Heritage plant inventories in Saaremaa 28.09.2019

On 27-28th September, three members from NGO Maadjas made garden inventories in Saaremaa island. Tiia Trolla visited several gardens on 27th September, and in the morning of 28th we visited an old woman and her daughter who had preserved under cultivation an old red colored rutabaga (swede, Brassica napus ssp. rapifera). We used the inventory document to write down the documentation of this rutabaga. They claimed that the age of the rutabaga would be several hundred years, its roots going back to an inn at Saaremaa island. The seeds had been handed over in the female line of the family. The same family for more than 100 years had also saved dill under cultivation. Later that day we visited an old woman whose garden was about to be overgrown. We got a nice talk in her garden about plants in general, even if she did not have any vegetables left then she had some old gooseberries, an old hop and spring flowers.