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Jadalnia Warszawa #1: Warm-up walk SUNDAY MAY 12 @ 12

May 092013
 

JADALNIA WARSZAWA

We kindly invite you to help us launch a long-term project to create an alternative map of  Warsaw (in particular Ochota and Mokotów), focusing on its edible plants and trees, soil health, as well as on how public space is used for marginal human and animal activity. On this first walk we’ll experiment with methods of data collection and help identify the most edible/useful plants and trees one can find in Warsaw.

WHERE TO MEET:
The walk will start here, near where Żwirki i Wigury crosses the railroad tracks (the address is approximately 25 Żwirki i Wigury) between Ochota and Mokotów. We will walk here on the path (Mikołaja Drigały) towards Grójecka. After the walk, we’ll go to Pixxe’s garden and drink teas made from black currant leaves, and taste some homemade elderflower cordials and wine.

The walk starts at NOON on Sunday, May 12. It will last between 2-3 hours and is approximately 1.6 km. Please call 796 532 208 if you need to locate the group after the walk has begun.

WHAT TO BRING:
Paper, pencil, smart phone, camera, video camera.

JADALNIA WARSZAWA (Warsaw Canteen) is an exploratory map-making project to investigate and mark sites for wild food, fruits, bioindicators, and the traces of land use by humans and animals as a means to understand and assess the health of our city. It is a long-term project originated and implemented by Jodie Baltazar and Paulina Jeziorek and consists of a series of urban walks/hikes which take place from May until October 2013.

We use all means of data collection: marking directly on paper copies of maps, adding date through mobile phones to google.pl and fallingfruit.org, recording media information, such as audio, photographs, video etc. As the project progresses, we will store information on a website and develop new ways we to present the information/images as the project progresses.

The aim of walks will be:

Mapping the Neighborhood: Exploration of urban space; creating maps of urban food crops such as fruit trees and shrubs, edible flowers, herbs, medicinal plants, and plants used for dyeing fabrics. By identifying specific plants that grow on the land, we can assess the type and health of soil. We also collect information on unoccupied buildings, abandoned plots, as wells as temporary structures and signs and traces of consumption and human subsistence activity (trash, eating, fires).

Monitoring of soil: While walking, we will collect soil samples from selected sites and transmit it to the laboratory. We may also conduct other tests of the soil as to its structure and composition. In this way we will be able to assess which of the sites are suitable for harvesting crops. The data will be used to scrutinize the stereotypes about growing food in the city as well as urban consumption of edible plants.


Public food, public eating

May 232012
 

Find and eat food in public! Wild Food on the Escarpment / Dzikie Jedzenie Na Scarpie. Join me for a wild food walk and feast this Sunday, May 27. Behind the National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe), 12:30 and 3:30.

Dzikie jedzenie na Scarpie

Dzikie jedzenie na Scarpie

Poszukaj kulinarnych inspiracji na łace. Spójrz na otaczającą zieleń z zupełnie innej perspektywy i zostań koneserem zieleni(ny). Dołącz do naszej ekspedycji poszukiwawczej, znajdź okazy dzikich roślin jadalnych i użyj ich jako składników potraw.

Początek warsztatu bedzie polegać na eksplorowaniu okolic Parku Marszałka Edwarda Smigłego-Rydza) i poszukiwaniu roślin jadalnych. Następnie przemieścimy się na przepiękną łakę, znajdująca się na tyłach Muzeum Narodowego, gdzie, z zebranej zieleniny, przygotujemy pyszną, wiosenną sałatkę i dzikie naleśniki.

Przewodnikiem po jadalnej łącę bęśdzie Jodie Baltazar

In English:
Look for culinary inspiration in the meadow. Check out the greenery from a completely different perspective and become a connossiur of Greens. Join us for an expedition to find wild edible plants and learn how to use them in cooking.

The workshop will start by exploring the Park Marszałka Edward Smigłego-Rydza looking for edible plants. Then we’ll move to the beautiful meadow behind the National Museum and make a tasty salad and wild pancakes with what we found.

Earth Day Foraging Expedition – Sunday April 22

Apr 182012
 
Tasznik - Capsella - Shepard's Purse

Tasznik - Capsella - Shepard's Purse

Are you ready to eat some dandelion (mlecz), nettles (pokrzywy), capsella (tasznik), lime tree leaves (liście lipy), baby sorrel (szczaw), and chickweed (gwiazdnica)? What other treasures will we find to eat in the earliest days of spring?

On Earth Day, Sunday, April 22, at the most wonderful cultural center known as Centrum Promocji Kultury in South Praga, Warsaw, there will be a great day of events. Sławomir Sendzielski and I will be leading a Foraging Expedition in the area the Cultural Center — parks and abandoned spots — looking for greens for an early spring salad. There are also many other activities, such as a Recycling Workshop, Films, Sprout Growing and more. Information (in Polish) here:

http://www.cpk.art.pl/News/view/1820

EXPEDITION at 2-3:30pm
Join us for an expedition to find the wild edible plants of South Praga! We will look for and collect fresh spring plants. Then, back at the Center, we’ll prepare and eat a big, delicious salad! We’ll leave around 2 and return around 3:30. Please bring a bag or basket to collect the goodies, plus a bowl and a fork to eat them with. We will have dressing and homemade bread to accompany it.

EKSPEDYCJA w godz. 14.00-15.30
Dołącz do ekspedycjiw poszukiwaniu jadalnych dzikich roślin na Pradze Południe! Będziemy szukać i zbierać wiosenne świeże rośliny. Potem,w CPK, przygotujemy i zjemy dużą pyszną sałatkę! Wychodzimy o 14.00 i wrócimy około 15.30. Proszę przynieść torbę lub koszyk do zbierania roślin, miskę i widelec,którymi będziesz jeść. Mamy sos do sałatki i chleb domowy!

Tiny Meadow in Bloom

Jul 112011
 
Tiny Meadow in Bloom

Tiny Meadow in Bloom

Wojtek took these photo on July 11. It’s Amazing! It’s Stupendous! It’s a Tiny Meadow!

Poppy in the Meadow

Poppy in the Meadow

Look at this beautiful poppy.

Poppy Buds

Poppy Buds

Here is a close up of the Poppy’s buds.

Chrysanthemums about to bloom

Chrysanthemums about to bloom

The Chrysanthemums are about to bloom.

Chamomile peeking through Chrysanthemum leaves

Chamomile peeking through Chrysanthemum leaves

And finally Chamomile poking up between the Chrysanthemum leaves. You can see the feathery leaves of the Chamomile.

Gooseberries

May 052011
 

Of course it’s great to be able to plant all the vegetables and fruits we want and love to eat, but discovering what is already there, what someone planted long ago, or what has managed to find a home and survived on the działka for years without any human intervention, is magical. Today Wojtek and I identified a couple of gooseberry bushes (Agrest) growing under the apple tree. You can see a thorn under the berry in this picture and the shape of the leaves.

Gooseberry (Agrest)

Gooseberry (Agrest)

It took us a while to find these berries, because they are still less than 1 cm (1/2 in) in diameter. The leaves look a lot like Blackcurrent and other current bushes (Porzeczka). Gooseberries can be sweet or sour. We’ll have to wait and see. Look at the little hairs on the berry and stem.

Gooseberry's Hairy Berry

Gooseberry's Hairy Berry

One thing I love about the Polish wiki is the illustrations someone is putting up for plants. They are obviously from an old German text–I would love to have that book. Very good resolution. Check it out if you’re looking for old illustrations of edibles. The details in these drawings are superb. Here is one for the Gooseberry (slighter smaller than the one on Wikipediea).

Gooseberry Illustration

Gooseberry Illustration

Hazel trees!

May 022011
 
Hazel Tree Leaf

Hazel Tree Leaf

I’m very excited because today I found out that the trees which I thought were Alders were in fact Hazels. Edible. Delicious.

Yesterday a friend of mine said she saw a Hazel tree in the back of the garden and when I went to check it out, I realized that I had been thinking all this time it was an Alder. I was so busy with planting that I haven’t had a chance to check out the leaves and flowers that are springing up everywhere! Fortunately I didn’t cut down any of the so-thought Alder. If this little fellow was a Hazel, then that would mean I have dozens of Hazel trees on the działka. We love hazelnuts!

I asked my gracious and gentlemanly neighbor, “Is this tree a Hazel (Orzech Laskowy)?” He said yes. There are two massive bunches growing between the slow compost pile which hang well into his garden. He said nuts abound. In fact I had seen nuts on the ground nearby, but they were very degraded–I thought they were acorns. Huh. Now that I know the truth, it seems obvious.

Hazel Tree Bark (young tree)

Hazel Tree Bark (young tree)

The Hazel is pretty much an overgrown bush. The bark is fairly smooth with distinctive lenticels, or little ridges, spattered about. Most of the trees here are pretty old, I think, and still the trunks are not very thick, the widest being perhaps 15cm / 6in. Of course there are quite a few young trees as well, and the bark on a young tree doesn’t look that different from an older tree. Dozens upon dozens of shoots spring up from the branches in the spring–I used them to make a fence. They are very flexible and long.

Hazel Tree Male Catkin (old)

Hazel Tree Male Catkin (old)

Hazel Tree old nut

Hazel Tree old nut

Sadly, this year these trees don’t have any catkins or flowers. The only thing I see are male catkins from last year and a cool half-birth hazelnut that never fell off the tree. My neighbor said that the tree gives nuts off and on, every other year. If I understood him properly, always an uncertainty, he said that they gave nuts this past year and this year they probably won’t. Sadness.

It’s interesting how, once you identify a plant, it seems to be everywhere. I just saw a huge grove of Hazels this morning in Stare Włochy. They popped out at me. I didn’t see any buds on these either, so maybe it’s still too early to tell if the ones on the działka will give fruit this year.

Mature Hazel Tree

Mature Hazel Tree

What kind of trees?

Mar 132011
 

It’s difficult to identify trees at all, but especially difficult in winter. It’s March so obviously there are no leaves. I start with the easy ones. I’ve figured out that the one in the picture below must be a walnut. There are a lot of walnuts on the ground for one thing, but also the walnut branch has a very unique chambered pith inside the branches. There are three of these fellows. Huge, healthy looking things:

Walnut tree - Orzech Włoski

Walnut tree - Orzech Włoski

There are also three fruit trees–I think either pear or apple. This being Poland, most likely they are apple. One looks pretty healthy although in desperate need of pruning. The other two don’t look so good. In fact half of one of them is on the ground. The other one is half missing. They are all full of dead branches, crossing branches; they look miserable.

There is also a mystery tree. I think it might be a plum because I found some pits under it, but the pits are few and look like they’ve been there a long time. Maybe it no longer gives fruit. Some vines are strangling it.

There are also trees that I think must be cherry–cherry pits on the ground, dark peeling bark. But what kind of cherry? Two choices: wild cherry (czereśnia) or regular cherry (wiśnia). Three look pretty healthy and two are completely dead.

Cherry Tree - Czereśnia

Cherry Tree - Czereśnia?

There are also many small alder, which is great because they improve the soil, and many ash trees, some of which will be removed because they block the southern exposure and are crowding the only healthy apple tree. There are a few other trees I can’t identify yet.