Keynote presentation on Friday evening:
"Foraging, edible plant diversity in Norway and
the over 100 year old Norwegian Useful Plants Society"
"Foraging, edible plant diversity in Norway and
the over 100 year old Norwegian Useful Plants Society"
Stephen Barstow E.S.M. (sbarstow2@gmail.com; website: www.edimentals.com)
Stephen’s house and garden is located at close to 63.5N near to Trondheim in Norway. Originally from England, Stephen has devoted 35 years to trialling over 6,000 different vegetables, most of them perennials and largely inspired by foraging traditions around the world and small scale domestication. He has a particular fondness for what he calls edimentals (or edible ornamentals), edible weeds and onions (the genus Allium). It is unlikely that anyone has tried and eaten so many different species of plants. His megasalads, consisting of 537 ingredients in 2003, a winter salad with 140, a ferment with 412 plants, a pesto with 230 types of onion, all inspired by traditional Mediterranean multi-species foraged dishes, earned him the title "Extreme Salad Man" (ESM)! His book "Around the World in 80 plants ", an inspiring edible adventure across the continents, covers in detail his 80 favourite perennial vegetables from around the world and the stories they tell! Apart from keeping up his garden, he is leader of the Norwegian Seed Savers organisation (KVANN) and is developing a Vegetable Sanctuary garden in Trondheim. Since taking early retirement from his job, he is now a visiting researcher at the Ringve Botanical Gardens in Trondheim where he is developing an onion garden to show off the amazing diversity in form and taste of Alliums! His own garden (The Edible Garden) is also a Permaculture LAND centre. He has also travelled widely around the world and lectured on perennial vegetables and foraging. He also specialises on leading ethnobotanical walks and talks in botanical gardens around the world.
Stephen’s house and garden is located at close to 63.5N near to Trondheim in Norway. Originally from England, Stephen has devoted 35 years to trialling over 6,000 different vegetables, most of them perennials and largely inspired by foraging traditions around the world and small scale domestication. He has a particular fondness for what he calls edimentals (or edible ornamentals), edible weeds and onions (the genus Allium). It is unlikely that anyone has tried and eaten so many different species of plants. His megasalads, consisting of 537 ingredients in 2003, a winter salad with 140, a ferment with 412 plants, a pesto with 230 types of onion, all inspired by traditional Mediterranean multi-species foraged dishes, earned him the title "Extreme Salad Man" (ESM)! His book "Around the World in 80 plants ", an inspiring edible adventure across the continents, covers in detail his 80 favourite perennial vegetables from around the world and the stories they tell! Apart from keeping up his garden, he is leader of the Norwegian Seed Savers organisation (KVANN) and is developing a Vegetable Sanctuary garden in Trondheim. Since taking early retirement from his job, he is now a visiting researcher at the Ringve Botanical Gardens in Trondheim where he is developing an onion garden to show off the amazing diversity in form and taste of Alliums! His own garden (The Edible Garden) is also a Permaculture LAND centre. He has also travelled widely around the world and lectured on perennial vegetables and foraging. He also specialises on leading ethnobotanical walks and talks in botanical gardens around the world.
Around the World in 80 plants
In the book, Stephen tells his own story, talks about the benefits of perennial vegetables (permaveggies), the importance of eating seasonally and foraging in the wild. He then leads us on an inspiring adventure Around the World In 80 Plants, introducing us to a selection of his top 80 perennial vegetables, with inspiration along the way from local foraging traditions and small scale domestication. Each plant has its own ethnobotanical story to tell; introducing Sherpa vegetables of the Himalayas; forest gardened and foraged vegetables of the Sámi people of Arctic Scandinavia; a super-vegetable of the Maori of New Zealand; an onion with a 1,000 year history linking the author’s home and Iceland ; a plant which earned the name ‘supermarket of the swamps’; the traditional veggie roof gardens of Norway; clifftop perennial vegetables of Dorset’s Jurassic coast; the Hampshire perennial vegetable triangle; Scandinavia’s best kept secret, a long-lived spinach that climbs; Prince Charles’ Forest Garden, and inspiring multi-species dishes of the Mediterranean countries. Many are completely new to most of us. The talk has been given in several countries around the world: Norway, Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, England, Scotland, Ireland, USA, Canada, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan and New Zealand.
In the book, Stephen tells his own story, talks about the benefits of perennial vegetables (permaveggies), the importance of eating seasonally and foraging in the wild. He then leads us on an inspiring adventure Around the World In 80 Plants, introducing us to a selection of his top 80 perennial vegetables, with inspiration along the way from local foraging traditions and small scale domestication. Each plant has its own ethnobotanical story to tell; introducing Sherpa vegetables of the Himalayas; forest gardened and foraged vegetables of the Sámi people of Arctic Scandinavia; a super-vegetable of the Maori of New Zealand; an onion with a 1,000 year history linking the author’s home and Iceland ; a plant which earned the name ‘supermarket of the swamps’; the traditional veggie roof gardens of Norway; clifftop perennial vegetables of Dorset’s Jurassic coast; the Hampshire perennial vegetable triangle; Scandinavia’s best kept secret, a long-lived spinach that climbs; Prince Charles’ Forest Garden, and inspiring multi-species dishes of the Mediterranean countries. Many are completely new to most of us. The talk has been given in several countries around the world: Norway, Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, England, Scotland, Ireland, USA, Canada, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan and New Zealand.