Remember to eat your garden

Stephen Barstow in Malvik outside Trondheim have between 1000 and 2000 different plant species in his garden, most of them edible. A few days ago I visited his garden, along with some 40-50 members of the norvegian association for edible and othervise useful plants and mushroom (Sopp og nyttevekstforeningen).

The salad served was a mix with 46 different species and 69 varieties of plants. All edible, of course, and this was very colourful and tasty food!

But as the visitors were told, don”t start grazing: Most of my garden is edible, but I also have some poisonous plants…

Barstow have a lot of different onion/leeks (Allium). Among them this edible beauty, Himalaya onion (Allium Wallichii), a plant that originate high up in the Himalaya mountains, in Nepal.

This garden is an example of how it is possible to grow a big variety of plant even as far north as in the middle of Norway. And the rough and rainy weather we have experienced around here lately is a reminder: summer does not last forever. So everybody who have a garden: try to remember to eat your plants while it is summer. (But remember some actually are very poisonous! Know what you eat!)

Myself I brought home 3 different mint plants and a small stem of both blue and white anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), norwegian: anisisop. This pretty herb is useful in teas, salads, and cooking. So hopefully it will last the though inland winter. And I really have a lot to do the next weeks, tasting my plants – flowers, salads, berries and herbs. More pictures from Stephen Barstows garden.