Spring Throwdown

I would like to challenge all of us to try to grow AND eat at least one new veggie or fruit this year. It will be fun and is a great way to expand our tastes. Please join me in this. I am in a gardening rut.

My new item is mustard greens in a small raised bed. They are big and beautiful but I haven't eaten them yet. Plan to cook them all day Sunday with a smoked turkey leg instead of ham hock. I'll let you know how it goes.

I am going to try New Zealand spinach this summer just so we can have some fresh greens in the summer. And while it's not a new veggie for me, I am going to try for he first time growing winter squash, both an acorn & a butternut. Both of these a supposed to be dwarf, but I think I'll still need a big bed.

Last year I grew Swiss Chard and loved it. This year, I'm growing Kolrabi and Pok Choy.

Oh - I forgot about the swiss chard. I am also going to give that a try. Plus I'd like to try leeks.

Leeks, Acorn Squash and Kale...haven't grown or eaten any of those either. The following I have eaten before, but not grown myself: spinach, cabbage and brussell sprouts. Growing lots of Artichoke plants, too, but more as a novelty.

Blecch, mustard greens... I have seeds for new zealand spinach, I guess that's my new one. I don't think I've ever eaten any. I've got leeks out there now for the first time, and some rainbow chard. I was transplanting some wildflowers for a friend and accidentally got a piece of her asparagus, so I guess that will be new, too.

Not very exciting... Lots of new fruit this year, does that count?

Well, I don't know if this counts, but I just tried Tuscan Black Kale for the first time a couple of weeks ago, & have decided to (try to) grow it! It is not very "kale-like" in either taste or texture, but is much milder tasting and (drumroll, please) my DH will EAT it!! HaHa! He HATES "real" kale, but this, he likes! I made the most wonderful Tuscan Kale & White Bean soup! MMMMmmmm! So, that is our new vegetable - eating AND growing, just in reverse order, I guess!

for my entry, i'm growing FAVA BEANS for the leaves.

mustard greens and pak choy are awesome in southeast asian tamarind soup.

i fell in love with kohlrabi last season. leaves and all!

I failed miserably at spinach, beets, beans, peas and melons. So; I'm trying a new variety of peppers, eggplants and tomatoes this year. I'm also trying potatoes, both red skinned and yukon gold and I have 3 red skinned ones that have sprouted thus far.
joy

Growing too many tomatoes and peppers this year. Might not have much room for something new. With that said, I'm still contemplating if/where I should plant some Chayote. I've only recently tried them and fell in love immediately. 3 problems that might persuade me not too..... They don't like containers(from what I've read), they need a few plants grown together to produce and they vine out about 30 feet in different directions. If Chayote is a no go for me, I may give Okra and Lima Beans a try for the first time.

Ray: Okra is easy to grow and grows staight up to about 10 ft, very easy to grow, they love hot weather though.
joy

Ray_Der_Phan - My aunt used to grow Chayote in central FL when I was a kid - she only grew 1 at a time, & had great results! The vines were not that huge- she had them trellised on vinyl covered wire clothesline - about 8 ft tall x 10 ft wide. But, they would die each winterw/ hard freezes - I don't know if that would happen where you are.

Ray: My okra and corn won't get started for about another week or so, they like really warm weather.
joy

I cut these back this morning, leaving enuf to start a new batch. Will report back in two weeks!

Ray_Der_Phan - Let us know how succesful you are growing them. Are they also called mirltons? Will you just sprout the seed from a store bought one? I love them too but they are expensive here.
I want the black kale, the favas, new zealand spinach, etc. etc. I guess I want it all. :-)

This is a great thread and very informative!
I am growing turnips for the first time. A shorter season variety. If any one has tips, let me know.

Moonglow, I would love to hear about the recipe for your southeast asian tamarind soup. Anyone else that has a great recipe for the greens and veggies on this list should post, too.

I want to expand the varieties of veggies I grow and it makes a huge difference if you can add a great dish to your daily menu so these new things don't go to waste or are under-appreciated. For example, I grew favas last year and loved them! But I had no idea you could eat the leaves! How do you do prepare them?

Here's my mother's greens recipe. Its been floating around the recipes forum since last year. One addendum is the you can substitute smoked turkey necks for the ham hocks for a lower day recipe.
Enjoy!

Ok, sorry I can't put the link in from my cellphone. Lemme go fire up the laptop. If someone gets to the tags first, it's Lilly Mae's Greens Recipe Revised 03/18/09.
Linda

Gymgirl: I get the sneaky feeling I should be asking you for lots of your recipes, since I'm living where I am, people here love their greens, and I ain't that famailar with cooking them.
joy

Ray_Der_Phan.
My Dad grew chayote/mirliton/alligator pears in New Orleans for many years. He always planted 2 together and they grew very large on clothes lines about 10 feet off the ground. It was always fun to walk beneath this canopy of green and see the mirlitons hanging down ;ole green gems. My Mom froze lots of them & we still had many to give away. She would point to the mirliton while grocery shopping and comment about the price, usually between .50 to 1.00 each! Those were a BIG money saver.
Jo-Ann

Here's "Lilly Mae's Greens". Enjoy, but don't call me if you hurt yourself eating these!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/964226/

And, the "Stuffed Merlitons" recipe. Again, don't call me!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=5017409

This message was edited Mar 24, 2010 1:25 PM

I grew broccoli and cabbage for the first time in my EB's this year. We had broccoli all winter and are now eating cabbage. Last year I grew mustard greens, turnips and spinach. We had them all winter long. I finally had to yank them to make space for my tomatoes. These are not new things for us to eat but new things in the garden. Hopefully, I'll get my snow peas out. I should have already done that but am running late with them. Maybe I'll get a pod or 2. LOL

What is merliton?
joy

Chayote Squash.

gymgirl: I'll pass, don't care for squash or turnips but like greens especially spinach, too bad it doesn't grow well for me.
joy

Joy, when are you planting your spinach? Did you direct sow?

I planted seed, I bought the plants and both times kaplooey, I planted them in EBs too.
joy

I sprinkled spinach seeds back in January when I planted the turnips. They're just now starting to come up and look healthy. I thought they were gonners.

I direct sowed mine in the EBs in November and had it all through the winter last year ... mustard and turnips, also. Didn't do that this past year but did the cabbage and broccoli instead. I managed to keep it alive even during the cold cold months, thanks to Linda. We ate all that yummy broccoli and believe it or not are still eating cabbage. It will be gonners just in time to plant the maters, peppers, beans and cucumbers. Yea!

OMG, you all have created a monster! Had to go to town for several errands and was headed home and turned around to go back for buckets.

"Errand, and monsters, and BUCKETS, Oh My!"

I have 10 gac plants that I just put out along a fence line. I also have a new finger lime and che mandarin melon berry. I started the gac from seeds that I took out of a fruit back in November. They took 4 months and 3 weeks to sprout, then grew to planting size in a week. How crazy is that???

Ok, crazy here now has 40 different varities of tomatoes in my garden, just finished a bit ago out there, and it's too dark to work, must put up a tent next and get me a couple of spot lights and a coalminers helmet and I'll be fine. LOL
joy

Ray,
Just read your post completely and noticed the reference to "alligator pears." Where I'm from in New Orleans, an alligator pear is an avocado!

Joy.

You are certifiable...(smile)

You're right - alligator pear in New Orleans means avocados!! I don't know what I was thinking.
Jo-Ann

This message was edited Apr 6, 2010 8:18 AM