Novelty Veggies

By: John Degroot

February 6 2010

Novelty Veggies - Garden Clippings for Feb 6, 2010

                Black radish, anyone?  Purple Beans?

                Novelty vegetables are finding their way into seed catalogues and seed display racks with surprising frequency.  A few seed supply growers now devote special sections of their catalogue to novelty or exotic plants.

                  Gardeners might expect that growing strange vegetables means sacrificing quality, but seed growers are quick to point out that there is no compromise in taste when growing novelty plants.

                  Perhaps the widest selection of novelty vegetables can be found in the radish section.  When I was a kid my mother only grew ‘Early Scarlet Globe’, an early radish with traditional round shape.  They were easy to grow, and so quick to harvest that we often let them grow past maturity.  ‘Early Scarlet Globe’ is an heirloom variety that is probably still the most widely planted radish.

                On the opposite end of the radish family is a winter variety called ‘Round Black Spanish.’  It is also an heirloom variety but has been largely forgotten, so gardeners are quick to move it into the novelty category.

                ‘Round Black Spanish’ radish has black skin and white flesh.  Growing to 3 or 4 inches in diameter it has medium to hot flavour.  Use it for stir fries and salads.  Black Spanish is a winter radish, so it should be planted in summer for fall harvest.

                Another winter radish, ‘China Rose’ has the shape of a short carrot, with delightful bright red skin.  Flesh is white, crisp and juicy.  Like Black Spanish, plant it in mid summer and it will be ready for picking in less than two months.  Winter radishes store much longer than spring radishes.

                For a fun spring radish, try “Red Meat.’  It has green skin, with bright red flesh, rimmed in pure white.   It grows quick and takes up little space in the garden.

                If beets are your fancy, give ‘Chioggia’ a try.  The skin looks like a dark red normal beet but open the flesh and you will find red and white circular stripes.  Colours are almost candy like, in a pinwheel pattern.

                  ‘Royal Burgandy’ beans are long, tender, crisp and meaty.  They taste best fresh from the garden.  Colour is deep burgundy.  Boil them for two minutes and colour changes to bright green.

                For a novel looking Swiss chard, chose ‘Bright Lights.’  The colour cause heads to turn with stems in hues of yellow, crimson, gold, purple, green and pink.  Leaves are dark with interesting texture.   Swill chard can be cooked as spinach or used in salads.