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365 Frankendael day 108

365 Frankendael, Foraging

I carefully walked a long Frankendael hedge and woodland today, hunting for Sloes on Blackthorn trees and shrubs. My wander was fruitless in one way – not a single Sloe to be found and yet very fruitful in others:

Here is a woodland wild rose, already covered in very dark, almost ripe hips.

The following rosehips are more the norm. In a sunny location, this shrub flowered later than the one shown above and hence it ripens hips later. They are well on the way though.

Here’s a Jerusalem artichoke plant in full bloom. I wonder if this park has tried the Sarphatipark method of using it to smother chopped down Japanese knotweed?

Here is Rowan, ablaze with ripe orange berries. There are many uses of this fruit. Here’s a particularly tasty one.

More ripening and ripe Blackberries, this shrub is one of several within the park.

And here are the Sloes which I eventually found. My daughter wanted to go to our closest playground all along. When I gave up my Sloe hunt and returned there, we found a huge Blackthorn absolutely laden with fruit. I harvested as many as I could manage, all of which popped off the tree without any effort. Traditionally Sloes are harvested late, after the first frost but this usually means I miss the chance to harvest more than a few fruit. This year, for a change, I am harvesting as and when I see the fruit become ripe enough (fully coloured and very plump). I am scoring them with a sharp knife before freezing them. When I have about 500g, I’ll heading out for a bottle of Gorden’s Gin or similar, will combine the berries with some sugar and the gin and will leave it for as long as possible to infuse that unique sloe flavour into the sweetened spirit. There’s nothing quite like it and I am very excited to have found an inner city Sloe hot spot!

Herb by Herb part 4 – Elder

Lotions, Potions, Shrubs


My favourite herb, it grows as happily in cities as it does in the country. Generally overlooked, this herbal treasure chest is steeped in ancient folklore and has a long long history of use. You can use parts of it, harvested at certain times, to make simple safe remedies for the whole family.

This workshop is timed to (hopefully) coincide with the Elderberry harvest time in Amsterdam. Elderberry syrup will be on the remedy making menu, as will other useful concoctions. Sambucus  nigra is a herbal gem!

Monday 17th September 2012
Frankendael (bus stop Hugo de Vrieslaan)
10-11.30
€10 each, 5 max
(Fully booked (6/8/12) – waiting list available)

365 Frankendael day 107

365 Frankendael, Foraging

Edible Geranium flowers at a street cafe in Oost Watergraafsmeer.

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Buzzing honey bees on flowering White Bryony (Bryonia alba) which is poisonous but clearly valuable to city wildlife.

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Common Hemp Nettle (Galeobdolon tetrahit), in flower, prickly, square seemed labiate and easily identified. Edible and medicinal. This plant is an annual so if you harvest any leave the flowers intact to seed. Here’s a link to some basic information about the plant.

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Lastly today, a mini meadow of Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) again, in Park Frankendael.

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365 Frankendael day 106

365 Frankendael, Foraging


Blackberries are now ripe enough to harvest in many scrubland locations. These were on the Hugo de Vrieslaan and they tasted great! The bramble season will continue for several weeks. The plants cunningly open their flowers gradually, allowing for birds to strip all the ripe berries one day only for more to be available, just a few days later.

Here is Wild Parsnip. The roots (which I wouldn’t forage for ecological and social reasons) are edible but the foliage is definately not and can make unwise foragers very ill.

These Elderberries are not yet ready to harvest and could give you a very sick stomach if you tried them now. They need to become a deep purple black colour. Some birds have begun stripping the elderberries from plants just as they turn pale red. I don’t notice that usually, perhaps it’s because so little fruit has ripened on the trees in general this year. Whatever the reason, I’m sure that when the mass of elderberries become ripe, there will be enough for everyone who fancies cooking them.

365 Frankendael day 105

365 Frankendael, Foraging

I was on my way to meet a friend this lunchtime and didn’t want to arrive empty handed so stopped off at Park Frankendael to collect a little food for her. Both plants have been shown here many times but they still taste good and are still in season.

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Firstly that delicious Copper Beech Hedge (Fagus sylvatica) that wraps around restaurant de Kas. Only the very young leaves are easily palatable and a good way to harvest them is by pinching the twiggy stem with finger and thumb mail. If the stem doesn’t break of instantly you are trying to harvest to fat along the twig. The best way I know to cook them is in a little olive oil and water with a clove if garlic. Summer covered for ten minutes and serve as a bitter side dish our unusual starter.

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Next up is Plantain (Plantago major), rather than those lovely big leaves, try the seed stems. The easily removed seeds make a welcome green addition to boiled rice, quinoa, amaranth etc. Just add the clean seeds at the start of your regular grain cooking.

But I don’t have a garden!

Growing herbs, Indoor herbs, River of Herbs, Surreptitious gardening

Many city people tell me that they would love to grow herbs but they don’t have any space. I say that there is space in everyone’s home – even traveling homes – for living herbs. I also think that learning how to care for a plant is a skill that helps people to care for themselves, that can’t be a bad thing. I can’t recall where I heard or read it but “If you can keep a plant alive, you can keep your self alive” rings true to me. I think it was someone who’d been rather ill. Anyway, back to growing herbs in small spaces…
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So where to squeeze in those precious plants? Here are some ideas, in no particular order:

1. House plants
I used to have a flat full of house plants and then we got a cat and I worried about him munching on poisonous plants so most of them disappeared. I mostly focus on plants outside my house but a home is much more pleasant when shared with plants so I always manage spider plants (great for the cat), Aloe vera and a pot of Basil or Parsley on a windowsill. All are so easy to grow and Aloe Vera is a herb which I think no home should be without. If you really really can’t get a plant into your minute studio apartment (which I can’t really believe!) how about placing some in the stairwell?
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I recently bought a couple of books about growing tropicals and edibles indoors and have been inspired to try and retry a few interesting houseplants. So Ginger, Banana, Tea, Cofee, Orange, Pineapple and Lemongrass are currently germinating or growing in my home and several more exotics are planned. Don’t throw it grow it, by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam is a really great resource book for unusual and edible houseplants. I’m really looking forward to a planned workshop with City Plot sometime soon, by Suzanne Oommen who knows plenty about caring for tropical edibles.

2. Balconies
I’m very lucky to have a big roof terrace which I pack full of herbs but I also grow quite a few herbs on my kitchen balcony; Horseradish, Parsley, Vervaine, Wormwood, Mint…
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But mine is not a patch on my friend Elodie’s. Here are a couple of photos from her balcony in West Amsterdam. She and her husband cram as many plants as possible into the space they have and it looks really great. Not all of the plants are edible or herbal but a large number are.
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Elodie, perhaps you could comment on this with a list of the plants you manage to grow on your south facing balcony? Her plants grow up the walls, trailing over the fence and there’s just about space to walk through to a cosy snug at the far end. Its very beautiful and quite an urban oasis. She has it fenced up to the ceiling to protect her cats from falling.
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3. Outside in a Geveltuin (Pavement garden)
In Amsterdam you can ask the local council for a Geveltuin. If your immediate neighbours approve the plan you could soon be the happy carer of a tiny strip of sandy land, right beneath your apartment. Some districts even go so far as to give you a set of herbs or flowers to plant immediately. No such luck here in Oost Watergraafsmeer but my geveltuin was up and running just a couple of weeks from my initial visit to the Staadsdeelhuis, to find out how to apply. I continue to be very pleased with it. As mentioned before I have it planted with drought tolerant mediterranean herbs and they thrive there.
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If a dugout pavement garden is not an option perhaps a small collection of herb pots outside your door would work?

4. Outside in public ground
If you don’t mind sneaking around a little, attracting suspicious looks or possibly loosing all your plants to others, why not plant your herbs in carefully chosen public spaces? This is a great option for those straggly looking supermarket bought herb pots, such as Parsley, which after time don’t look good enough for your kitchen windowledge but could manage a further year or more of growth, given a fresh source of fertile soil. If the plants fail outside at least they will fertilize the soil, rather than being incinerated along with your garbage.
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If you like the approach you could get busy with some Nasturtiums, climbing through public hedges or planting herbs in tree pits close to your home or workplace. The options are endless.
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5. River of Herbs
If you are feeling public spirited and also want to encourage insect pollinators, why not add to the River of Herbs and plant a little, or large, Urban Herb Meadow and label it as such. More information as this develops but the Meadows are for everyone to benefit from. The herbs planted should be safe and be insect pollinated. If you’re uncertain of how to know that, go for pretty flowering culinary herbs and you won’t go far wrong.
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So these are my thoughts on growing herbs when you live on a small place. Would you like to add to them?

5/8/12 Update: Here’s the list of herbs which Eldoie grows on her balcony at the moment: 
Herbs’.
Sage
Rosemary
Parsly
Cilentro/ Coriander
Oregano
Basil
Dille
Mint
Rue
Verbena
Lavender
Catnip
Nasturtium
Nigella
Comfrey
Campanula
 
Malva
Geraniums
Portaluca
Dahlia
Fern
Yarrow
Duizendschoon
Sedum
En tabaksplant from greece Nixtum Lululum
And lots of Peturnias
hosta
Englishgrass
Tomato’s
Strawberries
And yes we still fit on the matras all 4 of us are going to enjoy our Saturday in the sun !

365 Frankendael day 104

365 Frankendael, , , , , , ,

To preserve a little energy I’ve decided to only post photos and the names of herbs shown, on moon days. That’s each full moon and new moon. I’m sure I won’t be able to hold back with a few extra bits of information, but I’ll try.

Today is a full moon…


Bamboo (young shoots edible)


Birch copse.


Indian balsam (Impatiens grandulifera) Flowers taste like lettuce.


Russian comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum).


Sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) Vanilla scented when bruised.

365 Frankendael day 103

365 Frankendael,

I walked to the local Intratuin garden centre today, to buy a few edible houseplants. Intratuin is on the edge of Park Frankendael. My mission was fruitful; a small banana plant, a Tea plant, Coffee and an Orange. I hope that I’ll be able to provide these plants with the conditions they need to thrive. Will be harvesting just a few young tea leaves in a week or so, if all goes well. I tweeted a photo of the Tea plant (Camellia sinensis) this afternoon, if you’d like a look…


On the way, I found this lovely patch of Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), close to a road so not my usual harvesting location but dry as a bone and bearing thousands of ripe seeds. I stripped about a hundred seeds from the plants in no more than two minutes. It barely made a dent in the number of seeds availableon and as I collected, many were blown away by the wind. I secured my seed harvest within a fold of purse fabric and continued my journey to the garden centre.

Now is a great time to look out for seeds ripening on your favorite plentiful city herbs. I’d love to know if any one else has been quietly collecting a few local seeds. If so, what catches your eye, how are you storing them and what do you plan to do with them?

Hollyhocks are next on my list of sought after seeds. They seem to germinate very easily in the sandy Amsterdam ground, can be used to produce useful home remedies and I think that they are amazingly beautiful.

365 day 102 Sarphatipark

365 Frankendael, Foraging, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thanks to the watertolerant group who joined me to herb walk in Sarphatipark today. We found lots of useful herbs and also interesting park workers who told us how the park is maintained by a dynamic group of volunteers and is trying innovative edible approaches to eradicate Japanese knotweed. Above is a park warden, pictured by the enormous Jerusalem artichokes which are being used to keep knotweed at bay. When the invasive plant is removed, the ground can quickly turn into a home for other unwelcome invaders or can see the return of knotweed. Using Jerusalem artichoke, another rapidly growing and spreading plant, can provide tasty tubers and quash the knotweed. So far so good!

I was also reassured to learn that the Ginkgo trees I’m so fond of in parts of Our Zuid are indeed female and yield plentiful Ginkgo nuts. Amsterdam is fortunate to have such edible plant loving folk in its green spaces team.


The plants I remember finding today are listed as tags to this entry. The spreading soft leaved plant which looked quite like Agrimony but wasn’t, was indeed a cinqefoil, called Silverweed previously called (Potentilla anserina) but now reclassified as Argentina anserina . It is shown above and it is edible. If you were on the walk and can remember other plants which I have missed from the tag list then please let me know.

Thanks again to everyone who joined me. It was a real pleasure to walk around with you. If you signed up but were not brave enough for the wet weather, remember there are always trees to shelter under next time 🙂

365 Frankendael day 101

365 Frankendael

Busy day today and a walk in Sarphatipark tomorrow so here’s a very quick post…


What a beauty and so tasty! Nasturtium escaping from the beautiful kitchen gardens of de Kas restaurant, in park Frankendael.

Ground ivy, deliciously minty everygreen of shady places.  Harvest leaves now to dry and use later if you wish but it is best used fresh as the flavour quickly dries away.  And being an evergreen you can intheory, harvest it every day of the year!