The Wonderful Achocha?

I've done my talk on unusual veg quite few times now ( a few dozen!), it's a really popular one and one I love doing. I just love talking about all these unusual foods that my kids think are normal yet people have never heard of. In fact I love it so much that I've put together a second talk on the subject and garden clubs seem keen to have me back with that one as well! 

One thing I do get a lot from it is often people telling me they've grown something from the list and didn't like. Normally it's Achochas or Cucamelons. 

Each time I have the same answer -

Agretti

As you know if you read this blog regularly (or have spoken to me for more than a minute) I love to grow unusual food. 

I love growing something that isn't easily available in this country or easy to get hold of, something that might bring a new taste or experience. Sometimes they're a let down and other times they're incredible.

And I have to put Agretti in the latter category.

Edible Lupins

I'm really excited to grow these this year through Garden Organic's members experiments.

Apparently these sweet edible lupins (not to be confused with more bitter ones that can cause posioning) are a great source of nutrition and have around 30 - 40% protein as well as the essential amino acids.

They can be used dried or fresh but need to be cooked first.

Who else has grown or eaten these?

Do you like to try to grow "alternative" crops?

Yacon Harvesting

The frost has killed everything it's going to.

Now I really need to get harvesting some root crops. One in particular is the yacon I planted.

I went a bit mad this year and put in a 20ft row of the stuff. It has cropped heavily, so I've no idea what I'm going to do with it all! 

The boy and I set to digging some up last week. I was impressed with the size of the roots, and the weight! They are difficult to harvest without breaking though! Careful digging is needed, pulling them out the ground really doesn't work.

He wasn't sure what to make of them! 

 It's lovely when I do a job and he feel useful. You should have seen him carrying the buckets and digging with his little shovel, then crouching down to have a look. He loves it!

Proud helper

Managed to harvest two buckets full from just two plants with plenty more to go yet! I need to deside where I'm going to store them all! 

Any ideas on what I should do with it all?

Balloon Berry

 I'm always trying to find new and exciting things to grow. 

Over the years I've discovered some that we really like growing and eating. We grow Cucamelons every year now, along with Peruvian Black Mint, Quillquina, Electric Daisies, wine berries and more.

New fruit, I think, is something to get excited about. Maybe it's just my sweet tooth but I love to try out anything like that. I remember going to Asia for the first time and being blown away by the choice of tropical fruit, but I love our temperate fruit even more. 

When I stumbled upon a fruit I hadn't heard of, a balloon berry, I just had to buy some and plant them. Latin name Rubus illecebrosus if you want to goggle it. 

When they came they were far smaller than advertised and smashed to pieces, I got some money back and set about trying to keep them alive. 18 months later I've had my first fruits from them.

They're bigger than a raspberry, growing on a tall strawberry like plant. They look beautiful, like three raspberries fused together, but all the little bubbles are somehow finer.

And how do they taste I hear you ask?

INSIPID I think would be the best word to describe it. 

They tasted of very little, even the long wait and anticipation couldn't improve the taste. Don't get me wrong, they didn't taste bad, they just didn't taste of anything really, just sweetness and a little sour. 

I'll keep these two plants growing as a bit of an oddity in my garden, who knows when they crop heavy they might make a great preserve. But if I was short on space I'd rip them out and plant some more Japanese wine berries instead. I might even move them out to the coppice and add them to the forest garden area as they will tolerate shade.

Maybe with some plant breeding these berries could be the next big thing, but they need some work before then!

Have you heard of or grown these berries before? 

What did you think to them?

What unusual fruit, veg or herb do you think i should try to grow next?

Globe Artichokes

These really divide people.

I love the faff and the messiness of eating this delicacy and I think it's all worth it for the amazing taste - my wife doesn't! Only my younger daughter liked them as well so I doubt they're going to become a regular feature in this house! 

Looking at the four heads in the picture above, they all came from the same packet of seed, a purple variety, so I think it's fair to say the seed company had some cross pollination! Might have to let them know if I can find the packet! 

We simply boil ours for around half an hour and serve with a little butter. The hearts in the middle taste divine! 

They are pretty much they only thing you can eat where you seem to end up with more than you started with.

These were heads off plants I sowed this year as well, I was reading somewhere today how they don't harvest them the first year, but I've never had any problems with them.

So where do you stand on this giant thistle with edible flower buds?

Love it or don't think it's worth the effort?

Starting Oca In The Greenhouse

If you've read my previous post you'll know I've joined the Guild Of Oca Breeders to try help (in a small way) to develop a new food crop that is viable in the northern hemisphere. 

Friday night I managed to get the ones they'd sent me planted. 

For the experiment I'm involved in they're meant to be started on the 21st of March but the weather wasn't favourable so a few days doesn't matter. The three types above are for the destructive harvest experiment. They're to be planted out and then one from each batch harvested and weighed on a set date, once a month starting in September and then yields can be compared to the length of day.

I also got sent the observer pack with 12 genetically different types of New Zealand yam they've grown before. I loved the variation of the tubers with some great shapes and colours. Each has it's own number so it's important to label them well encase any stock is wanted for future breeding or experiments. 

I've set a side what I think is quite a bit of space to grow these (four beds in fact) but compared to what some people are growing for the guild it's a very small amount!

Should be interesting to see how they all compare.

Who else is growing Oca this year?

Harvesting Yakon

Heavy frost last night so that means I get to harvest my Yakon and try them for the first time!

Watc the video and let me know what yopu think.

Do you grow this type of tuber? What do you do with them?

New Zealand Yam Harvest

Last year I grew some New Zealand Yams (Ocas), I've only just got round to harvesting them as it's been so mild I had no risk of the frost killing them off, they do say to leave them in the ground for as long as possible but I might have taken that to the extreme!

I brought some from the Real Seed Company and Dawn From Doing It For Ourselves In Wales also sent me a package with them in. It was really good because it gave me a good amount to grow and a good mix of red and white ones as well.

They all grew well over the summer and the leaves were a great snack in the garden, but I didn't realise how well they were growing until I came to harvest them.

White ones

 The girls and I have dug up no end of these. It's been a fun game for them because it's like finding buried treasure, a little shining red or white grub like tuber in the mud, lots of cries of "There's one!" and giggles as they get stuck in the mud. 

Red ones

Getting stuck in! It's pretty muddy here! 

Full builders bucket and that's not all of them! 

We had a full builders bucket of red and white tubers, plus a good few large pots full as well. I cooked them for the first time on New Years Day and they tasted really nice just roasted with the rest of the veg.

I think that these are a great backup crop to have in the garden, a relativity trouble free source of carbohydrates, unaffected by blight, and is meant to store quite well. Another advantage is that very few people will recognise the crop while it's growing. 

Who else has grown these? Any good recommendations for cooking them and storing them?

Pig's Feet

The other day I bumped into someone who smiled as they saw me and said "I've got something for you!". They then handed me a white carrier bag full of pigs feet! 

Bags of pigs feet

 I'm not squeamish when it comes to foot (as you all know) so these didn't bother me at all. The girls thought they were funny as I chased them around the house with them! 

I did struggle to know what to do with them, I decided on doing them in a Chinese style. I boiled them for two and a half hours with Chinese five spice and load of garlic, ginger and soy sauce. I then put them in a roasting tray, painted sweet chilli dipping sauce on top and roasted them for another hour. 

Boiled for two and a half hours then covered in sweet chilli dipping sauce and roasted for another hour

 They were falling apart by the time I'd finished, they even looked appetising!

Trotter with rice and home grown purple sprouting.

And how were they?

Rubbish! 

If there was three mouthfuls of meat on eight trotters I'd be surprised! 

Not something I'll be trying again any time soon as there is far too much cooking and prep involved for what you get from it - even when they're free. I think you're supposed to eat the grissel and fat as well but there is only so much you can eat. 

Anyone else eat pigs trotters?

Vietnamese Coriander and my Chilean Guavas

 Added a new plant to my collection this week - Vietnamese Coriander. 

On Wednesday I went to a garden show with mum organised by The Red Cross. It was a lovely little show set in the grounds of an old manor house with a walled Victorian garden to walk around as well (more on that another time). The stalls were made up of lots of local specialist nurseries so it was nice that there were no "big brands" there and the stall owners really knew their stuff.

I got talking to the owners of The Cottage Herbery about my dislike for growing coriander. Although I love the taste, it bolts so easily it's hardly worth growing, when ever I want it its run to seed. I was enquiring if they had a herb called Papalo or knew where I could get seeds in the UK from, this is meant to be a great alternative with a similar taste but the plant grows much bigger before if flowers (between three and five feet I think) so you get a much longer harvest, used a lot in Mexican cooking. 

She didn't have this but wrote down my details and of the herb to look for it and said that a good alternative they sell is Vietnamese coriander which gets bigger than normal coriander before going to flower. It's unusual for me to buy a herb instead of seeds but I did as I quite fancied trying this, apparently its easy to take cutting from so I'll be doing that later to propagate my own plants from it and hopefully I'll get some seed as well to plant if it's any good.

Last year when I got them in May

 I also had a comment on a post I'd written last may about when I bought my Chilean guavas, asking what they were like, how they grew and how they did over winter. 

What they look like now

We had quite a mild winter so it's not been the hardest test for them but they've all pulled through. I simply stored them in an unheated greenhouse and made sure I watered them as they needed it. As you can see the plants have grown like crazy in a year and measure about two foot high with a really good spread.

Read about the fruit amazing tasting fruit here.

 I took a couple of cutting last summer and they both rooted easily and have started to grow well. I'm planing to take lots more cuttings this year and I might experiment with growing them in the ground and not bringing them in. They seem to grow so fast that I think they'd make great hedging in a sheltered place (which we aren't in) and because of the fast growth it's not the end of the world if I loose a few plants, I'll make sure that I over winter a few in the greenhouse still. Maybe a small border in front of my new porch when I finish building it!  

Cuttings I took last summer doing well.

Who else is growing Chilean Guavas? Anyone grown one from seed?

Also how does everyone else stand on coriander? Any other suggestions for alternatives?

Chinese Artichokes

Last Friday night I planted up another unusual veg brought from eBay - Chinese artichokes. To be honest I was expecting them to be bigger, like the size of Jerusalem artichokes but these are the size of large grubs! I planted up two raised beds with these and I'll report later in the year how they do.

A good friend of mine accuses me of collecting vegetables like "an American prepper collects guns"  - his words not mine! 

I think having a large variety of fruit and veg is key to being self sufficient in food. That way you have things to fall back on should crops fail. Something like this is pretty easy to grow as well (so I'm told) needing very little input (like Jerusalem artichokes) but they're there in the ground if you need them over winter, or stored in a frost free place. 

Is anyone else expanding their collection of unusual fruit and veg this year?

Mashua

Yesterday I asked you what the tuber was in the photo below. Dawn was closest saying an Oca which is what I thought it was when I first saw it. It's a Mashua and related to nasturtiums, coming from the Andes and is a crop that's been grown for 1000's of years.

It seems to be a veg that splits opinion and it's not particularly loved. One of the reasons for this is it's reported effects as a antiaphrodisia and reduction of the male libido! No research has been done on this other than on rats from what I can see on the web and even then you need to eat large quantities of this to have an effect. 

The second negative for it will reduce the chances of that anyway, as it's not even meant to taste that nice! I've read that some people think it has an amazing flavour but most just don't think it tastes very nice! 

Why am I growing it then? (This is what my brother said to me when I told him about the veg this morning. )

Well first off I love growing different things and I might enjoy the taste. It's also meant to yield well on poor soil making it a good backup crop and one for hard times.

It looks really pretty on all the photos I've seen of it growing, produces loads of flowers and makes quite a feature in the garden when trained to climb up something (my old tin shed maybe?).

And finally in Colombia it's grown with potatoes as a companion plant to repel pests in the potato fields so it might be good to grow it along side other crops or up the fence around my garden as a natural barrier.

Here are a couple of links with more information:

Plants for a future

Cultivariable

What do you think? Would you grow it to see what it's like?

More Unusual Seeds Ordered And Thoughts On Hybrids

I know I shouldn't be buying things for the garden so close to Christmas but I decided that there was no way anyone was going to buy me these - Yacon, Oca And Fat Baby Achocha! Tubers and seeds to get planting next year. 

I'm blaming James Wongs book and Dawn's blog the other day for showing me her Oca harvest (view Dawn's post here) for buying these and a few more!

I found a small seed growing company on the internet that sold Oca and after reading a bit about them decided I really liked their ethos. They're called the The Real Seed Catalogue and they've got loads of interesting and unusual seeds for sale and none of it is hybrids or modified. In fact they send instructions with every pack so you can save your own seed and not have to buy from them again! 

They don't sell a large selection of each type of vegetable, just ones they grow and know work well for them and ones they think taste good.

Their site is really interesting and I think you should all check it out regardless of where you live. There's instructions on there for saving all sorts of seeds, how to stop cross pollination or to cross pollinate to create new stains (for squash and others) and how to build a seed cleaner with free plans.

They also talk a little about the terminology used by seed catalogues and how to read between the lines. Phrases like "Good For Freezing" mean that it all ripens at one time so it can be mechanically harvested and we'll be left with a glut, the other they picked out was "straight long shanks" usually means 'bred to fit the packing machine".  I had a look in a seed catalogue as I was writing this and found one straight away "excellent fruit uniformity" not much use for me but the seed producers have bred it for the supermarket where uniformity counts and taste is a secondary concern. 

Up until a while ago I guess I always thought that having F1's (hybrids) seeds was a good thing but the more I think about it the more it means we're being controlled by someone else, and having to buy new seed year after year. I will post about my seed swap soon to anyone that's still interested, I haven't many types to offer but they're tasty! 

What does everyone else think about F1's and hybrids?

Medlar Harvest

My little medlar tree hasn't produced many fruits this year but the ones it has are huge!

The whole harvest!

I now need to let these blet before eating them. That is to go slightly rotten and soft, you then eat them with a spoon and they taste a little bit like custard. Apparently this fruit was popular in medieval times and was often referred to as " a bull dogs bottom" - no idea why!!

I have got another tree that I planted at my parents house around 10 years ago, we went on Sunday for a roast dinner (and to see my parents) but the tree had been pecked bare. Not a fruit left on it!
I was disappointed as I was looking forward to making some more spicy medlar chutney. The one I'm eating now (dated 2010) is quite possibly the nicest chutney I've ever tasted but blinking labour intensive to make. I think it took a total of four nights to put together as you have to make a jelly first - a true labour of love and then it needs at least a year to mature.

Anyone else got any medlars growing?

Barberries

Another unusual fruit this week! Barberries (Berberis thunbergii)

Grown as hedging and small decorative shrubs in gardens across Britain, many people don't realise these are edible. The berries are used a lot in Iranian and middle eastern cooking cooking, chucked into rice to give it a sharp pop when you eat them.

 My friend has a massive tree sized bush growing on his grounds, covered in berries, so I decided to do a bit of scrumping (with permission) to get some to try.

 I like the berries straight off the bush and so did both my children, but I can see they'd be a bit tart for some, they taste like a sweetened cranberry. I picked a small tub full and set about sorting out the berries so I could preserve them.

 They are quite a fiddly berry to pick and in the end I just picked a few bunches and then sorted them out at home, whilst trying to stop Ev from eating them all. 

I then put them in my little dehydrator and set them to dry for a few hours. It was tricky as they kept falling through the slats so I had to do it in two goes, I could do with getting some gause to lay them on as they'd dry a lot quicker if they wouldn't keep falling through. 

I managed to dry a small jar full.

When dried they taste even better, they'd be a good substitute for raisins (if you don't mind a much tarter flavour) or dried cranberries and much easier to grow as you largely leave the bush alone and the birds don't seem to affect it much. I'm looking forward to trying these in some rice and maybe scattered over my breakfast.

Anyone else eat these or have them growing in their garden?

Strawberry Tree

As you know from previous posts I have somewhat of an obsession with unusual fruit and veg. Normally I have to plant a young tree or plant and wait years before I get to sample the fruits. 

 Luckily I have a friend in the village who lives on an old estate with lots of unusual, mature trees. One of these happens to be the strawberry tree. And when I went round on Thursday last week they had a fruit waiting for me to try. 

 The fruits themselves look gorgeous, exotic even. Like a red lychees dotted all over the tree, picked out against the sun. The tree is beautiful as well, having lovely flowers and white leaves in spring and a great structure to it. 

The tree is quite beautiful though.

And how does it taste?

One word.

Disappointing. 

I don't think I'll ever bother to try one again put it that way. 

Tasteless, but the skin leaves an almost bitter taste in your mouth. Maybe there is some value as a survive food, but at this time of year there is so much else to eat I can't see why you'd choose this.

Bland tasteless flesh and a horrible skin

It does make an attractive tree in the garden and the birds love eating the fruit so I can see why people plant them but I don't think it's going on my grow list any time soon. Good job I didn't have to wait ten years to find that out!

Anyone else ever had to wait years to try something they've been growing and then been really disappointed by it?

Edible Hostas

I first read that hostas are edible in Alys Fowlers "The Thrifty Forager" a couple of years ago. Being tight frugal meant that I wasn't going to buy plants to try something that might not taste very good. However the other day I was having a walk around the garden and noticed that there was a hosta hidden away and looking rather unhealthy in a neglected wooden planter that's holding up our patio (the patio is on the to-do list!). 

Some hostas hidden in an old planter

 I decided to dig it up and show it a bit of TLC, divide them into three plants and re-pot them. 

Dug up and having a soak before being potted up

 Hopefully they'll do well for a new bit of compost and a regular watering and then when they've recovered I'll plant them out with plans to harvest young shoots to eat in the spring.

In some pots for a bit of TLC, we'll see how they'll do.

Apparently in Japan they harvest wild hostas as a cash crop from the forests and they're called urui. A Google search gives loads of recipes for stir fries, tempura & salads. There's a few different things on it here, here and here if you're interested.

Another unusual edible in the garden, hopefully they will put a bit of variety in our diet in early spring when they're isn't much else about growing. Apparently the different varieties taste quite different so only time will tell if this variety is worth eating or not, if it turns out to not be great then I'll have to raid my mothers garden as she's got hundreds of hostas in her beautiful garden (although I have a feeling she may object to that!).

Anyone else tried eating hostas?

Jurassic Plants & More Unusual Plants

It was no good, once I'd ordered that Blue Sausage Fruit I knew I'd have to have more unusual edibles growing here. 

I bought it from Jurassic plants and I dropped them an email to say it arrive in good condition (I believe in writing to praise as well as complain to companies - otherwise how do they know they're doing something right?) and they decide to send me a free tree, a Dawn Recdwood, which will go great in an area I'm planning to plant up with a few different conifers. This is a tree I would have got if I'd ordered through their website rather than eBay.

Superbly Packaged

I decided to have another look at what else they'd got for sale. I picked out the "Chinese Prickly Ash" or "Szechuan Pepper" it's more likely to be know as. This will produce seeds that can be used like traditional black pepper, so should be good for our self sufficient goals! Also on there (pointed out by Sandie's Patch) is a plant called a "Japanese Bitter Orange". Not a true citrus but it's meant to have a strong scent, a fruit you can make maralade with, and it is completely frost tolerant. Worth a shot!When they sent the plants they also sent me two more free trees! A couple of Chinese Crab Apples (different Latin name to our common ones so I'll be interested to see what they produce). I've potted all these trees up and they're growing really well, situated between my greenhouses. I just need to plan where to plant them in the future.I've been really impressed with Jurassic Plants and if you're interested in something a little different it might be worth having a look, plants come well packaged, good instructions and some plant food to keep them going and it's always nice to support a small nursery.

Edible Daylilies

In my quest to find and try more and more unusual edibles I decided to make the most of what we've got here on the homestead and make sure I know which plants are edible and which aren't 

Outside our front door we've got two large clumps of day lilies. They always put on a great display at this time of year although I have to keep them trimmed back otherwise they engulf the path and we can't get in! 

Turns out the best thing is they're edible! And they actually taste good! So far I've only eaten the pods raw and they taste like mange tout and are lovely and crisp.

Apparently they've been used in Asian cooking for hundreds of years and every bit of the plant is edible. The pods and the flowers are great in stir fries, the roots are nice roasted and the spent flowers are dried and used to thicken soups and stews. Even the young shoots are meant to taste amazing. 

It's a plant I want to experiment with more and try to use in our cooking a little bit. It's also one that looks amazing! 

Anyone have something growing in their yard or garden that they didn't know was edible?