Presenting this year’s 30 rhizosphantastic Xmas vegetables, all roasted in the oven, served as every year in the last 40 with nut roast, bedecked with the following seeds / bulbils: alpine bistort / harerug (Polygonum viviparum), Himalayan balsam / kjempefringfrø (Impatiens glandulifera), evening primrose / nattlys (Oenothera biennis) and opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). The tubers are listed below the pictures.
Xmas isn’t Xmas without Oca and a hoard of other tubers, served with the traditional nut roast. Pre-xmas preparations includes the annual oca harvest. Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) is a short day root crop hailing from the central and southern Andes. When harvested at the first frosts, yields are poor, the plants needing a long mild autumn to fatten up the tubers for the festive season. I therefore grow my oca in large buckets which we bring into the extension to the house at the first hard frosts which was late October this year. We don’t heat the extension which is normally a fairly constant 5-10C in winter and hence a good place to store vegetables and other plants like my bay tree (Laurus nobilis). There’s no sunlight and I don’t use artificial light so there’s no diurnal variation in temperature either. The oca plants don’t grow vegetatively, but miraculously the tubers do grow over the few weeks to harvest:
There’s some variation in tuber colour which I select for
The house extension where I store the oca in their pots until Xmas
The house extension where I store the oca in their pots until Xmas
There’s been a lot of talk recently that we should return to real Xmas trees from the plastic trees which were once touted as being more environmentally friendly as they could be reused for many years. However, with the recent movement away from plastics due to the discovery that our oceans are filling up with microplastics, real trees are once again cool and what’s better than growing your own!! In June 2005, I was sent seed of Brazilian monkey puzzle, also known as Paraná pine, Brazilian pine or candelabra tree. It turns out that this tree is nowadays critically endangered. It is an important nut tree for the indigenous populations as is the common monkey puzzle tree further south.
Not being hardy, I’ve grown this tree in a large pot and move it into a cold cellar which is around +3-4C in midwinter. There is very little light, but it just goes to sleep until spring. I adopted it as a Xmas tree around 2010, I just move it in its pot into the warm living room. After about 10 days it is moved back into the cellar. It survives this treatment without problem. Now at 12 years old the trees are getting a bit lanky and less attractive as a Xmas tree – they and are no doubt root bound.
Yes, best of all for the environment is the grow your own perennial Xmas tree (..and yes, I know it’s a plastic bucket :( )
I tried to overwinter the Brazilian monkey puzzle with a leaf mulch and in an open (to the top) greenhouse. I was surprised that it made it well into March (picture), but a subsequent cold period killed it…
It grew much more quickly than the common monkey puzzle and this picture was taken in November 2008, only 3 years old
In the middle of London in the Chelsea Physic garden, you can compare both species of monkey puzzle – Araucaria araucana (below) and the narrower-leaved Araucaria angustifolia above
This picture was from the first time I saw this species, in the Jardín Botánico Nacional Viña del Mar in Chile around 2004.
On my 2004 trip to Chile I was fortunate to experience the amazing old growth monkey puzzle forest (Araucaria araucana) in the Huerquehue National Park
The picture (from Wikipedia) shows the cones (pinhas) and nuts (pinhões); Wikipedia: The seeds, similar to large pine nuts, are edible, and are extensively harvested in southern Brazil (Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states), a habit particularly important for the region’s small population of Native Americans. The seeds, called pinhão [piˈɲɐ̃w̃] are popular as a winter snack. The city of Lages, in Santa Catarina state, holds a popular pinhão fair, in which mulled wine and boiled araucaria seeds are consumed. In Brazil, 3,400 tonnes (7,500,000 lb) of seeds are collected annually which, combined with extensive logging, seriously threatens the regeneration of the species. It is also as a softwood timber, used in stair treads and joinery.
In the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam
Since about 2010, I’ve used it as a Xmas tree. The next few pictures are from 2011 with the fairy replaced by the seed head of Schubert’s Onion, Allium schubertii
Xmas tree 2011 with the fairy replaced by the seed head of Schubert’s Onion, Allium schubertii
Lyspære (Light pear) is Norwegian for light bulbs. These are lysplommer (dried plums) but are disappointingly not very bright….. ;)
Lyspære (Light pear) is Norwegian for light bulbs. These are lysplommer (dried plums) but are disappointingly not very bright….. ;)
Continuing the 2011 theme of an edible Xmas tree, the concept was further developed in 2012 (sorry, no chocolate): Brazilian Monkey Puzzle or Parana Pine (the tree), Cuban Oregano, Rosemary, Butcher’s Broom (Ruscus), Chili, Dried Apples, 3 varieties of Oca (Oxalis tuberosa), Karaka (Maori edible from New Zealand), Mashua and, once again, Allium schubertii in the star role as the fairy!!
Erik the half a gnome!
The two trees I have are moved outside for the summer, her blown over in a summer storm!
Winter in my cellar
18th December 2017…at 15 the trees are getting a bit lank, a bit like old growth trees :)
181217: Another good Xmas decoration plant is butcher’s broom (Ruscus aculeatus), also not hardy and overwintered in the cellar)
181217: Holly (kristorn) is also not hardy and is similarly overwintered in the cellar, also some 15 years old now
For Xmas dinner 2007, I made nut roast with roast vegetables including two members of the Basellaceae family (known as the Madeira vine family). It contains the following genus: Anredera, Basella, Ullucus and plantlist.org also assigns Tournoniahookeriana (previously Basella) to the same family.
Roast green Ulluco with Madeira vine (at the back) and potatoes and Basella greens!
I also cooked some Basella alba (malabar or ceylon spinach) greens to serve with the dinner.
Is this the only time all 3 main members of the Basellaceae have been served together? ;)
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
