10 Unusual Vegetables for Adventurous Gardeners
10 Unusual Vegetables for Adventurous Gardeners
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Growing your own food means super-fresh, super-healthy produce. But it also opens up the opportunity to try vegetables that are truly extraordinary.
There are many quirky crops just waiting to be discovered.
In this short video we’ll explore our top 10 unusual vegetables to shake things up in the garden.
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I love trying new things. This year I’m trying Ground Berry(cherry) Fingers crossed
You lost me at the Oyster Root
I’ve grown kohlrabi and like the taste very much. It’s a good vegetable for kids: Brave ones eat it happily, but scare other kids with a threat of kohlrabi to make them eat broccoli!!!
We grow Shiso and Amaranth, as we grow a lot of Vietnamese herbs and greens for my chef husband’s Vietnamese dishes. I haven’t had much luck with the watermelon radishes in the past– I need to plant them again!
In on the edge of zones 6 & 7 in eastern PA in the US. When would I plant winter radishes & when do they get harvested?
Wouldn’t recommend malabar spinach for salads because it has a mucilaginous mouth feel. It goes great in soups or stir-fry.
Enjoyed this article so much. I have grown the sputnik-like kohlrabi and enjoyed it raw, as a thinly-sliced dipper for hummus. So good. Thanks for the info.
hey, I’ve been gardening for over 10 years now mostly veggies and i am starting a youtube channel and i just posted a video updating/touring my vegetable garden. can you support me and help me grow? id appreciate it! ill subscribe right back as well in return. happy planting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPASrbCPIvw&t=268s
You need english subtitles mate.
Wonderfully weird: I identify with the kohlrabi
Love your tips and unpretentious approach to gardening. Kohlrabi – giant Kossak grow very large without becoming pethy or woody. Freeze well and delicious sliced, steamed and buttered, also good creamed.
Scorzonera, wrapped in prosciutto and roasted…wonderful! I’ve also grown Malabar spinach, stunning but a wee bit chewy. Kohlrabi, celeriac, and amaranth are all staples in our garden. For info on growing them, check out gardeningjones.com/blog. We love trying the unusual, so you’ll find even more there.
I haven’t heard of some of these. Thanks for the great lesson. I will look at this again and try one of them. Thanks
Being unable to eat potatoes, I cast around for a substitute to grow. I discovered oca about four years ago, and don’t even bother to plant new ones any more, because, no matter how carefully I harvest their delicious roots, I always miss a few, and they grow back in the next spring! Might try that vine spinach if I can find seeds, and have been looking for the watermelon radish seeds for a few years without success. If anyone can help me with that, I’d appreciate it 🙂
Kohlrabi is a great veggie, mildly reminiscent of a turnip. I grew kolibri from Pinetree, amazing!
Terrific! This is one of 12 new videos we’ve chosen to promote this month. https://mailchi.mp/d46f630b1ad8/new-gardening-videos-worth-watching?e=c4c8eb75f0
I sow wanted to grow amaranth this year. 😀
I have two colors of amaranth to grow this year and looking forward to planting watermelon radish this fall. I grew the daikon radish this spring and while it didn’t get very big due to our crazy dramatic weather in Kansas City, it is delicious. I planted malibar spinach 3 times but it hasn’t germinated.
I like your new glasses. Last year I tried ginger from stuff that was sprouting at the supermarket. It got killed in the frost in october. I wonder if it might re shoot?
I’m growing celeriac and malabar spinach this year. Looking forward to a great year and trying some more new veggies. Thanks for the ideas.
Have had good success with kohlrabi (we most enjoy it peeled it cut up fresh in salads), rainbow radishes (though haven’t tried them as a winter crop, thanks for that tip!), and amaranth (grows easily, but also reseeds easily, FYI. Wish we had a larger plot of land to grow enough amaranth for a harvest that will give us several meals of this tasty and proteinaceous grain, but with the space we have, one year’s harvest wasn’t enough to provide a single pot of breakfast cereal. Can’t wait to try some of the others listed! Malabar spinach is in this year’s plan, and look forward to celeriac, shiso perilla and cardoons especially!
Amaranth si so easy to grow…throw the seeds in and forget about them and you get a beautiful plant , very pretty
I’m growing red and green shiso from seed imported from Japan, it’s growing well in pots indoors but I’m reticent to put it outside.
Will it grow well over the English summer? I’m also concerned it might spread and become invasive, but I figure it’s fairly unlikely in our climate…
Really impressive. Keep it up
Hi I’ve grown malabar spinach but didn’t like it the leaves are too waxy for my liking. I’ve also grown Kohlrabi, found that a bit tasteless sorry not giving much support for your idea’s however I do intend to try and grow diakon radish, think they would be more worthwhile.
Salam dari
Indonesia
Why should the oca leaves be ‘eaten in moderation?’ Are they toxic due to oxalic acid? I grow callaloo but only eat it steamed due to the oxalates, but my Jamaican neighbour juices it. Also, I only just heard that you can eat radish leaves! I’ve thrown them away for years but they can be eaten raw when young and tender, or cooked in stir fries etc.
Perilla grew in my last house like a weed, Malabar spinach took long to germinate but I will try again.. I love that you introduce us to unusual or rare types of plants to try. thank you.
Tried Amaranth last year, but the deer kept topping it off
I’ve grown kohlrabi the last two summers. Love the “alien” look of the vegetable and it tastes just like broccoli. can’t wait to start my third crop this summer
Another one I grow is called sorrel … it’s sour and very healthy 🙂
Kohlrabi, celeriac, salsify, sea kale, daikon and black radish are staples in my garden every year, and I’d absolutely recommend them as being very tasty. Salsify can be hard to peel and stains your fingers if peeled raw. I just boil the roots for about 10-15 minutes, peel and all, then it’s very easy. The water will turn black, but the roots won’t stain your fingers.
There is no "r" in Oca. Just stop it, so annoying.
Thank you for the introduction to many things I have not yet seen.
I have grown Malabar spinach as well. It is rather a different texture from a true spinach. It almost melts in your mouth. Something else about it is that once it grows in a spot,
it is hard to keep it from coming back, if you have decided that it’s not for you. Easy to grow, almost invasive.
Pigeon peas are a wonderful addition to the garden. They grow into tree-like structures, have an abundance of pods, and make the best sprouts! They can also be dried for use in soups and stews. Moringa is another unique plant that is easy to grow and provides prolific, tasty leaves.
I’ve watched a lot of these kinds of videos recently and yours is definitely the best presented. Your manner is upbeat but straight to the point, without superfluous information and very cordial.
I came across a couple more varieties of raddish, they look rather interesting.
I grow the Red Perilla (Shiso) every year. It will naturalize. I dry it and use on rice. We mainly grow to color Ume.
I grow a lot of kohlrabi. They like rich soil that holds water and is slightly acidic. Make sure to check your PH and adjust accordingly. They are easy to start from seed. I love to eat the young greens, so I usually sow about twenty times more than recommended and thin as required when they start to crowd. That methods yields a lot of greens for salads and smoothies. They like to be top dressed with 1/2 inch of compost or aged manure about four weeks after sprouting and again when the leaves get about the size of an open hand. I recommend putting them in the ground or a deep bed. I haven’t had good success growing them in pots or grow bags.
I grow French radish that ends up a foot long. Malabar spinach is a staple for me yearly. Was disappointed with kohlrabi but for unusual I grow Blue Java bananas in Louisiana. Blue tinted skin with a vanilla sweet flavor. Had to create a separate planter box in the soil & in this way before a hard frost, cut them back to 6" then cover. Will plant 2 here at my winter home in Ocala Florida, likely will get me in trouble with the Country Club Homeowners association again, haha (I return late Spring & end of summer for 2 weeks catching up pruning & playing golf).
Used to do Moranga Olifera but lost them all in a particular week long hard freeze.
Thanks again for an informative video.
Very nice video
Very cool, but please don’t encourage people to grow shiso. When it escapes from gardens it becomes a problematic noxious weed.
maybe this is a regional thing, but kohlrabi, celeriac or salsify are absolutely common crops/ foods here in germany!
Kohlrabi and celeriac are classic vegetable for me here in CZ. 🙂
I’ve tried Malabar spinach and love it! I love trying different fruits and veggies from around the world!
Very interesting indeed, but you should perhaps put the names on-screen with the image to make them easier to find when shopping, especially for your subscribers for whom English is not a first language. I could not find ‘okka’ or however it’s spelt.
Another great video from the Grow veg team. Thanks! I’d like to see an entire video focused on potato alternatives. And or disease resistant crops!