2012 VEGGIE LIST
Here is my review of what I will and won’t grow again from last year’s vegetables that I tried and why. I will put tomatoes in another list since there are so many of them!
WILL GROW AGAIN
ARUGULA
-Apollo-nice leaf size and flavor
BEANS
-Rattlesnake bean/pole-remarkably flavored pole bean-grows very tall-great for trellises or arbor
-Tarbais bean/pole-dry bean-after much work FINDING IT last year in the states, you can now get this wonderful bean from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds this year. I will make a french dish called cassoulet with it.
-Fava Bean/bush-wonderful flavor and 2 crops last year. A little work shelling it twice but worth it. Also is a good cover crop replenishing the soil with nitrogen.
-Golden Scarlet Runner/pole-I grow runners for their flowers/foliage-the foliage on this one is a striking chartreuse color against the scarlet flowers-simply beautiful
BEETS
– Craupadine-BEST tasting (but ugly) beet around
-Cylindra-long cylinder shape, great taste, easy cutting into slices
BOK CHOY
-Extra Dwarf Pak Choy-wonderful flavor-I like to cut one in half, saute it in olive oil, and add tamari when you flip it
CARROTS
-Atomic Red-great color and flavor
-Cosmic Purple-one of my favorites
CHARD
-Bright Lights-adds great color tucked into the garden and good flavor
-Argentata-thick juicy stalks with huge leaves-very cold tolerant
-Ruby Red-one of the prettiest and tasty chards out there
CUCUMBERS
-Parisian Pickling-used for making cornichon pickles
-Boothsby Blonde-used for making bread and butter pickles
-Poona Kheera-best flavor for eating
-Armenian– fun to grow, good flavor, few seeds
EGGPLANT
-Fairy Tale-sweet, no bitter taste and tender (not tough) skin
LETTUCES
–Provencal Mix, Mesclun Mix, Buttercrunch, Yugoslavian Red, Santoro Lettuce
PEAS
-Dwarf Sugar Gray-great in salads or steamed, grows about 3 ft tall
PEPPER–want to try some different varieties from Europe this year as well
-Shishito (Japanese non-hot pepper)-one of my favorites
-Poblanos-mildly hot (I call it warm), great for chile rellanos or scrambled eggs, wonderful smoky flavor
POTATOES–first year grower and I’m hooked!
-French Fingerling-OMG, the best flavor!
-Peruvian Purple-I loved the flavor of these as well
SPINACH
-Bloomsdale and Tyee
SUMMER SQUASH
ZUCCHINI
-Costata Romanesco-best tasting zuke around
SUNFLOWERS-technically a flower but they are veggies for the birds!
-will grow another huge patch of different varieties-beautiful and the birds love them
-Russian Mammoth AND Titan– for us/birds to eat
-Black Oil-for the birds only
TOMATILLO-Green-good for tomatillo salsa-only need one plant as they are so prolific.
WON’T GROW AGAIN
BEAN-Emerite bean/pole bean- great flavor but didn’t grow high enough to cover my teepee and I will grow others this year.
CARROTS
-Paris Market-too small, bland flavor, not impressed
CALABICITAS SQUASH
-seed from local grower-turns out it was a native winter squash, not calabacitas squash.
CORN-again not this year (I’ll get it from our Farmers Market)
FENNEL/FINOCCHIO
-Di Firenze-might grow one or two but not 25 plants like last year!
PEPPER
-Jalapeno-I don’t use them enough to call for space in the garden. I’ll just buy the few I use throughout the year.
POTATOES
-Russian Banana-too crunchy and watery
Thanks for the lists…..good fodder for planning.
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How’s it going up there? Bitter cold? Good time to hunker down.
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thanks for the 2012 vegggie reviewe, Jannine.Good to know even for you, some things don’t do as well as expected.
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Great picture!
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thanks!
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