Strange, odd and curious veggies

Do any of you grow the more "out there" types of veggies?

I'm trying a few things that are a little out of the norm. Thai yard long beans, burgandy okra (that's probably old hat to some here I am sure but it's a twist on my green Clemson's from last year), purple carrots and courtesy of Darkmoondreamer, the little pepper plants with 4 different colors of peppers on them (purple, yellow, red and orange.) Can't think of the name of that one right now.

I grew the Thai beans last year and they were about 3 feet long, 8 beans was enough for 2 people. :)

That certainly got some of the neighbor's attention around here.

Here's a picture of the very last of my veggies from my garden last year, I picked the beans shorter than they actually grow.

I love to grow the unusual and have expanded my "typical" garden as a result. I now routinely include various colors and types of tomatoes, yacon, celeriac, purple, white, yellow carrots, oca etc. Always try a few things new each year, so that you can be sure you are growing the best. Didn't like the yard long beans, but then I am not a bean person.

How do you like the purple carrots?

Have several years growing purple dragon and did the other new purple last year (name escapes me). I really enjoyed the dragon purple. A good carrot for roasting or steaming, but not boiling or mixing with things cooking - that bleeds the color which looks bad. I believe the purples are intrinsically more healthy.

I'm glad you told me that. I didn't see much info about actual cooking of these carrots when I bought my seeds.

I remember eating yellow watermelon a long time ago. I don't know if it was that particular melon I had or what, but the flesh seemed more mushy than the red ones and somehow my brain and taste buds did not want to connect with the familiar taste of watermelon due to the color.

We always ate tons of red watermelon all my life, so a yellow one was quite a novelty at that time. I haven't wanted one since then. I want my watermelon to be red. LOL!

Last year at market I sold lots of Lemon cucumbers,Black Plum tomato,several varieties of kales and burgundy okra.

In my winter garden,I have more var. of kale including new for the season.. Black Palm and Purple Chidori as well as the 4 var. I grew last year. Red mustards are wonderful but the juice is purple when cooked so that takes some getting use to. Also about a dz. var. of carrots that include red,purple,white,yellow as well as several var. of orange carrots. German winter radishes in white red and blue.The german radishes get huge and have a turnipy flavor.I did harvest a few of the gold turnips earlier in the winter which were very tasty.


This year I'm growing some more unique veggies such as:white english peas"Blondie",dwarf baby corn"Mirah"(don't hold me to the cultivar name),red,white and green mini/single serving eggplant,purple and black hot peppers,Italian roasting peppers,purple pok choy,red stem choy sum,Rainbow Mix swiss chard,white podded okra "Silver Queen", Melons: Jenny Lind,Minnesota Midget,Ambrosia,Gold Midget,cyclanthera pedata aka Lady Slippers a vining plant that produces fruits that can be use as you would a bell pepper.New herbs this year are cumin,perennial marjoram and some mints per request of my customers.


I'm trying a pole bean called "Sunset" just for the pink blooms but I hope they taste good too.I don't remember what all I have for market garden this year. I have 4/1 gallon zip lock baggies full of seed just for months Feb thur early April. We haven't even bought seed for our early summer crops for the big garden yet:purple hules,corns,bigger melons and such.


I grew 2 plants mexican sour gherkins last year but they took so long to mature,I didn't get any to market. Two plants made loads of fruits and my friends loved them but I have a small garden and I'd have to grow more plants to produce enough for market so I won't grow those again this year.

Peggy

I do yellow and purple carrots--both of them are good. Also toi choi and some of the stranger asian greens--basically if it goes in a salad, I grow it. Heirloom tomatoes in all colors.
Debbie

I forgot about the lemon cukes, I'll be growing some of those this year as well. My sister grew some last year and she loved them. Hers were very prolific.

You've got some very intesting things to plant, Peggy, I hope you post pictures of them once they produce fruit, I'd love to see them.

I was so fixated on tomatoes for awhile that I almost forgot all the other wonderful things needed for the dinner table, like greens and herbs.

Debbie, can you suggest some Asian greens? I would like to grow some that would work well for steaming as the last ingredient added to the top of soups.

I like toi choi and pok choi the best myself, but I'm sure that's a question of personal taste.

Ah, yes! Those are the ones. My husband does most of the soup cooking around here and he will definitely like it if he can just go outside and pick some.

I love to hear of all the unusual things people are growing! Linda, the pepper I gave you is Numex "Twilight" ☺

Thanks, Karen! I can't wait to see the plants with peppers on them. The pictures I've seen online are amazing, what a colorful plant!

Speaking of peppers, what gives with the germination on those buggers. They're taking forever, not just the ones you gave me but the others as well. I guess I will have to spring for a heat mat. :)

Pug-go to the pepper forum and look up the thread I started about "How long does it take peppers to germinate?" I share your frustration.
Lisa

I read somewhere that the original carrots were yellow and the orange color was hybridized by the Dutch to match their flag. Just went and did some googling and it seems all the other colors came first - yellow, purple, red, white...

How do the yellow carrots taste?

Thanks, Lisa, I'll check that out.

Very interesting, KaperC, I had no idea about the carrots.

I grow different things every year but one of my most successful ventures was the year I tried using winter squash to keep the weeds down -- they spread and shade. It worked very well and I got better squash than I have ever tasted in my live. The best was: Galeux d'Eysines. Can be ordered at :

http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=973

Other places as well -- Baker's Heirloom Seeds that I know of.

This squash is like butternut but better and sweeter.

I also grow Thai Basil which I use in Thai cooking, but it is a beauty with purple flowers -- very much an ornamental. Siam Queen is the easiest.

I like to grow bok choy -- especially Joi Choi.

And salad greens, arugula, mache ( for very early), butterhead, red sails, and romaine lettuces -- also escarole for interest.

And of course heirloom tomatoes. One of the best here is Cherokee Purple. Another is Pruden's Purple. Also cherry tomatoes -- Sweet 100, Sungold, and many others.

I grow all colors of carrots -- purple, red, white, yellow, and orange.

Also brussels sprouts-- very beautiful. People stop and ask me what they are.

Hot peppers -- jalapenos, cayennes, thai prik kee noo and whatever else they have at the local green houses.

Eggplant -- Mostly the long skinny Asian ones such as Ichiban, Ping Tung and others.

I can't wait for planting time!

Amarillo carrots are yellow--they taste good if not allowed to get to big:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/119243/

Debbie

Well, I grow Dragon Tongue beans not only because they look cool, but they are the best tasting beans I've grown. So far beyond the typical green bean.

And I grow Poona Kheera cucumbers because again I really like the taste of them.

In in the past I've tried to make sure I have an orange tomato variety, a green-when-ripe tomato variety, some interesting varieties like Turk's Mut. But on my 4th year now I'm starting to settle down to lots and lots of pink and purple beefsteaks.

I grew a couple of the typical carrot varieties -- Red-cored Chantenay and Nantes Half-Long and they did alright, but maybe I didn't eat them fast enough because they didn't taste significantly better than the store. Maybe I need to try purple carrots.

Parsnips are my weakness and I have introduced several friends to these nutty, rich carrot/potato-tasting roots, unfortunately they would probably be a challenge to grow here. They need 110 days of cool to COLD weather and actually improve from a few frosts. 2008-2009 would have been perfect so far with the frosts we've had, but who knows if we'll have those temps again this fall...

This message was edited Feb 6, 2009 8:02 AM

I have not yet grown parsnips and am just starting to use them in cooking. It is cold enough here for them to grow. I just need to find a spot for them. I love freshly picked carrots -- even Nantes and Red-Core Chantenay. Even my husband who doesn't like veggies much likes home grown carrots better than store bought. One of the chief reasons for growing them, I find, is that when your recipe calls for 1 carrot you don't have to buy a pound of them -- though stores are getting better about stocking loose carrots. I don't find the colored carrots are any tastier, but they are interesting to look at.

colored carrots help make winter salads more colorful and pretty--this is lettuce season down here, so colorful carrots are nice since peppers and tomatoes won't be along until later

Thanks for the responses about the carrots. I'll try some next time the store has them - might have to convince my parrots they are really food, though!
I was interested to find in my reading that the nutritional content of carrots increases with light cooking.

The nutritional value of all vegetables increases with light cooking or no cooking--its just most people over cook them (this is personal opinion here). Raw food is really better for you--but I haven't quite got completely there yet. Luckily, I live very near a city with excellent restaurants and learned long ago that you don't need to cook them as long as mom did (and they taste a lot better too), there are excellent out of the main-stream vegetable varieties that a lot of people aren't aware of (and they taste a lot better too), and you don't have to have meat in your diet to be healthy or have a varied diet.

I'll get of my soap box now--LOL
Debbie

dmj,
I am on the same soapbox. Keep up the good work. Learning to cook an all veggie diet is challenging, though because most of our favorite dishes have meat and/or cheese in them. But more and more fresh veggie choices are being offered these days in the US.

I finally got my hub's use to stir-fry with the vegetables still crunchy. He was to use to those over cooked mushy truck-stop cafe veggies from years of working construction and eating at those places.

I'm fall sewing carrot Autumn King just to see if I can get them as big as shown on some of those on-line catalogs. Maybe my spoilt donkeys will eat them.

Actually got out yesterady and got my english peas "Blondie" in the ground. It was good to be able to work outside without freezing digits and small appendages off.

I just decided to order Korean Daikon Radish for this year. I had some delicious pickles made with this radish at a local Japanese/Korean restaurant and asked the owner what they were made of. She said Daikon Radish, then added Korean. (Until now I didn't know there was a difference). Here is its picture:
http://www.evergreenseeds.com/orradal.html

Then in the fall I will plant this one:
http://www.evergreenseeds.com/orradtaebaek.html

These are refrigerator pickles -- daikon radish,cucumber, salt, sugar, jalapenos. Really delicious and I am not usually a fan of Asian pickles.

I do a lot of Asian cooking, Asian pickles are definitely an aquired taste (they grow on you after a while).

I didn't like Japanese pickles, but do like Chinese pickles -- at least the ones I am aware of -- soy sauce and cucumber and oil or lotus root pickles and red radish and sesame oil pickles -- but only recently discovered these yummy Korean pickles. The only recipe I have is what I wrote above but definitely wanted to try them. The peppers are probably not jalapenos, but I thought jalapenos would be a good substitute.
I love Asian food and have wonderful vegetarian recipes for Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and only just now Korean.

One of my favorites is pickled ginger. We eat it with sushi and it adds a nice zing to it.

Kinda like adding jalepenos as a side to pinto beans. :)

Ummmm. Love fresh pickled ginger. I eat it with sushi, too. In fact, ginger is delicious in lots of ways and calms the stomach as well. I know people who use it for sea or other motion sickness. They claim it really works.

I'm not much of a Jalapeno fan as far as hot peppers go--it has such a distinctive taste too and permeates a dish with it, I think. I prefer cayenne types for Asian food. I'm also not much of a Mexican food fan either--I do really like some Mexican dishes, but its limited. Thus my prejudice against Jalapeno's. I'm also real picky about hot sauces too--hate tabasco brand, it too permeates everything with its flavor; while other cayenne based hot sauces don't. But with my brother living one the Louisiana line almost, and lots of relatives over there, I've become rather spoiled when it comes to hot sauces.

Yes, you have, but what a privilege! I am not a big fan of Tabasco Sauce, in spite of growing up with some of the Tabasco heirs. I am embarrassed to say that I like Louisiana hot sauce better. For me, Tabasco doesn't have much flavor -- only heat. I do grow cayenne peppers and like them and I love Thai prik kee noo peppers -- the little tiny ones. And I love New Mexico chile and Mexican Poblanos and probably quite a few other Mexican peppers -- except chili pequin. I use jalapenos a lot, probably because they aren't as hot as the ones I use in Asian cooking. So jalapenos are for foods that I don't want much heat in.
I love Mexican food, but I don't care for the kind you get in Texas. I like the kind we have in New Mexico and the kind they have in Mexico. Tex-Mex is its own thing. I know many Texans love it, but I am not fond of it.

I grow and eat poblanos too--loved them stuffed with cheese. Yep, a lot of the TexMex is pretty bad, luckily I have Frieda Kahlo's cookbook--it's excellent:
http://www.amazon.com/Fridas-Fiestas-Recipes-Reminiscences-Frida/dp/0517592355/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234028988&sr=1-1

I like art too so its really a visual book.
Debbie

Sounds interesting. I have a next door neighbor from Mexico and she made me the most wonderful Poblano chiles for Mexican Independence day. They were stuffed with sausage and walnuts and iced with white cheese and red pomgranate seeds to represent the Mexican flag. They were delicious! We have a local fast food place called the Bumblebee which serves food that is supposed to be from Baja. Everything is fresh. They use a lot of fish and lamb -- in addition to beans and beef and chicken and they make several delicious fresh salsas and fresh tortilla chips and fresh homemade tortillas. Yum! Now that is Mexican.
New Mexican relies on dried red chile, fresh green and many other dried ingredients like chicos. I like the flavors a lot, but Hispanic people from California find it quaint and unique. New Mexico cooking traditionally uses lamb, though in many modern recipes they don't cook it because few Americans like it. Still, in the northern Rio Grande area, lamb is a favorite.

Couple things to add --Shungiku (garland chrysanthemum) are wonderful stewed, steamed, or saladed...Pajarito (how best to shorten that?!) -try julienned carrots in that daikon salad. And you can substitute wakame for daikon if you wish. And Nira chives are wonderful.

Ooh all that sounds terrific, grownet. Lots of people on DG call me Paj, that is fine. Some also call me PJ which is fine, too. I would love to try Shungiku. They sometimes have at at the local Asian market -- by local I mean 100 miles away. or I can order the seed from one of the Asian seed houses. Yes, I look forward to trying julienned carrots with daikon, too. Also have a recipe for regular Daikon, and red radish salad. Also sounds good. And yes I could put wakame in as I do with cucumbers sometimes. And I am always looking for a new place to add my Nira chives. I have lots of them!
Thanks for all those great suggestions.

If you like to grow "out there " veggies, here are some great sites. I have used the first two extensively and the third one I hope to try this year. They are all in the US.

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/index.html

http://www.kitazawaseed.com/

http://www.seedsofindia.com/


BTW, young bottle gourds -- before skin hardens-- are delicious. My favorite is laganaria longissima. Taste like mellow summer squash. When they get longer and harder they are funny looking gourds which kids get a kick out of.

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/melkorstar.html

I used to farm with a partner over in Guam. These are similar to the melons we grew, but ours had more white on them. We'd grow about 5,000 plants in a field way out in the jungle. There was a tractor we used, an old diesel and we watered by hand with a zillion hoses with water from the river and a gasoline pump. We had to brave some really bad roads to get in and out of there and a one lane bridge that took your breath away when crossing it, it was a kind of mystical place on the island where everyone wanted to go but few were allowed in. I felt really priviledge to experience that. We lived in a tent out there off and on (went to my condo a lot during monsoon season) for about 3 years. The seeds we used had been saved for generations by my partner's parents and their parent's parents before them.

Oh, I could tell some stories about that place.

We hauled truckload after truckload of these melons out of there during the dry season. It was a wonderful time of my life.

We still grow those every year. Would love to find a name and a non-hybridized version...

Well, what I can tell you is that on the island they were called "Pepino Melons" and our Korean customers at the flea market pronounced their name for them "Chammay" but that spelling is probably really far off. I believe they are an original Korean heirloom type melon.

http://gettle.org/gallery/v/melons/koreanMelons.jpg.html

This looks more like what we grew, pretty close to identical, actually.

All it says is Korean melons. LOL!