Aubergine | Solanum melongena, Solanaceae

Gayle Chong Kwan, Aubergine, collage, 2011

Aubergine
Solanum melongena, Solanaceae

The plant is native to India, it helps to block the formation of free radicals and is also a source of folic acid and potassium.  It is richer in nicotine than any other edible plant. Production of aubergine is highly concentrated, with 85% of output coming from five countries. China is the top producer (56% of world output) and India is second (26%); Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia round out the top producing nations.

Imam Bayildi is the name of a popular Turkish dish that means "the imam fainted". It is made of braised aubergine and meat. According to the legend it was so good that after eating it an Imam passed out.

Achmed Sen, Pyramidengärten

To make a great sataras add a spoon of Vegeta, Yugoslavian dried vegetables, and a spoon of fresh ajvar (a cream of roasted aubergines and peppers with chilli).

Almira-Ada Mesic, Gärten Rosenduft

In this box, onions and garlics have been put side by side. I am not sure that it is a good idea, as they will be "fighting" between them. Usually it is better if you put plants together to have  those that grow differently, for instance, potatoes that grow in the ground can be with aubergines, which grow one metre tall. All these plants have just one cycle of production each year, but in the tropics they can have two or three.

Severin Halder, Allmende-Kontor

To make a great sataras...

To make a great sataras, add a spoon of Vegeta, Yugoslavian dried vegetables, and a spoon of fresh ajvar (a cream of roasted aubergines and peppers with chilli).

a bosnian recipe

Indeed I really love sataras, that is mixed vegetables, just vegetables. Moreover we use many of them for medicinal purposes: peppermint for instance and also roots, many different ones. Also parsley is used, it’s very good when dried to drink, it’s also good for the bladder. However when I am ill what makes me feel better it is just börek. We eat a lot but many different sorts, here it’s known just with cheese and meat, but we have it also with potatoes, pumpkin...

Almira-Ada Mesic, Bosnian, Gärten Rosenduft

Vegetables stew 

(sataras)

1 Kg red onions
1/2 Kg aubergines
1/2 Kg peppers
1Kg tomatoes

Cut the vegetables in little cubes.
First cook the onions in a pot with a little bit of oil.
Then put the aubergines and the peppers (roast them a little bit)
and after some minutes the tomatoes.
Add a little bit of water.
Cook for ca. 20 min then add pepper and salt.

A nice walk in Bürgergarten Laskerwiese e.V.

Hana Gunkel and Andreas Pfenning working of their parcel

view of the supermarket

We have almost twenty parcels in the garden. Some of them are cultivated by just one or two people, then we have a big one that is cultivated by a house community of 8 people. We are like 30 members, I think, very different in ages but not in provenances. Even if this is supposed to be an intercultural garden, we have just one person from Turkey and another one from Argentina. Every second saturday in the good season we have community gardening as we have many community areas that are cultivated by all the people together and we do also have connections with other urban gardenings in the city. So I could learn a lot about cultivating as when we got the plot we knew almost nothing, but the neighbours gave us suggestions. I think this would not happened in a kleingaerten where everybody has its private and fenced parcel. They are really "private" places.

their proud baby

other parcels

Andreas and his baby

behind ostkreuz

There is a dogs area around here, so often it happens that dogs come in and shit everywhere. We had to plants some aromatic plants that dogs do not like to keep them away but besides this, sometimes it happens that also few young guys come in and destroy some areas as this still remain a public space and everybody can come in.

many people live around the area

the water is collected from the roof of the supermarket

The garden openend in 2004 or 2005 but we got our little plot just last year. I had just got my little baby and I had a lot of free time so we decided to start cultivating. We have different kinds of beans, strawberries, potatoes, , beetroots and some herbs... all vegetables are healthy. It is great to have a green oasi inside the city. I grew in the suburbs of Berlin where there are a lot of green areas and I missed them.

the family

cauliflowers

the pond is a community area

A neighbour of ours did not have so much time to look after his plot, so when he came again after weeks he found it completely invaded by calendula and he has a little child so when he saw his plot he just sayd: "Oh, we have calendula!". And he used it everywhere, for tea, oil, oinment... giving it to his child.

a place to play

Hana Gunkel, German, Bürgergarten Laskerwiese

http://laskerwiese.blogspot.com/

dish of the day | a fresh beetroot salad!

recibe by Irene Roman

A tipical recipe from Nigeria

What I love most from my country is ekpan-nkukwo, it is a sort of pudding made of cocoyam, fish, meat or whatever cooked for a long time... when I am home sick I always have it!

And when I have a cold or simply the weather is cold, I take a pepe soup. Black pepper leaves are very aromatic and healthy and make you warmer, we use simple methods.

Vegetagles, vegetable, vegetables!!!

Susann, Nigerian, Rosenduft Garden

Susi Butscher | Ton Steine Gaerten

Gayle going to Ton Steine garden

Susi, Gayle and Giulia

It was like the first summer last year so it was like making our experiences. They started out last year around this time, I think I joined in April. I saw the garden, then in March I asked to participate and they had a little plot for me.  Mine is the one on the corner with the table.

Allotments at Ton Steine garden

Now we are full, there’s no free plots left and but in the beginning it was like whoever came just like they should accept that it is more of a group things than an individual, like ‘Its my land and I will not talk to anybody.’ So it’s a really mixed group, a really mixed group, we didn’t expect it to be like this.

Turkish people, because a lot of Turkish people live here, but like even old Turkish people who do not speak a lot of German, and some, I don’t know where in Africa, but some. The Turkish women always have a Samovar and during the summer time they make like a picnic and serve tea to the others.

There’s one Turkish thing, I dont know the name, because its like kohl, cauliflower, but its only the leaf, not the whole head, that’s something that is typically Turkish and they are happy because that is something that you cannot buy here. But then there’s one of the African guys, then he was really happy too because he knew the same plant.  So they are connecting in some way. They make like what you usually make with vine leaves, but they do not take the vine leaves, but this thing.

Gayle and Susi talking

Different ways of fencing

the Turkish corner

However we didn’t expect it to be like this much, because we had these tomatoes there by the corner of the side walk and they were like phswww, gone, so well the local government did not want us to put fences because they say it’s a public space.  But still we want it for the dogs because the dogs come, you know people walk with their dogs, the dogs run in, so I think we will work on this, so at least we have a little door so that the dogs cannot come in.

Ton Steine overview

   

There’s a Spanish girl who asked to put a recipe on the wall, and its what we did, and we cooked this recipe.  She says that she did this all over the world, especially to make people, when there are ethnic tensions, to make people think, to make people more in contact with other ethnics.  The ingredients were grown from here, but we do not have eggplants.


http://gaerten-am-mariannenplatz.blogspot.com/ 

the recipe