Topic: Caraway experiment

[Merete]

My family and I really, really like caraway greens - the tender, feathery fronds of early spring, cooked like spinach or made into a yummy soup, served with sour cream and boiled eggs.

Unfortunately, I have only been able to find ONE place in Oslo where it grows wild, and it's very far from where we live.

Since caraway sprouts really early in the spring, I thought I'd try to sow caraway seeds all over my tiny plot when I have cleared away the last leeks and cabbages this autumn,  then hope that nature will work its magic and give me lovely caraway greens once the snow is gone in the spring, too early for me to use the soil for anything else.

What do you think? Will this work?

I was also thinking about simply sprinkling some seed on the grassy hills outside my son's school, on the off chance that the caraway may find a new home there.

Advice, please?

[simhop]

Hej Merete

Unfortunaly I don't know anything about Caraway but just wanted to say Hi. There aren't too many people around on this site from this part of the world - I live near Karlstad so we are on the same temperature line.

Have you been growing veg for long - this was my first year in Sweden (moved from England with my Swedish wife)  and am reasonably pleased. Would like a bit longer growing season as this year we were covered in snow from November till end of March and then frosts through April, couldn't really plant anything out until June.

Take Care
simhop

[Merete]

Hi!

I'm actually Norwegian, but lived  in the UK for a few years with my husband. I've always known about allotments (we had a school allotment when I was 10-12), but I've only had a plot of my own since May.

(I lived in Kil in 1969-1971 - I still speak Swedish to my Swedish relatives.)

Oslo is near the sea, so we don't get the inland extremes of temperature you'd get in Värmland. I'm just hoping my cabbages and leeks will get a tiny bit more of growing done before frost comes here...

[simhop]

What a coincidence, I live in Kil now - what address did you live at?

Like you I am also waiting for my leeks - I don't think I will grow them again next year as they need more time, we are already down to -4 at night.

[Merete]

I'm sorry, I don't remember the name of the street any more - I was six years old when we moved...

It was a low block of flats quite close to the train station, the town library was downstairs in the same building.

To get back to the topic of gardening: How cold weather can the leeks take, do you know? Tonight we had frost for the first time...

Next year, I'll sow the leeks (indoors) early, so when I plant them out, they'll be a bit bigger to start with. This year, I got someone else's rejects, they were the size of chives... The taste is excellent, though - had two of them in a lamb stew yesterday, with a couple of my miniature cabbages that were meant to get quite a bit bigger.

[simhop]

Am certainly no expert but I think leeks can survive quite a harsh frost, we have had -4 so far and they are ok. I think the main problem is that they stop growing when it's so cold, hoping the weather stays a bit warmer before the snow so they can grow a bit more.

[Merete]

Yeah, that would be nice. But I used another one of the leeks today (in sage soup with sour cream and hard-boiled eggs, yum!), just in case. I'm NOT leaving them to Father Frost!