Bladder campion in the orchard

An easy support plant for your orchard could be bladder campion. What a yummy, easy to grow plant with wonderful flowers for insects too.

Silene vulgaris also known as Carletti, or Sculpit or Baldder Campion is a wild edible found in meadows apparently well loved and cultivated in Italy as a cooked green often used in risottos or omlette (See Stephen Barstow, Around the World in 80 Days).

Bladder campion would be happy in a position at the edge of an orchard in full sun and shoots can be harvested from Spring onwards and now too, Autumn, they are putting on a new flush of fresh leaves actually. Use just as salad leaves or I’ve also added chopped Carletti shoots into my regular Jamie Oliver style flatbreads (half dairy free yoghurt/half plain flour of your choice and baking powder). Yum! I’m sure you’d be able to tell me some more adventurous uses for it as I’m an extremely basic and lazy cook.

If you’re local and you’d like some seed to give it a try now or in Spring just let me know.

More info:
https://www.tyrantfarms.com/stridolo-silene-vulgaris-how-to-grow-and-eat-with-recipes/?fbclid=IwAR1bSXKHNtDJ6dakc8MGV5Ku6DplR_cP9Ae-gU46Rx9F6WB4rAqGMUhcMEI

Growing hops in the orchard

It’s always exciting to find plants growing where you wouldn’t expect to find them – here are some hops that were growing wild along a stream near Newquay, Cornwall. The plant was so vigorous and full of life. It was May and they continue growing until the end of June to get to it’s maximum height before focusing on flowering (if a female plant). Here’s some photos:

Wild hops plant on fence
Wild hops plant growing up a fence

Hops can be planted amongst fruit trees and shrubs or up posts and fences in orchards. it’s a really useful and beautiful climbing plant.

The shoots of the hops plant are edible (though it’s always best to check with an experienced forager or your plant ID book if you are unsure if you have the correct plant). You snip off about 10cm off of the end shoots in late Spring once the plant has got going. Any longer than that and the shoots get stringy. Try snapping the stem as that will reflect how good for eating they are, if you can’t snap the stem then it’s too stringy and old. Some people continue to snap off shoots well into summer which helps to keep the ends more tender and flower later.

They like full sun for good flowering but this hops was in only part sun, part wooded area next to stream and thriving with plenty of tender shoots to harvest.




Hops shoots with red stems