All posts by Lynn

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About Lynn

Learning

Funded River of Herbs Course!

Growing herbs, River of Herbs, , , ,

The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation is currently offering a limited number of grants (vouchers) to environmental volunteers who want to follow workshops/trainings in the area of nature and landscape management. If you want to learn how to participate in the River of Herbs project then this could be you!

River of Herbs is an innovative urban green initiative which aims to:

Increase the amount of edible and medicinal herbs growing in urban spaces.
Fill dull spaces with beautiful flowering herbs
Help urban wildlife
Increase food security
Encourage community participation in the care of urban spaces.

I have put together a River of Herbs training course, which you can sign up for and if you apply quickly the package will be totally covered by the available grants. My training course (worth 125Euro per person) falls way below the 1000 Euro maximum voucher request per applicant. I want this project to make a positive impact on the city so I’d love as many people as possible to get involved.

The deadline for applications to the Ministry is November 9th. But if you are interested in this you should contact me immediately so I can group you with others and make the application.

River of Herbs Training Package:
5 practical meetings (each 2 hours and on Sundays, in Amsterdam) covering the following topics, each time we meet. This training will give you the skills you need to confidently set up Urban Herb Meadows, keep them going, use them safely and involve others in the project too.

1. Ethical Urban Seed Collection and Storage
2. Identifying Spaces (tiny and large) for Urban Herb Meadows
3. Preparing, Planting & Caring for Urban Herb Meadows
4. Community Involvement with River of Herbs (sharing, helping, sharing)
5. Harvesting and Safely Using Plant Material from Urban Herb Meadows
6. Internet Mapping of Urban herb Meadow Locations and Blogging
7. Being run by Lynn Shore, each session will also include:
– an Urban Herb Walk
– printed info about the medicinal and edible properties of suitable herbs for the project
– the opportunity to stay in touch via my Urban Herbology Facebook group – a slice of cake now and then!

Please let me know straight away if this is interesting to you. lynn.shore@gmail.com

Dates for the training to be fixed in the next few days but all will be on Sundays, starting in January, to give more people the chance to participate and get this project really flowing through the city!!

365 Frankendael day 165

365 Frankendael

Today is the second birthday of this website. I’m pleased it has survived and that a few people have been encouraged to nibble on a nourishing city weed or two after reading an entry. That was the original intention of setting up Urban Herbology.

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Today I found a lovely unstrimmed patch of herbs, at the foot of a lamp post on Hugo de Vrieslaan. It is home to Stinging nettle, Yarrow (shown Achillea millifolium here), Ground elder and more. Quite a useful little patch of untamed plants!

365 Frankendael day 164

365 Frankendael, Foraging, , ,

Today a few useful plants growing around the bike racks just inside of park Frankendael…

Seedheads of Garlic Mustard (Allitaria ). Too late to harvest many now but a good indication of where their successors will grow.

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Beautiful Hawthorn (Craetagus monogyna) berries (Haws).

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Ground elder (Aegopodium podograria), in it’s last edible throws before dying back for the winter.

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Ivy (Hedera helix), always useful as an external skin stimulant, not for eating.

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A Garlic mustard plant in it’s first (non flowering) season. A space to watch next spring.

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365 Frankendael day 163

365 Frankendael, Evergreen herbs, Foraging, , ,

I met Youko and one of her friends, in the park today and she asked me about herbs which will be available at the end of October.

Here is one which will be around because it’s an evergreen herb. Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacae) is not closely related to tree and wall climbing common Ivy (Hedera helix) but it does like to grow in semi shaded areas. I found this beautiful patch close to the Hugo de Vrieslaan bridge exit of the park (inside). It tastes minty, makes a good digestive tea and I sometimes like it with chocolate or potatoes.

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Burdock (Arctium lappa) may still be looking good then but will be way past it’s best. Today it’s looking OK, if a little nibbled by something.

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Another herb which will still be very useful for the forager’s plate, come the end of October, is Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). It’s in the middle of Ground ivy in this photo. If the leaves are looking less than appetising, chase down and dig up the taproot. Give it a good scrub at home and use it’s medicinal energy reserves to fuel yourself. Dandelion is often used as a cleansing, strengthening liver tonic and is a well loved vegetable in several European countries. It can be used as a coffee substitute, as a roasted (bitter) vegetable in it’s own right or can be usefully grated into other food to as a bitter dimension. Dandelion is thought of as a weed by most so is unlikely to be missed. But if you begin whipping out the roots from clean locations for your pot, please ensure that you spread every dandelion clock you see around town, next summer! An interesting way of cooking the flowers (they may still spring up through the autumn) is mentioned here.

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I also found plenty of Mugwort (Atermisia vulgaris) today, it’s still in good shape for picking and drying leaves to use through winter.

365 Frankendael day 160

365 Frankendael,

Today on a walk to the local swimming pool we found a lovely stand of Rose bushes which are still partly in flower. I harvested a handful to their into an old Indian ginger tonic recipe. It’s very simple and we’ll look at it on the Exotic herbs workshop on 14th October.

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In almost every place I turned this morning, there were Gallant Soldiers growing. Now is a good time to harvest, dry and store this little herb for use, especially in potato dishes, through the winter. See day 154, for some background on the herb and a link to a traditional Colombian recipe which requires this South American herb.

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365 Frankendael day 159

365 Frankendael, Foraging,

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Here’s a welcome sight in Amsterdam at the moment; the fruit of Potentilla indica (Barren strawberry) continue to look just like little strawberries on the floor of shady areas. They are not at all strawberries but they are edible and interesting. Step them in vodka or honey for an interesting drink and pudding accompaniment respectively.

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Another tasty herb, Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacae). Can be used in place of mint for teas and some medicinal preparations.

365 Frankendael 158

365 Frankendael, ,

Just a quickie today;

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Calendula seed heads ripening on treepit plants. These plants will go on flowering into the winter. They grow very easily from seed so why not collect some and spread them around? The flowers and leaves taste aromatic and better, they have a multitude of uses in food and peoples medicine.

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Here’s Yarrow, a scarlet flowering variety but just as useful as the white native variety. This evergreen herb is still flowering in town and still surviving the strimmers! One of it’s country names is nose bleed, it has many uses including regulating blood flow.

365 Frankendael day 157

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Wild herbs, , , , , , ,

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I harvested three tiny prices of that fungus which I found a couple of days ago. I have checked it’s identity in the woods, at home in books, online with reliable sites and as there is nothing nasty I could confuse it with, I felt happy to cook a little. The photograph above is a little washed out but below you’ll see I’ve placed my test harvest against the photo in one of my mushroom books. What a beautiful colour!

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It is Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) and boy does it taste good, simply fried in a little ghee! It does taste quite similar to chicken, it is meaty in texture too. If it sits well in my stomach, I’ll be harvesting some more tomorrow. This isn’t going to turn into a fungus foraging blog, I don’t have enough experience of them and it’s so easy to go disastrously wrong, but if I find more interesting autumn fungi I’ll certainly post them here.

Rosehips (Rosa spp.) continue to ripen.
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As do Haws on the Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) shrubs and trees.

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I got all excited to see thousands of fallen Sweet chestnuts, at the front if Huis Frankendael but they are to small to do anything much with. Hopefully they have been shed to help the tree focus on building up carb’s in the rest.

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It’s still possible to harvest as much as you like of invasive alien Himalayan Balsam. The flowers have a nice taste, quite mild and like lettuce. I heard of someone using the stems as drinking straws recently. That could be interesting too.

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I think these are the sought after roots of Cat‘s Tails, dredged up in the current canal clearance operation. They don’t look very appetising in that must soup though.

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And lastly, Feverfew having a brilliant second flower flush. So bitter and do linked in traditional medicine to the treatment of migraine.

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