Category Archives: Herbs

365 Frankendael day 117

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Wild herbs

Just a few photos today, of much over looked useful and tasty urban plants…

Here is Ground Elder (Aegopodium podograria), it tastes fresh and of Parsley to quite an extent. it’s also a huge pest in many gardens, so of the soil is uncontaminated and the plants are unsprayed, I suggest carefully identifying it as the real thing and cooking it rather than adding it to garbage or dosing it with pesticide. It’s really interesting, finely chopped and sprinkled over many meals (I especially love it on fish and chicken), about 10 minutes before the end.

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Next is Chickweed (Stellaria media), property salad, packed with nutrients and able to soothe the skin of itches and irritations. I add this to a vinegar, making the bone building nutrients readily available.

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Next is Stinging Nettle (Urticaria dioica).

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Lastly today, White dead nettle (Lamium album). No sings and very tasty. Can be cooked or eaten raw. I often hear of people who enjoy sucking the nectar from the flowers. I ad them sometimes to a salad but prefer to eat the leaves and stems.

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365 Frankendael day 116

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Wild herbs, ,

A quick tram stop hunt for herbs today as I ran the Honey and Herbs workshop this afternoon.

Here’s a lovely little Hazel tree growing in the lowerparts of a beech hedge.

Here’s a very vibrant Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis agg.) growing in a dirt filled pavement crack above a bridge.

I harvested lots of Plantain (Plantago major) today, from close to de Kas restaurant. I’ll be dressing the leaves as I haven’t had time to make a succus with it and I don’t want to waste them.

365 Frankendael day 115

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Shrubs, Wild herbs,

I’ve been to Proef in Westerpark today to have a look at their organic garden, which City Plot tend. It is another inspiring example of how to grow lots of food and herbs without a garden. The site is next to the old gas factory storage tanks and hence the soil is deemed unsuitable for directly growing crops. City Plot have overcome the problem by using raised beds. They look great, house hundreds of very healthy plants and are quite a haven for wildlife. The Growing and Using Exotic Herbs Workshop on Sunday October 14th will take place there. Myself and Suzanne from City Plot will run it.

On my way back home I found this exciting sight… A fully ripe Elderberry spray!

So the time has arrived. Get your paper bags and recipes ready, these berries are packed with nutrients and can be cooked and preserved to deliver them when needed, through the winter.

Inspiring Precarious Gardens

Growing herbs, , ,

Just look at this healthy mixed crop of herbs and vegetables! They look good, don’t they? Now look closer at the backdrop. I had a wonderful lunch at Youko’s 3rd floor Amsterdam apartment recently, this is one of her window boxes, planted with a huge variety of edibles and medicinals. I was so impressed by the selection she has managed to nurture up there and the plants that I was fortunate enough to taste, were first class.


Here’s her other window box. An equally fine assortment! Youko is currently growing courguettes, marjoram, spring onions, cabbage, nasturtiums, peas, a sugar plant, shiso, vervaine, and many more.

An interesting point we discussed, over the window boxes, was that many of her neighbours have followed suit and now tend edibles in similar locations.

Obviously not everything does well in this exposed situation, where drying winds are the main challenge. Youko and I seem to share the same philosophy that if a plant thrives it can stay, if it doesn’t it can be replaced next year. It’s not a bad way of thinking when gardening anywhere.

This morning Youko sent me the following photos of pavement gardens, planted and tended by a 5 year old. Now if that 5 year old can do it so can many more of us!

The day before visiting Youko, I’d posted about Elodie’s third floor balcony and other ways to garden in small spaces. I’d love to see more photos of your edibles growing in unexpected, mundane or precarious urban spaces. If you have any, please feel free to email them to me or to post them on the Urban Herbology Facebook group. Maybe they will inspire someone else to take up the rewarding and addictive habit of urban edible and medicinal gardening. My email address is Lynn.Shore@gmail.com

365 Frankendael day 114

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

Beautiful weather today and a lovely stroll through the park.

Day Lilies (Hemerocallis fulva), beautiful, edible flowers, not to be confused with standard Lilies which are highly toxic. Please scroll through the photos on day 75 to see what they look like.

Garlic mustard (Aliaria petiolata) growing out of some dirt on a woodland bridge.

Garlic mustard seedlings, coming up for a second edible crop of the year. This is a biennial plant so although there is not enough time for these seedlings to mature and set seed before the frosts, they should survive and flower next year. Probably best to forage only from the second year plants (which are now almost over, foraging wise).

Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) is setting seed and what spiky seed heads they are proving to be! If you need to harvest some, it’s probably best to have gloves on and shake the seeds straight into a paper bag. I gave up trying today and threw the few I collected into nearby soil.

It’s still going strong in some areas: Ground Elder (Aegopodium podograria).

First year Burdock (Artica lappa). This is what is needed if harvesting the medicinal and nutritious Burdock roots, is your mission.

Blackberries.

Fat hen growing In the shelter of a Beech hedge.

365 Frankendael day 113

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Trees


I’ve been to De Hortus Botanicus today and busy planting exotic things for the workshop with Suzanne from City Plot in the autumn, so not much time to visit the park. Here are just a couple of photos of a beautiful Hazel tree which stands on the outside. It’s quite easy to confuse Hazel with Beech. Both have similar leaf shapes and both have edible nuts but Hazelnuts are my favourite. Roasted they taste almost chocolaty and go really well with it, hence my fondness. I need to make some notes of where I find Hazel this year. Hazel is a very useful tree, it can be coppiced to produce dozens of fine branded, in the same manger as Willow. it’s great to see that the council road cleaners, here in Amsterdam, still use broomsticks make of Hazel. It’s perfect for the job, grows locally and is completely sustainable. I hope the council brooms don’t come from abroad, if they are, at least they are not made of plastic.

Apparently there’s a nice copse of Hazel somewhere at the bottom of Pythagorasstraat, I haven’t found it yet. It’s well worth foraging nuts when you find them. They contain such a lot of nutrition and are apparently the least polluted part of a plant, that may be harvested. That is a great thing to remember when foraging in mucky city autumn weather.

365 Frankendael day 112

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

These plants are growing alongside Frankendael by the windy dirt path that follows the Middenweg. At first glacé everything simply looks green there but if you take a closer look there are several great edibles and a few plants that if eaten, would upset your body quite substantially.

Here is nutritious Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica), regrowing after a recent mowing.

Next is White Deadnettle (Lamium alba). Not a stinger but very useful and also nutritious.

Here’s a poisonous berry, I know it as Snowberry (Symphoricarpus alba).

Here are some of those half eaten unripe Elderberry heads, that I mentioned last week. We can only eat them safely when they are fully ripe, for birds it’s obviously another story.

Lastly today some ripening Hawthorn berries (Crataegus monogyna). If you are not sure then how’s a good time to get to know how to identify them, in readiness for the autumn harvest.

Labour of Love – VU Hortus Botanicus

Places

Whilst in the American Book Center today, I was told about an interesting event which they will host very soon and may interest you too. There will be plants, cello music, raw food, the book author, photographer and no doubt lots of other people who love plants and beautiful urban gardens.

Labour of Love: Portrait of A Botanical Garden
Book signing
Saturday 25th August
15:00 and 17:00
ABC Spui
Amsterdam

The VU Hortus Botanicus is a very interesting place which is open to the public, Mondays to Fridays 08:00 – 16:30. Entrance is free. It is on the way to Amstelveen from Amsterdam Zuid, very easy to get to and well worth a visit.

365 Frankendael day 109

365 Frankendael, Perennial herbs, Potions

Today was the Comfrey workshop. We harvested from a lovely patch of Russian Comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum) in a quiet corner of  Park Frankendael. After torrential rain before the workshop, the sun shone and the plants looked even more verdant than usual. After meeting the plants, off home to drink some 8 hour Comfrey infusion that I set up last night, make some Comfrey ointment (from infused oil), Comfrey Witchhazel gel and to prepare for making a Comfrey leaf tincture. The Tincture and gel instructions are on the workshop handout and will also be in my forthcoming Urban Herbology Essentials book.

So much more can be done with this wonderful herb. Another time! In cities I always harvest leaves alone, so no digging up Comfrey roots today, but plenty of healing unctuous goodness in the leaves. Also a reminder that Russian Comfrey doesn’t contain the much feared liver toxin in it’s leaves.

Thanks everyone for coming along, I really enjoyed it and hope you have further fun and healing using your preparations at home and in setting up your tincture jars. Any problems, just let me know. The next workshop is fully booked. I’m thinking of running a winter warmer lotions and potions 3 hour workshop later this year. If that sounds interesting then let me know.

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)