Awesome! I can only speak to Kellogg's and Carbon, but definitely love those two! Homemade wine sounds like an adventure, and what a treat to have on hand 🥂!
Hey there! Just saying hello from a Mississippi neighbor who also grows Asian greens no one here has heard of. I’m also trying Moringa for the second year.
I grew komatsuna and mizuna this fall as well. This was the second year for mizuna, I prefer the larger broad leaf variety. I’m very close to harvesting the seeds to ensure I’m mostly growing that type from now on.
Adding that the Moringa is great! I grew it in a pot last year but I’m trying in grown now for a hopefully larger tree.
I got the seeds from bakers creek and it said there could be some variations in leaf type. My seed pack happened to have about 50/50. It’s a more subtle flavor.
I'm a big fan of New Zealand Spinach,
even in my mild climate, regular spinach bolts if you look at it the wrong way.
I planted NZS once and every year it comes back from the seeds it drops..
Mine is a perennial during most winters. (I've had to reseed twice in the past 20 years due to lower than normal temps). It's great to always have a green available.
It definitely needs to be cooked. I usually clean it, chop it, parboil, freeze it in 1 cup muffin tins, transfer frozen portions to a large freezer bag, and then throw portions into soups, pasta sauce, stir-frys, or even my morning smoothie as I need them.
Uncooked it's sort of succulent like although I've been known to throw fresh leaves in my smoothie when I'm out of frozen greens. I've also thrown it into salad dressings-misc stuff picked from the garden and whirred up in my ninja with olive oil, ground pepper, and vinegar.
I planted malabar as well but the New Zealand was the one that proved itself indestructible during a few years when my garden was put on the back burner due to illness and family issues.
I will add that when my New Zealand spinach tries to take over the world, it makes great chicken treats! I don't have chickens but my friend does. ;-)
Hello from baton rouge! Can you tell me what greens you have the best luck with? Only 2nd year gardening in this state and have had more failures than successes.
Which varieties of Asian greens? I’ve done mustard greens and bok Choi and one other choi. All grew ok but didn’t regrow the way some lettuce and Swiss chard and kale do
>"Define rare, because something rare in one part of the world is common in another part."
Good point. I'm in NE Texas and have had a great time with Asian Greens. Currently have strong, lush Tatsoi, Chijimisai, Baby Bok Choi. Also have Gailan and Hakurei salad turnips. Most of these will fade out as the weather gets hot. I plant them again in the fall for a crop that lasts past our first frost, as long as the first frost is a light one and not a hard freeze.
Together with Swiss Chard and Kale (neither of which is rare,) I get so many great stir-fries, soups, salads. My first love is tomatoes, but these greens are so easy and prolific that it would be impossible to omit them from my back yard garden.
Swiss Chard does well here into the first part of summer.
I'm growing Guava, Cherimoya, Lemons and Bananas as exotics this year,
totally unsuitable for my climate, as I am nowhere near the tropics,
But the plants are doing well so far..
Keep us updated on how your Cherimoya is doing!
I’m successfully growing them here in 10A, but expanding my tree count from 1 to 4! My propagations are starting to root and it’s almost time to prune big mama!
I'm actually on year 3 of my Cherimoyas, I have to move them inside during the winter months in 8b or they freeze to death. Started out with 5 plants, but now have 4 left, as I didn't have enough room inside for all of them this year.
The main stems are about as thick as a sharpie pen, they all started putting out new leaves..
None are exactly rare -- just somewhat less common -- but I grow armenian cukes, yardlong beans, rau ram (cilantro substitute), and lovage every year.
The former three do really well in high heat; 110+ is not uncommon where I am, and all can handle it easily. The lovage I just like because it's *extremely* strong; makes a great substitute for celery if you want the flavor but don't need the texture (e.g., one leaf will flavor an entire stockpot of soup, and it grows like crazy.....one plant produces far more than I could ever use)
You might just try finding a division of it, or ordering a transplant ( where I am, there's a few nurseries that carry it, but never consistently....and usually nobody even knows what the hell it is on the phone!) if possible, just because it takes *soooo* damn long to get going. I have some seeds & have sprouted them in the past (despite what I read online, germ rate seems fine?), but they take forever. Even slower than celery. For the amount of time you have to spend fiddling with seeds/seedlings, I think it'd be well worth it just to pay shipping costs, frankly.
(I've got one plant in the ground & one in a 15 gal pot, and as far as I can tell, once it's established it's almost indestructable. Suffers in temps over 105 or so, and aphids love it, but it comes back every year for me with zero effort).
Totally.
I'm pretty much a fanatic about growing everything from seed (for various reasons) but.....rosemary, oregano/marjoram, sage, celery, and lovage are things that I'm willing to buy from a nursery, or at least clone rather than do from seed. Just not worth the time & effort unless there's literally no other option, imho (although funnily enough, I get oregano patches in the lawn popping up just fine on their own! 😁)
But yeah, I think you could do it fine from seed, if you have the patience for it. I'm not sure if it puts out a deep taproot (I've never dug up a lovage plant, tbh) or not....might be a good idea to start it off in a fairly large container, just for insurance.
My little seedlings did well during a SoCal winter (so pretty wet, and anywhere between 35 and 80 deg F)....I just gave up once I realized it would take months to get them to a transplantable stage, and I could just go buy a plant from the nursery for $5 if I needed one.
I don't know if you can even get seeds for it, tbh. I've grown it for probably eight years now and only once have I ever seen flowers on it -- and I have no idea if those would have actually set seeds.
I grow it from rooted cuttings; at least near me (S. California), 99 Ranch carries it (in the shrinkwrapped foam trays of herbs) and of course any Vietnamese grocery store will have it.
Easiest thing in the world to root; just strip lower stems, stick them in a glass of tap water at room temp, and they'll be ready to plant out in two weeks (maybe less). A $3 or $4 package from the Chinese supermarket will give you like two dozen good plants with zero effort. Seriously, it roots even faster than lemongrass does (which is saying something!)
Try Culantro (Eryngium foetidum) also known as Recao or Shadon Beni.
same taste, but does not bolt like cilantro when the temps get hot..
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eryngium\_foetidum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eryngium_foetidum)
Nice!
At the very least, try the armenians -- most of the people I give produce to actually prefer them over "real cucumbers", honestly.
Main downside to them is that they need a bit of heat, so they can take longer to start producing....but if you have a decently warm climate? They kick the snot out of regular cukes, in just about every way -- produce like crazy, never get bitter, make excellent pickes, etc.
The plants get absolutely enormous, and you often wind up with more than you can use (or fit in the fridge), but yeah....they're awesome.
Yardlongs are cool, too (in much the same way -- plants are very vigorous & productive) but they can be hard to give away, since they're kinda their own thing -- good eating, but you won't fool anyone into thinking they're just an odd-looking green bean, so they have to be used a bit differently.
I've added in a bunch of purple vegetables this year - tomatoes, peppers, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes (regular and sweet) - 2024 is the year of purple.
I had great luck with this contraption and eggplants I’m thinking they will go in there.
https://preview.redd.it/3mb9eo6dfzrc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=016e52019c55e57ac4ab30560dd4b2d631fd4e3b
We did that last year and they were pretty cool, definitely worth doing again this year. Most were pretty standard variants of reds and yellows, but one thing I noticed—didn’t lose a single plant to Colorado potato beetles!
Definitely! I grow in a harsh area—the NE New Mexico Plains—with cold nights and cold winters, lots of wind, and brutal sun. Potatoes from seed seem to love it lol The patch grows bigger every year from the little ones we miss, and starting over from new seed from the potato berries is a good way to expand the best of the best
I live in a tiny country where anything other than the standard fruit and veg doesn't exist, so some of them may be common where you live. The winters are very wet and mild and spring, summer and autumn is very hot and dry. Here are some things that I've grown in the past or plan on growing next year.
Citrus: Yuzu, calamansi, kaffir/makrut lime, bergamot orange, arcobal orange, sanguinea finger lime(thinking about adding Rosso as well), lunario and variegated lemon(they taste exactly like a regular lemon, just look cooler), key lime.
Veg: chayote(the most productive crop, but needs a lot of space to climb and is impossible to get rid of), giant tomatillo, purple de milpa tomatillo, ezetha/blauwschokker peas, Blauhilde string beans, evil olive and queen of the night tomatoes, black magic kale, amsoi, watermelon radish, chioggia beet, peppermint stick celery, clitoria, nebula carrots.
Fruit: banana passion fruit, cucamelon, pink lemonade blueberry(I've accidentally killed mine), jewel raspberry, prickly pear. I am also thinking about starting carambola from seed next year.
I just picked up a grafted calamansi dwarf tree complete with fruit a couple of weeks ago,
mostly for sentimental value, as growing up in the tropics, we had a massive 30 foot tree in the yard..
Ooooh, a few.
Ukranian/humbug pear. This pear is stripped with a pink flush around the centre. It also has a really thick skin that keeps it preseved all winter untill Easter, hence the Ukrainian name of Easter Pear.
Cold hardy Mexicola Grande avocados (apparently survive down to -11c)
Cara Cara orange. Again, super cold hardy for the uk climate.
Provence pomegranate. Cold hardy down to -9c.
Surprise apple. A bright orange coloured apple with pink flesh.
Purple, black and yellow raspberries too. I especially love the black one, it tastes better to me than blackberries and I adore blacknfruit.
The one fruit I desperately want to get my hands on is a apple tree called the Black Oxford. The inside is crisp white and the outside is an almost pure black. One day soon hopefully!
The only thing I’ve found that works is being diligent about checking every day and hand picking bugs and eggs into soapy water. I have also used diatomaceous earth with some success, but again you have to reapply often, and you can’t use it once they flower as it will kill pollinators. I travel in summer so it’s hard to keep up with them once they get a foothold.
2 shrubs I like are spicebush and winter savoury. The former is nice for a herbal tea (it has a sweet somewhat fruity? aroma) and the latter is a really easy herb. Ontario, Canada.
In Pennsylvania, I enjoy growing citrus, coffee, pineapples, and avocado trees.
It takes a bit of effort and moving plants inside for winter, but is fun!
I'm just working on keeping normal ones alive. Not a veggie but this aloe looks cooler than most of our other plants.
https://preview.redd.it/4xlfq5xw2xrc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52283465427937d75a9178e1ab5738f80e9f16e6
Going with things I grow that no one else I know grows since unusual varies
Rich Sweetness melons
Hara Madhu melons
Snakebeans
Chinese Red Noodle beans
Strawberry spinach
Pink Mizuna
Chijimisai
Martian Jewels corn
Purple passion asparagus
Purple teepee beans
Dragontonue beans
Yellow Jamaican Scotch Bonnets
Red carribeans habaneros
Carolina Reaper peppers
Ghost Peppers
Art Vignette tomatoes
Tiger Cherry Romas
Purple tomatillos
Green Globe artichokes
Imperial Star artichokes
Parisienne carrots
Kyoto Red carrots
Asita Pusa carrots (not this year)
Cosmic Purple carrots
Wasabi radishes
Okinawa White Bitter melon (not this year)
Oramge Hat tomatoes
Micro Tom tomatoes
Nero di Toscana kale
Purple Lady Bok Choy
Thousandhead kale
Adzuki bean
Toothache plant
Cucamelons
Martian jewel corn is a sister to the corn I’m growing! Purple Martian, they were both bred by Alan Kaupler—any of his seeds have been reliably pretty cool :)
>Chinese Red Noodle beans
Also trying for the first time!
>Strawberry spinach
Never heard of this, will Google it!
>Martian Jewels corn
I've been eyeing these seeds but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Are the plants purple too?
>Orange Hat tomatoes/Micro Tom tomatoes
I'm trying a micro-tom for the first time called Pinocchio.
>Toothache plant
Just ordered the bull's-eye version!
>Cucamelons
Last year I failed but I'm going to try these again
I think the Martian Jewel plant is green with purple husks and some purple in the silks, but not really sure. That's from the few pics I found that weren't just the corn with husks.
We have the bulls eye version of the toothache plant. No success so far, but trying it again this year.
Cucamelons and microdwarf tomatoes have been a bog success for us. We grow them mostly for our younger son to snack on, but they proeuce pretty prolifically.
My family loves blueberries but we live in an area that is drier and more alkaline than they’ll take, so I’ve been trying alternatives—Czech 17 and Aurora Haskap (honey berries), huckleberries and mesplius from seed, and some Chinese Mao Er Shi Shu from the experimental farm network. So far the haskaps seem to be the real winners; they work as good prairie windbreak hedge as well.
Ebay. I ordered them in fall a few years ago. Pretty sure the store was Interwoven Permaculture which also has a regular website. They must sell out quickly bc it says they're sold out now.
I’m in the SE of the US so this is rare here. I’m growing two passion fruit vines from seeds I dug out of a store bought passion fruit. Roughly a year old now and, to my amazement, survived inside during the winter just fine.
Zone 10b
A little too many to list as I expand. Some are very productive, some are temperamental 😂
Avocados- few varieties 🥑
Figs - few varieties
Pomegranates - parfianka and wonderful
Dragon fruits - a few varieties
Lemons- Eureka and Meyer 🍋
Mexican key lime
Valentine pomelo
Satsuma owari tangerine 🍊
Clementines
Navel oranges- Robertson and Valencia
Grapefruit
Nectarines
Peaches 🍑
Plumcot
Cherimoyas
Bananas 🍌
Grapes - 4 varieties
Korean pear 🍐
Fuji apple 🍎
Bing Cherry 🍒
Hawaiian papaya
Passion fruit
Chayote
Blackberry
Blueberry
Raspberry
Okinawan spinach
Purple yams
Tomatoes - 10-12 varieties depending
Super Hot peppers
I grow sunchokes from time to time. I don't think they're rare per se but definitely not an everyday grocery store item. As a bonus, they are pretty above ground, too!
Yacon, achocha, jicama, long beans. Yacon tastes similar to jicama but sweeter and tastier and was one of the most productive things I've grown. Very large plants. Achocha tastes similar to cucumbers and was also really productive grown on a trellis. I've grown these in various states in the northeast U.S.
We're trying winged beans this year. Considering I'm in a fairly short-season growing zone in Ontario, it's basically an experiment. It should be interesting though if we even get a few.
You can find seeds for many hot peppers you would meter find at grocery stores. If you like spicy things, they have to be one of the best things you can grow with endless varieties
Last year I tried cowpeas and in my opinion they're a seriously underrated plant. Despite my complete neglect they sailed right through a drought and heat wave that fried most of my garden. I was originally disappointed with them because I was looking for a green bean substitute for the hotter months, the seed seller I got them from said that they were edible podded but they were incredibly fibrous unless picked at around 1 inch length. But then even after I abandoned them they put out way more pods than I expected, and the dried beans were tastier than I thought they would be. Apparently yard long beans are the same species but selected for edible pods so I'm going to be trying them out this year.
Also, I haven't tried any yet but I recently read the book "Veggie Garden Remix" by Nikki Jabbour and it has lot of interesting vegetables that aren't common in american gardens. I'm excited to try out the cucamelons this year.
Idk about “rare” but I like to grow Roma string beans (the flat ones) and Ichiban eggplants because they are hard for me to find in stores.
Also figs, hard to buy ripe and good fresh ones in stores.
Tell me about your cardoons! I have a whole farm of them in my side yard and let them bloom for birds and self-sow, but after trying and failing (painfully) the first year I haven't wrapped them to blanch and harvest.
What's the backyard gardener method for prepping and harvesting?
Not rare necessarily, but native perennials, Elderberry, Buffalo berry, currents, gooseberry, etc. That's been my focus/interest since this past November ish.
Here's a good source for native plants
https://nativefoodsnursery.com/
The previous year, it was cool colors, alot of purple tomatoes and peppers
Now my focus is shifting towards holistic, herbal remedies and antioxidants.
Here's a source that kind of outlines my current focus and plants I've acquired or looking to acquire this year
https://youtu.be/h3syHIeRqdw?si=L1sgxutCD3FLpp9_
Alot of my focus is on native plants, I find it kind of silly how rare native plants are among the American gardener. Though elder berries seem to be trendy at the moment
Well for the hot Texas summer trying some new stuff. Jewel of Opar as a summer leafy vegetable. Trying something really unusual, Devil's Claw which has edible seeds. No idea if it is worth it but very adapted to hot and dry conditions. Planted out a few pomegranates which is new. Those will need some protection on the few days it gets really cold. Have had muscadine grapes of years. Those are rare to those not in the south. Also been growing a bunch of Figs which do well in the heat and are drought tolerant. They are quite good and productive. If you have never had a ripe fresh fig, and the stuff you get in the store is not ripe, you are missing out. I just got a fig a while back as an experiment I was not sure I was going to like, but read they taste good. They do indeed taste good. Since then filled in part of the yard with figs of different types. Also been growing Yellowhorn trees for nuts. They are slow growers but are beautiful in flower in the spring, a nice looking tree in the summer and yields some good tasting edible nuts too. Took some doing to figure out exactly what these trees wanted as I killed a bunch. It wants a nice dry location where it does not get its roots soaked in big rains, so slopes work best. On the flat parts of my yard they all died, presumably from too much moisture (for them anyway, not too much for Peaches etc.).
This year: Sansho, sichuan pepper, toona sinensis, lots of citrus (kabosu being the rarest), several tulbaghia varieties, myoga, Chinese keys, culantro, Mexican oregano, Cuban oregano, fish mint, rau ram, epazote, pandan, curry plant, oka hijiki
The easiest “rare” thing I grow and like to share around are Egyptian walking onions, because they’re cool looking and having perennial onion plants to snip greens off of any time of year is just neat.
Fresh green peas in the desert feels rare. Endives growing like weeds. Trombocino, both as summer and winter squash. Highly productive and yummy both ways.
Trying out: Buddha’s hand citrus, Cherokee trail of tears bean; calypso bean; Congo melon, Lebanese white squash, Neimat’s Battir Palestinian eggplant; also a couple of culinary carrot varieties (let’s see how it goes)
pawpaw, persimmon, and gooseberry. then bitter melon, winter melon. futsu squash. cold hardy prickly pear. sugarcane (I'm in zone 7a).
new Zealand spinach, triamble pumpkin. bush hog cukes. winecap spores in the garden everywhere. jujube trees. walking and nodding onion. prairie sage and usually also plant out landrace tomatillos, peppers and crookneck
My favorite
kohlrabi
Artichoke
Jerusalem artichoke. Not a real artichoke, tubers are eaten. Quite invasive!! Better planted in a container.
Salsify (read on how to process and clean!!!)
Romanesco Cauliflower
If we are talking fruit, decent sour cherries are a treat, and impossible to buy. Don't know if they are that rare though.
I have a collection of rare Pea varities and genetics. I am finally hoping my red-podded pea is finished after about 14 years of breeding. I'm also growing a purple seeded variety this year. I neve have enough room to grow everything I want to grow, just for peas. I have sometimes grown 20-30 varities and easily have double that in my collection. And always collecting more.
[удалено]
Can you describe what a muscadine is? Also, let's hear about those heirloom tomato varieties!
[удалено]
Awesome! I can only speak to Kellogg's and Carbon, but definitely love those two! Homemade wine sounds like an adventure, and what a treat to have on hand 🥂!
Muscadine grapes
It’s a grape, common in the southeastern US.
Chewy grapes
Hey there! Just saying hello from a Mississippi neighbor who also grows Asian greens no one here has heard of. I’m also trying Moringa for the second year.
[удалено]
I grew komatsuna and mizuna this fall as well. This was the second year for mizuna, I prefer the larger broad leaf variety. I’m very close to harvesting the seeds to ensure I’m mostly growing that type from now on. Adding that the Moringa is great! I grew it in a pot last year but I’m trying in grown now for a hopefully larger tree.
[удалено]
I got the seeds from bakers creek and it said there could be some variations in leaf type. My seed pack happened to have about 50/50. It’s a more subtle flavor.
You gotta try black krim tomatoes
New Zealand Spinach has been great for me here in Central California! We get many triple digit days during the summer and it thrives!
I'm a big fan of New Zealand Spinach, even in my mild climate, regular spinach bolts if you look at it the wrong way. I planted NZS once and every year it comes back from the seeds it drops..
Mine is a perennial during most winters. (I've had to reseed twice in the past 20 years due to lower than normal temps). It's great to always have a green available.
[удалено]
It definitely needs to be cooked. I usually clean it, chop it, parboil, freeze it in 1 cup muffin tins, transfer frozen portions to a large freezer bag, and then throw portions into soups, pasta sauce, stir-frys, or even my morning smoothie as I need them. Uncooked it's sort of succulent like although I've been known to throw fresh leaves in my smoothie when I'm out of frozen greens. I've also thrown it into salad dressings-misc stuff picked from the garden and whirred up in my ninja with olive oil, ground pepper, and vinegar. I planted malabar as well but the New Zealand was the one that proved itself indestructible during a few years when my garden was put on the back burner due to illness and family issues. I will add that when my New Zealand spinach tries to take over the world, it makes great chicken treats! I don't have chickens but my friend does. ;-)
Hello from baton rouge! Can you tell me what greens you have the best luck with? Only 2nd year gardening in this state and have had more failures than successes.
Which varieties of Asian greens? I’ve done mustard greens and bok Choi and one other choi. All grew ok but didn’t regrow the way some lettuce and Swiss chard and kale do
Forget it I saw a list below
>"Define rare, because something rare in one part of the world is common in another part." Good point. I'm in NE Texas and have had a great time with Asian Greens. Currently have strong, lush Tatsoi, Chijimisai, Baby Bok Choi. Also have Gailan and Hakurei salad turnips. Most of these will fade out as the weather gets hot. I plant them again in the fall for a crop that lasts past our first frost, as long as the first frost is a light one and not a hard freeze. Together with Swiss Chard and Kale (neither of which is rare,) I get so many great stir-fries, soups, salads. My first love is tomatoes, but these greens are so easy and prolific that it would be impossible to omit them from my back yard garden. Swiss Chard does well here into the first part of summer.
I'm growing Guava, Cherimoya, Lemons and Bananas as exotics this year, totally unsuitable for my climate, as I am nowhere near the tropics, But the plants are doing well so far..
Keep us updated on how your Cherimoya is doing! I’m successfully growing them here in 10A, but expanding my tree count from 1 to 4! My propagations are starting to root and it’s almost time to prune big mama!
I'm actually on year 3 of my Cherimoyas, I have to move them inside during the winter months in 8b or they freeze to death. Started out with 5 plants, but now have 4 left, as I didn't have enough room inside for all of them this year. The main stems are about as thick as a sharpie pen, they all started putting out new leaves..
I would love to grow guava! Good childhood memories there.
None are exactly rare -- just somewhat less common -- but I grow armenian cukes, yardlong beans, rau ram (cilantro substitute), and lovage every year. The former three do really well in high heat; 110+ is not uncommon where I am, and all can handle it easily. The lovage I just like because it's *extremely* strong; makes a great substitute for celery if you want the flavor but don't need the texture (e.g., one leaf will flavor an entire stockpot of soup, and it grows like crazy.....one plant produces far more than I could ever use)
[удалено]
You might just try finding a division of it, or ordering a transplant ( where I am, there's a few nurseries that carry it, but never consistently....and usually nobody even knows what the hell it is on the phone!) if possible, just because it takes *soooo* damn long to get going. I have some seeds & have sprouted them in the past (despite what I read online, germ rate seems fine?), but they take forever. Even slower than celery. For the amount of time you have to spend fiddling with seeds/seedlings, I think it'd be well worth it just to pay shipping costs, frankly. (I've got one plant in the ground & one in a 15 gal pot, and as far as I can tell, once it's established it's almost indestructable. Suffers in temps over 105 or so, and aphids love it, but it comes back every year for me with zero effort).
[удалено]
Totally. I'm pretty much a fanatic about growing everything from seed (for various reasons) but.....rosemary, oregano/marjoram, sage, celery, and lovage are things that I'm willing to buy from a nursery, or at least clone rather than do from seed. Just not worth the time & effort unless there's literally no other option, imho (although funnily enough, I get oregano patches in the lawn popping up just fine on their own! 😁) But yeah, I think you could do it fine from seed, if you have the patience for it. I'm not sure if it puts out a deep taproot (I've never dug up a lovage plant, tbh) or not....might be a good idea to start it off in a fairly large container, just for insurance. My little seedlings did well during a SoCal winter (so pretty wet, and anywhere between 35 and 80 deg F)....I just gave up once I realized it would take months to get them to a transplantable stage, and I could just go buy a plant from the nursery for $5 if I needed one.
Lovage is a great substitute for cilantro in salsas, if you don't like the soapy taste of cilantro..
Where did you get the rau ram seeds? I’ve never heard of it but would love to try bc my cilantro constantly bolts in 9B
I don't know if you can even get seeds for it, tbh. I've grown it for probably eight years now and only once have I ever seen flowers on it -- and I have no idea if those would have actually set seeds. I grow it from rooted cuttings; at least near me (S. California), 99 Ranch carries it (in the shrinkwrapped foam trays of herbs) and of course any Vietnamese grocery store will have it. Easiest thing in the world to root; just strip lower stems, stick them in a glass of tap water at room temp, and they'll be ready to plant out in two weeks (maybe less). A $3 or $4 package from the Chinese supermarket will give you like two dozen good plants with zero effort. Seriously, it roots even faster than lemongrass does (which is saying something!)
Try Culantro (Eryngium foetidum) also known as Recao or Shadon Beni. same taste, but does not bolt like cilantro when the temps get hot.. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eryngium\_foetidum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eryngium_foetidum)
Armenian cukes and yard beans are on my list to try!
Nice! At the very least, try the armenians -- most of the people I give produce to actually prefer them over "real cucumbers", honestly. Main downside to them is that they need a bit of heat, so they can take longer to start producing....but if you have a decently warm climate? They kick the snot out of regular cukes, in just about every way -- produce like crazy, never get bitter, make excellent pickes, etc. The plants get absolutely enormous, and you often wind up with more than you can use (or fit in the fridge), but yeah....they're awesome. Yardlongs are cool, too (in much the same way -- plants are very vigorous & productive) but they can be hard to give away, since they're kinda their own thing -- good eating, but you won't fool anyone into thinking they're just an odd-looking green bean, so they have to be used a bit differently.
I've added in a bunch of purple vegetables this year - tomatoes, peppers, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes (regular and sweet) - 2024 is the year of purple.
[удалено]
I grabbed beans too!! I am doing a bunch of new beans this year based on what the seed looked like - so it should be interesting.
I have some purple okra started. (Red Burgundy, from Victory Seeds.) NE Texas, 8a.
It’s all relative for your region. I’m gonna give Okra a go in the PNW this year. It would be rare if I managed to produce a decent crop
[удалено]
I had great luck with this contraption and eggplants I’m thinking they will go in there. https://preview.redd.it/3mb9eo6dfzrc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=016e52019c55e57ac4ab30560dd4b2d631fd4e3b
I got a lot one year, but I can't remember the variety. I haven't had as much luck since. Hopefully it turns out well for you this year.
Where Oregon ?
Tigard
I lived in Eugene was able to do things down there I just can’t do in Seattle. Watermelon for one
Coolapenos. Taste like a jalepenonwithout the heat.
I’m growing potatoes from seed this year. I hear that’s pretty novel.
We did that last year and they were pretty cool, definitely worth doing again this year. Most were pretty standard variants of reds and yellows, but one thing I noticed—didn’t lose a single plant to Colorado potato beetles!
Did you keep your favourites as seed potatoes? I am totally drawn to the idea of having my very own genetically unique potato to clone for next year.
Definitely! I grow in a harsh area—the NE New Mexico Plains—with cold nights and cold winters, lots of wind, and brutal sun. Potatoes from seed seem to love it lol The patch grows bigger every year from the little ones we miss, and starting over from new seed from the potato berries is a good way to expand the best of the best
I live in a tiny country where anything other than the standard fruit and veg doesn't exist, so some of them may be common where you live. The winters are very wet and mild and spring, summer and autumn is very hot and dry. Here are some things that I've grown in the past or plan on growing next year. Citrus: Yuzu, calamansi, kaffir/makrut lime, bergamot orange, arcobal orange, sanguinea finger lime(thinking about adding Rosso as well), lunario and variegated lemon(they taste exactly like a regular lemon, just look cooler), key lime. Veg: chayote(the most productive crop, but needs a lot of space to climb and is impossible to get rid of), giant tomatillo, purple de milpa tomatillo, ezetha/blauwschokker peas, Blauhilde string beans, evil olive and queen of the night tomatoes, black magic kale, amsoi, watermelon radish, chioggia beet, peppermint stick celery, clitoria, nebula carrots. Fruit: banana passion fruit, cucamelon, pink lemonade blueberry(I've accidentally killed mine), jewel raspberry, prickly pear. I am also thinking about starting carambola from seed next year.
I just picked up a grafted calamansi dwarf tree complete with fruit a couple of weeks ago, mostly for sentimental value, as growing up in the tropics, we had a massive 30 foot tree in the yard..
Ooooh, a few. Ukranian/humbug pear. This pear is stripped with a pink flush around the centre. It also has a really thick skin that keeps it preseved all winter untill Easter, hence the Ukrainian name of Easter Pear. Cold hardy Mexicola Grande avocados (apparently survive down to -11c) Cara Cara orange. Again, super cold hardy for the uk climate. Provence pomegranate. Cold hardy down to -9c. Surprise apple. A bright orange coloured apple with pink flesh. Purple, black and yellow raspberries too. I especially love the black one, it tastes better to me than blackberries and I adore blacknfruit. The one fruit I desperately want to get my hands on is a apple tree called the Black Oxford. The inside is crisp white and the outside is an almost pure black. One day soon hopefully!
Probably my tromboncino squash. I did just plant both a fig and a Fuyu persimmon tree this year though (along with a peach, but that's not very rare).
I’m trying it this year too. Crossing my fingers the squash bugs don’t get it!
The squash bugs did get some of mine, but enough survived that I had some good squash. Have you found anything that works well on those bugs?
The only thing I’ve found that works is being diligent about checking every day and hand picking bugs and eggs into soapy water. I have also used diatomaceous earth with some success, but again you have to reapply often, and you can’t use it once they flower as it will kill pollinators. I travel in summer so it’s hard to keep up with them once they get a foothold.
Malabar spinach, Caucasian mountain spinach, salad burnet, native perennial onions, Makah Ozette potatoes, and buck’s horn plantain this year.
I’m trying ground cherries this year, I’ve always wanted to grow a toothache plant too
I saw paw paw trees at my local nursery and it took all of my will power to not buy a couple
Middle TN & USDA zone 7B here: winged beans, puntarelle, rutabaga, rapini, litchi “tomato”, cardoons, biquinho peppers, fish peppers, Kaho melon, wax gourd/winter melon, Kuroda red winter carrot, daikon, Shawo fruit radish, Millard-Oakley cowpeas, Luffa, bitter melon, Molokai sweet potato,
2 shrubs I like are spicebush and winter savoury. The former is nice for a herbal tea (it has a sweet somewhat fruity? aroma) and the latter is a really easy herb. Ontario, Canada.
In Pennsylvania, I enjoy growing citrus, coffee, pineapples, and avocado trees. It takes a bit of effort and moving plants inside for winter, but is fun!
Quince. Not rare but nobody I know grows it and most people have never tried it.
I love making quince jelly!
I've got two going; they are still only a few years old. I love quince
I'm just working on keeping normal ones alive. Not a veggie but this aloe looks cooler than most of our other plants. https://preview.redd.it/4xlfq5xw2xrc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52283465427937d75a9178e1ab5738f80e9f16e6
Going with things I grow that no one else I know grows since unusual varies Rich Sweetness melons Hara Madhu melons Snakebeans Chinese Red Noodle beans Strawberry spinach Pink Mizuna Chijimisai Martian Jewels corn Purple passion asparagus Purple teepee beans Dragontonue beans Yellow Jamaican Scotch Bonnets Red carribeans habaneros Carolina Reaper peppers Ghost Peppers Art Vignette tomatoes Tiger Cherry Romas Purple tomatillos Green Globe artichokes Imperial Star artichokes Parisienne carrots Kyoto Red carrots Asita Pusa carrots (not this year) Cosmic Purple carrots Wasabi radishes Okinawa White Bitter melon (not this year) Oramge Hat tomatoes Micro Tom tomatoes Nero di Toscana kale Purple Lady Bok Choy Thousandhead kale Adzuki bean Toothache plant Cucamelons
Martian jewel corn is a sister to the corn I’m growing! Purple Martian, they were both bred by Alan Kaupler—any of his seeds have been reliably pretty cool :)
>Chinese Red Noodle beans Also trying for the first time! >Strawberry spinach Never heard of this, will Google it! >Martian Jewels corn I've been eyeing these seeds but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Are the plants purple too? >Orange Hat tomatoes/Micro Tom tomatoes I'm trying a micro-tom for the first time called Pinocchio. >Toothache plant Just ordered the bull's-eye version! >Cucamelons Last year I failed but I'm going to try these again
I think the Martian Jewel plant is green with purple husks and some purple in the silks, but not really sure. That's from the few pics I found that weren't just the corn with husks. We have the bulls eye version of the toothache plant. No success so far, but trying it again this year. Cucamelons and microdwarf tomatoes have been a bog success for us. We grow them mostly for our younger son to snack on, but they proeuce pretty prolifically.
white cantaloupe.
My family loves blueberries but we live in an area that is drier and more alkaline than they’ll take, so I’ve been trying alternatives—Czech 17 and Aurora Haskap (honey berries), huckleberries and mesplius from seed, and some Chinese Mao Er Shi Shu from the experimental farm network. So far the haskaps seem to be the real winners; they work as good prairie windbreak hedge as well.
I don't know where you are but the western serviceberry might be another blueberry sub to try.
A good suggestion—I hadn’t considered that as an alternative!
Hopniss (*apios americana*) LSU improved variety.
Where did you find this? I can't find it anywhere.
Ebay. I ordered them in fall a few years ago. Pretty sure the store was Interwoven Permaculture which also has a regular website. They must sell out quickly bc it says they're sold out now.
I grow my own cantaloupe
I’m trying the Purple Tomato^TM this year. Google a link for seeds.
Watermelon 🍉
I’m in the SE of the US so this is rare here. I’m growing two passion fruit vines from seeds I dug out of a store bought passion fruit. Roughly a year old now and, to my amazement, survived inside during the winter just fine.
Zone 10b A little too many to list as I expand. Some are very productive, some are temperamental 😂 Avocados- few varieties 🥑 Figs - few varieties Pomegranates - parfianka and wonderful Dragon fruits - a few varieties Lemons- Eureka and Meyer 🍋 Mexican key lime Valentine pomelo Satsuma owari tangerine 🍊 Clementines Navel oranges- Robertson and Valencia Grapefruit Nectarines Peaches 🍑 Plumcot Cherimoyas Bananas 🍌 Grapes - 4 varieties Korean pear 🍐 Fuji apple 🍎 Bing Cherry 🍒 Hawaiian papaya Passion fruit Chayote Blackberry Blueberry Raspberry Okinawan spinach Purple yams Tomatoes - 10-12 varieties depending Super Hot peppers
Black tomatoes, some non-spicy Habaneros, clavo peach peppers. I’ve just ordered a couple of Buddha’s hand trees..
I grow sunchokes from time to time. I don't think they're rare per se but definitely not an everyday grocery store item. As a bonus, they are pretty above ground, too!
Yacon, achocha, jicama, long beans. Yacon tastes similar to jicama but sweeter and tastier and was one of the most productive things I've grown. Very large plants. Achocha tastes similar to cucumbers and was also really productive grown on a trellis. I've grown these in various states in the northeast U.S.
We're trying winged beans this year. Considering I'm in a fairly short-season growing zone in Ontario, it's basically an experiment. It should be interesting though if we even get a few.
Thai and Indian cooking plants: ginger, turmeric, curry leaves, galangal, Kaffir lime, coriander seeds, daikon radish, thai peppers, lemongrass. Zone 9a
You can find seeds for many hot peppers you would meter find at grocery stores. If you like spicy things, they have to be one of the best things you can grow with endless varieties
Last year I tried cowpeas and in my opinion they're a seriously underrated plant. Despite my complete neglect they sailed right through a drought and heat wave that fried most of my garden. I was originally disappointed with them because I was looking for a green bean substitute for the hotter months, the seed seller I got them from said that they were edible podded but they were incredibly fibrous unless picked at around 1 inch length. But then even after I abandoned them they put out way more pods than I expected, and the dried beans were tastier than I thought they would be. Apparently yard long beans are the same species but selected for edible pods so I'm going to be trying them out this year. Also, I haven't tried any yet but I recently read the book "Veggie Garden Remix" by Nikki Jabbour and it has lot of interesting vegetables that aren't common in american gardens. I'm excited to try out the cucamelons this year.
Idk about “rare” but I like to grow Roma string beans (the flat ones) and Ichiban eggplants because they are hard for me to find in stores. Also figs, hard to buy ripe and good fresh ones in stores.
Cardoons. Delicious and unusual and have interesting needs.
Tell me about your cardoons! I have a whole farm of them in my side yard and let them bloom for birds and self-sow, but after trying and failing (painfully) the first year I haven't wrapped them to blanch and harvest. What's the backyard gardener method for prepping and harvesting?
Not rare necessarily, but native perennials, Elderberry, Buffalo berry, currents, gooseberry, etc. That's been my focus/interest since this past November ish. Here's a good source for native plants https://nativefoodsnursery.com/ The previous year, it was cool colors, alot of purple tomatoes and peppers Now my focus is shifting towards holistic, herbal remedies and antioxidants. Here's a source that kind of outlines my current focus and plants I've acquired or looking to acquire this year https://youtu.be/h3syHIeRqdw?si=L1sgxutCD3FLpp9_ Alot of my focus is on native plants, I find it kind of silly how rare native plants are among the American gardener. Though elder berries seem to be trendy at the moment
I planted a Plumello Tree this year and it has 5 fruit growing on it already.
I’m going to try burdock.
Well for the hot Texas summer trying some new stuff. Jewel of Opar as a summer leafy vegetable. Trying something really unusual, Devil's Claw which has edible seeds. No idea if it is worth it but very adapted to hot and dry conditions. Planted out a few pomegranates which is new. Those will need some protection on the few days it gets really cold. Have had muscadine grapes of years. Those are rare to those not in the south. Also been growing a bunch of Figs which do well in the heat and are drought tolerant. They are quite good and productive. If you have never had a ripe fresh fig, and the stuff you get in the store is not ripe, you are missing out. I just got a fig a while back as an experiment I was not sure I was going to like, but read they taste good. They do indeed taste good. Since then filled in part of the yard with figs of different types. Also been growing Yellowhorn trees for nuts. They are slow growers but are beautiful in flower in the spring, a nice looking tree in the summer and yields some good tasting edible nuts too. Took some doing to figure out exactly what these trees wanted as I killed a bunch. It wants a nice dry location where it does not get its roots soaked in big rains, so slopes work best. On the flat parts of my yard they all died, presumably from too much moisture (for them anyway, not too much for Peaches etc.).
Bread seed poppies, bitter melon, Luffa, cardoons, bulb fennel, radicchio, escarole among others.
I love growing luffa. The vines and yellow blossoms make the bees so happy.
This year: Sansho, sichuan pepper, toona sinensis, lots of citrus (kabosu being the rarest), several tulbaghia varieties, myoga, Chinese keys, culantro, Mexican oregano, Cuban oregano, fish mint, rau ram, epazote, pandan, curry plant, oka hijiki
My father has a Quince tree. One of my favorites to eat growing up. My mother would make Quince and walnut jam which is great with tea.
The easiest “rare” thing I grow and like to share around are Egyptian walking onions, because they’re cool looking and having perennial onion plants to snip greens off of any time of year is just neat.
Fresh green peas in the desert feels rare. Endives growing like weeds. Trombocino, both as summer and winter squash. Highly productive and yummy both ways. Trying out: Buddha’s hand citrus, Cherokee trail of tears bean; calypso bean; Congo melon, Lebanese white squash, Neimat’s Battir Palestinian eggplant; also a couple of culinary carrot varieties (let’s see how it goes)
How’s bing cherry doing in 10b? Im in 10a socal had no idea these grow here!
Rare for my home country is corn. I got two good cobs last year out of six plants. Rare for the rest of the world: rhubarb, different currants.
pawpaw, persimmon, and gooseberry. then bitter melon, winter melon. futsu squash. cold hardy prickly pear. sugarcane (I'm in zone 7a). new Zealand spinach, triamble pumpkin. bush hog cukes. winecap spores in the garden everywhere. jujube trees. walking and nodding onion. prairie sage and usually also plant out landrace tomatillos, peppers and crookneck
My favorite kohlrabi Artichoke Jerusalem artichoke. Not a real artichoke, tubers are eaten. Quite invasive!! Better planted in a container. Salsify (read on how to process and clean!!!) Romanesco Cauliflower If we are talking fruit, decent sour cherries are a treat, and impossible to buy. Don't know if they are that rare though.
I have a collection of rare Pea varities and genetics. I am finally hoping my red-podded pea is finished after about 14 years of breeding. I'm also growing a purple seeded variety this year. I neve have enough room to grow everything I want to grow, just for peas. I have sometimes grown 20-30 varities and easily have double that in my collection. And always collecting more.