Here is a taster of the edible and amazing plants which can be found at the sandy Magneet Festival site, in Amsterdam Oost. This is Evening Primrose (Oenothera sp.) NL: Teunisbloem, a useful and tasty plant.

I was asked to lead a foraging walk each weekend, throughout the duration of the month long festival, by the Mobiation Project. This is their home, the Mobi-01. They slowly move around vacant spaces of Amsterdam, living sustainably, in this self made residence. The Mobiators were asked to run the Green Zone of the Magneet Festival this year and have organised a great selection of workshops and events. You can learn how to make solar dryers, solar heaters and many other things from the Green Zone this year. It is really inspiring and well worth a visit. Here’s their Facebook link.

So each Sunday that the festival is on, I’m giving free guided walks at 4pm, from Mobi-01 in the Green Zone. I’m showing interested people what can be found growing in the sand. At first glance there is not much of green interest but if you look closely you will find treats such as…

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) NL: Bijvoet


Wild Rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) NL: Wilde Rucola

We found many other edible plant species growing in the sand. Burdock (Arctium lappa) NL: Grote Klit. was the biggest surprise for me, I haven’t found it in such a pure sand location previously.

Next week I’ll be taking along some local edible plant seeds and wild flower seedbombs, to plant during the walk. It would be great to see a few other plant species find their feet in this unusual site.