Stephen Barstow coming to Ottawa

I'm very excited (so much so that I actually wrote a blog post) that my dear friend Stephen Barstow is coming to Ottawa for a visit. I've been corresponding and seed trading with him for many, many years. It is a delight to finally meet him in person. Even better is that he is offering to give a talk on his upcoming book Around the World in 80 Plants on Edimentals (edible ornamentals). When I was just a little seedling asking questions or sharing my wide eyed plant joy, Stephen (also known as Stevil on the forums) would be sure to answer with his own joy and generous advice. If ever there was someone who I wanted to write a plant book, it was he.

Email me if you'd like to find out more about the details of this talk:

Around the world in 80 permaveggies!

Workshop with Stephen Barstow, the man who cultivates 2,000 vegetables in his own garden outside Trondheim in Norway.

This workshop will be in the form of a powerpoint talk about 80 of Stephen’s favourite perennial vegetables, including several historic Norwegian vegetables. A number of familiar ornamental perennials that can be used in cooking (edimentals), for example Hosta and daylily. Stephen takes us on a trip around the world from Norway, through Europe and the Mediterranean countries, through Asia, the Himalayas, Siberia, East Asia, South and North America. Many of the plants were and still are local wild foraged vegetables that became domesticated locally. We will hear the stories behind the plants and how they were used in their country of origin as well as experience from growing them in Norway ....many are ideal for the forest garden. There will be plenty of time to ask questions as we follow the plants around the world.

The journey around the world will take roughly 3-4 hours....

The talk is based on Stephen’s first book which is due to be published September 2014 – seehttp://permanentpublications.co.uk/port/around-the-world-in-80-plants-an-edible-perennial-vegetable-adventure-for-temperate-climates-by-stephen-barstow  and http://permanentpublications.co.uk/meet-the-authors-stephen-barstow

Stephen main job is with the sea (ocean wave climatologist) but has in recent years also worked on projects for the Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre, mainly collecting old Norwegian perennial vegetables and herbs! Stephen has led the Norwegian Seed Savers since its start in 2006.