Welcome Stephen Barstow author of Around the World in 80 Plants

Photo Source: Permanent Publications

This week Stephen Barstow will be joining us to talk about all sorts of plants from all over the world.

There are four copies of his book, Around the World in 80 Plants up for grabs.

Stephen will be stopping by on the forum over the next few days answering questions and joining in discussions.

From now through this Friday, any posts in this forum, ie the plants forum, could be selected to win.

To win, you must use a name that follows our naming policy and you must have your email set up in Paul's Daily-ish email.

The winner will be notified by email and must respond within 24 hours.

Posts in this thread won't count, but please feel free to say hi to Stephen and make him feel welcome!

Welcome to Permies! Your book looks fascinating. I'm sure it was really interesting doing the research on it. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the forum this week.

Welcome Stephen! Can't wait to read your book! Thanks for coming to the forums!

Welcome Stephen, such a great title to invoke the child hood adventurer in all of us. Way to make plant super exciting! Can't wait to read your book!

Thanks for the welcome everyone!! Look forward to answering your questions this week...

Here's Stephen 'in action' at the Arctic Food Festival.

Welcome Mr. Barstow!
I received your book as a gift from my boyfriend last week, and it's wonderful. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in perennial vegetable plants.

Thanks so much for your work!

Glad you are enjoying my little creation , Tine!! You've clearly got a very nice boyfriend!

Justin Rhodes wrote:Welcome Stephen, such a great title to invoke the child hood adventurer in all of us. Way to make plant super exciting! Can't wait to read your book!

Absolutely, Justin....I've been on one big adventure for 30 years...edible plants and the stories they tell are such fun!! They keep a smile on my face anyway

Welcome, Stephen.

It is very generous of you to answer our questions and give away 4 books. Thank you very much.

Folks, I have his book and it is truly awesome. A masterpiece and a classic. It contains such an abundance of really clear, well organized, practical information.... very detailed accounts of exactly what you need to know to succeed with these plants. The plants are, for the most part, much more useful than annuals. It is very empowering and opens up vast possibilities.

I rave recommend it.

Thank you very much for the kind words, Pamela!!

Hy Stephen,

Thank you for stopping by Permies.
I enjoyed your 45 minute video very much!
Really appreciate the phenomenal research you have done.

One question: did you say there is a perennial onion?
If so which one is it?
Thank you I am looking forward to reading your book.

Yes, actually there are probably some 700 perennial onion species in the world and I grow some 200 of them, the diversity of onions is truly fascinating and undoubtedly my favourite genus of plants (Allium). Even the common bulb onion derives from a perennial species and shallots are perennial as is garlic, if you didn't lift them and the winter wasn't too cold they would just keep on growing.One of them I was talking about is Victory Onion (Allium victorialis) which possibly was introduced to Norway by the Vikings as a food plant (it's like a giant version of ramps, Allium tricoccum), others were Sherpa onion (Allium wallichii), wild foraged by the Sherpa people in Nepal and Welsh Onion (Allium fistulosum) which was traditionally grown on Norwegian turf roofs for food and fire protection, but originates from Siberia - in the Far East, they mainly use perennial species Allium fistulosum and A. tuberosum instead of A. cepa (bulb onion / shallot) used in the west..... You may also be familiar with walking onions / egyptian onions / topset onions, all of which being a group of onions with aerial onions from crosses of Allium fistulosum with Allium cepa...

If you're on FB, you can see a giant album showing off the diversity of perennial Alliums in my garden (you'll need a week or two though as there are currently 676 photos!)
https://www.facebook.com/stephen.barstow.7/media_set?set=a.10150966880345860.471791.655215859&type=3

I use only perennial onions from very early spring to late summer.

There's a smaller album here for those not on FB: http://s304.photobucket.com/user/stevil2008_photo/library/Alliums?sort=3&page=1

There are some 19 Alliums given detailed coverage in the book....

Re: perennial onions

Does this mean you have to leave your onions in until they flower to self seed?
Or are you cutting off part of the onion and leaving the rest to regrow?

I have always picked the whole plant and composted the stems is this wrong?

Usually the bulbs of perennial onions are small and you eat both the greens and small bulbs or just the greens. You never dig up the whole plant - most divide quite quickly, forming new onions vegetatively (like chives do if you know that one). Most, but not all, regrow when you cut the greens down to ground level without removing the onion. I've never as far as I can remember lost one of the hardy perennial onions, some are 30 years old...

I think you are growing common bulb onions and yes that's corrected what you are doing unless you want seed in which case the bulbs will flower in year two..

Thank you for all your answers and time.
I do understand chives.
I don't mind cutting the chives as I am only going to use the tops anyway
and they spread really easily here.

I have always pulled up onions completely before.
Do you have to use the onion right away if you are cutting into the middle of it?

If you dig some perennial onions including the bulb you can keep them in room temperature for quite some time.
I've had bulbs of very hardy North American Allium cernuum (Nodding onion) survive the winter on the ground with no soil!

Welcome Stephen, I've got your book on my beside table awaiting attention. The first few pages have me well and truly hooked and I can't wait to get properly tangled up in it.

So I ran the winner picker app in the forum software and we have 2 winners.

Vida Norris
and
Pamela Melcher

Congratulations Vida and Pamela!

I sent you an email to ask for the email address of the person that first referred you to Permies.com. That person (if qualified) will also get a copy of the book and a permies care package.

Thank you, Cassie. I am deeply honored.

I will email you.

Thank you for hosting Stephen Barstow. He is a great teacher of a subject that is very important today.