke)
Blanched lovage (løpstikke) with unblanched plants behind
This was an unscheduled course day for me, my helper Lorna and Berit the camper, as it was a national holiday in Norway and Christian Odberger gave us a short course in grafting and I now have 6 or so new varieties of apples on a seed propagated apple. See also http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=4627
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Day 4 course participantsDay 4 course participants
The last supper: Rheum palmatum / Primula dip!
The last supper: Rheum palmatum / Primula dip!
This is a slide I’ve been using recently of my favourite perennial vegetable that didn’t make it into my book as I discovered it too late, Ligularia fischeri (gomchwi), an important shade tolerant vegetable in Korea… The pictures to the left and right are from the website of a Ligularia farm in Korea! See more about this amazing plant here: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=3114
We decided to try Ligularia fischeri wraps (the wrap leaves are eaten in Korea, unlike some other countries) and all agreed that it was delicious!We decided to try Ligularia fischeri wraps (the wrap leaves are eaten in Korea, unlike some other countries) and all agreed that it was delicious!I sympathise with these guys as I have the same edimental-collectomania ;) They went away with some 40 different plants!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
Most are used for their tasty spring shoots and leaves, used cooked and raw, and most have a characteristic fragrant taste / aroma loved in the Far East (as also Chrysanthemum tea is popular and a refreshing accompaniment to spicy dishes). Aster scaber and Ligularia fischeri are nowadays both cultivated in a big way as “sannamul” in Korea and even exported to Korean markets around the world. Young shoots of other Aster sp. are foraged in Asia as is big-leaf Aster, Aster macrophyllus, in North America. Also from North America, cutleaf coneflower Rudbeckia laciniata or sochan was a popular vegetable for the Cherokee first people and in recent years has, maybe not unsurprisingly become a commercial vegetable in Korea. Annual shungiku or chopsuey greens Glebionis coronaria hails from the Mediterranean but is today an important vegetable in the Far East! Others currently in flower are best known as root crops, including (in the picture) Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) and Dahlia. Yacon (Polymnia sonchifolia) is also autumn flowering but doesn’t manage to flower here (is moved indoors to flower and bulk up). The final flower in the picture is marigold Calendula officinalis, whose culinary use includes decorating and flavouring salads, soups and other dishes.
