What's the weirdest thing you're growing?

[Bonobo]

I have a lot of Japanese veggies, like:

-daikon (long white radish)
-kabu (round white radish, sweeter)
-komatsuna, mitsuba (Japanese greens)
-negi (Japanese scallions)
-kabocha (Japanese pumpkin)
-nasu (Japanese eggplant)
-gobo (burdock root, the roots are great simmered)
-shiso ('beefsteak' plant, leaves are mint-related)

Last year I also grew edamame (soy beans). They worked out pretty well.

Looking forward to hearing everyone's lists!

[ClayZ]

1. We bought a collection of Asian veggie seeds on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASIAN-VEGETABLE-SEEDS-COLLECTION-9-types-bonus_W0QQitemZ120281499285QQihZ002QQcategoryZ1512QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The cabbage is doing great and the peas are amazing. The Broccoli has had a tough time. Some little green worms have been eating them. They look pretty ragged. We bought 1500 lady bugs and released them last night in a wet garden. It was fun to watch them wake up this morning and lift off. The beans are climbing up the tee-pee we built. The hot peppers are looking good. The Baby Corn looks pretty silly near the regular corn.

We shall see.

Our garden are bursting at the seams.

I had just been reading about pruning tomatoes and using coffee grinds around the beds to keep slugs away. Also rosemary works the article said. I have huge rosemary plants so tomorrow I will give them the double whammy.

Keep growing!



I will try Bok Choi and Tatsoi next year.

[EstimatedProphet]

2. Edamame

It's almost ready to harvest too.

[noamnety]

3. Yacon

Fresh Yacon tubers are crisp and juicy with a delicate flavor reminiscent of apple or melon and a surprising sweetness that increases in storage. They can be eaten raw, (fresh or dried) steamed, baked, roasted, or juiced. The somewhat bitter skin can be scrubbed off with a stiff brush, peeled with a vegetable peeler, or removed after baking. One of our favorite recipes is to simply chop the peeled tubers into bite-size pieces and sauté them in a little butter until the sugar begins to caramelize. Serve with mashed potatoes topped with fresh parsley.

While satisfyingly sweet and flavorful, Yacon remains low in calories. This is due to the fact that the sugar contains high levels of oligofructose (inulin), a form of sugar that is not metabolized readily by the human body. For this reason, Yacon shows much promise as a food for diabetics and as a base for a low calorie sweetener. Even a tea made from dried Yacon leaves is purported to have the ability to level out blood sugar levels.

http://www.seedsofchange.com/enewsletter/issue_40/yacon.asp

[Bonobo]

5. That sounds really yummy. I had never heard of it.

Any recipes?

[noamnety]

14. No recipes yet.

There's some online, but until I get my first harvest I can't say anything intelligent about it. I've never tasted it, myself.

I bought one little plant through mail order, I stuck it in the ground and it seems to be doing good. The leaves are huge and kind of cool looking, and they sort of turn and track the sun sometimes during the day like big solar panels. I don't know if there's anything I have to do to make tea from it other than just dry a leaf, crumble it up, and pour boiling water over it. That seems too easy ... I don't know if you need to use baby leaves, or full sized, or what.

If I could figure out how to make my own syrup from it for a sugar substitute, that would be great, too. For now, it's just quietly growing and every couple of days I walk out and see, yep, it's still there.

I was just in a tuber mood when I started my garden this year. I've got jerusalem artichokes and horseradish both for the first time, and it's the first time I've tried sweet potatoes, too.

Oooh, and I've got purple de milpa tomatillo plants, and ground cherries, those are both new for me this year.

Old established weird things I've got include gooseberry bushes, pawpaw trees and a persimmon tree.

[wildeyed]

4. 400-lb pumpkin

Don't know if it will actually get that large, but judging from what we have already, we should be close :)

[Blue Gardener]

6. Are you growing for a contest?

Or just for the heck of it? We have a local pumpkin festival in a town near here with prizes for the biggest pumpkins.

[wildeyed]

8. Just for fun.

They put the seeds out at kid level at the hardware store, so it was kind of a forgone conclusion that we would be growing one. The vine is huge and the pumpkin is a good five pounds already! The kids are excited, which was the real point of the activity. I will post pics soon.

I doubt that ours will get anywhere near the 400 lb mark they claim on the label. That would just be plain scary. Also, how would we get it out of the yard?

[Blue Gardener]

9. Forktruck

I think that's the only way to move the really big ones. There are people that are really into growing the giant pumpkins. There is a series of three books written on the best methods for growing them. You really have to want to win to put that much time and effort into one pumpkin!

http://www.amazon.com/Grow-World-Class-Giant-Pumpkins/dp/0963279319/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215903057&sr=1-4

[wildeyed]

11. Everyone needs a hobby, I guess.

:wow:

Those are huge! My in-laws live in the country and one of their neighbors is a giant pumpkin aficionado. This year he is hauling water from the river instead of well water. I forget why. Maybe it has a higher nutrient content? He did win the county fair contest last year, so maybe will get some pointers from him next time I am in the area :)

[murray hill farm]

7. Chinese red noodle

Long beans I ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. They are dark maroon in color and do grow to be about 2 ft long. And they hold their color when cooked. They are very strange looking...sort of like maroon snakes in your garden.

[Bonobo]

12. Wow! That sounds really nice! I would love to see pics if you have.

Can you read us the seed pack when you get it? I want to know the hardiness to see if it'll grow here.

[murray hill farm]

17. Hi!

I cannot send pics...no dig. camera, but I bought these from The Baker seed company and their site is www.RareSeeds.com and there is a great picture of them in the catelog. They are listed under "Long Beans" and it says 80 days to produce from seed, but it did not take that long for mine to fully produce (I live in southern Georgia). Called Chinese Red Noodle Bean and the number in the catelog is #LG109. They are just amazing to look at in the garden...and yummy to eat, as well. I think that if you have 80 days in a growing season...then that would work for ya. I just planted some more of them, but I dont have frost here until November...at the earliest.

[China_cat]

10. Stevia

[Bonobo]

13. Hey, I see it's good for heartburn! Also, the Japanese have used as a sweetener for a long time!

But the biggest thing is that the Japanese feel that it may improve insulin resistance on a cellular level, a key way to fight against diabetes!

[noamnety]

15. There's a guy near me growing it.

He had me sample a leaf out of his garden. I'm planning to try it next year. Did you start it from seed? I read it was hard to get it germinating.

[China_cat]

16. No, I bought a small plant.

It's now almost 3 ft. high and really needs cutting and drying.

One other thing stevia is good for...insect control. Bugs don't bother it and a tea made of the leaves and sprayed on other plants keeps insects away.

[Gato Moteado]

18. cool! i grow that stuff too!

nt

[Gato Moteado]

19. great list of cool stuff!

i want to grow edamame. does it prefer cooler or hotter climates? a lot of rainfall is ok? what about heavy clay soils?

[Gato Moteado]

20. by the way.....just about everything i grow is weird or interesting.....

some edibles i can think of off the top of my head:
mamones
cashews
carambolas
passion fruits
guanabana
guava
guayaba
cacao
zapotes
wild papayas

some ornamentals:
Aristolochia grandiflora
Aristolochia ringens
torch ginger
maracas

[madeline_con]

21. Okra. I adore it fried.

The flowers are beautiful (hibiscus relative), and it's yummy. Some people hate it, but I just planted a second crop. I read it's tropical, so it should be fine throught the summer here in central FL.

[conscious evolution]

22. Bananas

They are not supposed to grow in Atlanta.And yet they do.

[Gato Moteado]

23. do they fruit for you?

what happens to them in the winter? do they die back to the ground and then return from the corms in the spring?

there are some hardy banana varieties that are somewhat cold tolerant and will fruit in places that have winters that aren't too harsh. they wouldn't make it thru a chicago winter but they might make it thru one in atlanta.

[conscious evolution]

25. Yes they do fruit

Not very big or tasty though.But they are bananas.

In the winter we dig them up and store them in the basement.

[RedLetterRev]

24. There are some varieties that grow as far north

as where I live in north central NC. They're not very big or very sweet, but they're bananas nonetheless. Now, bananas are one of the few things that I do miss about living in SoFla. I had a few in my backyard down there. I miss the corn dracenas -- now THAT is one gorgeous scent. But back home up here, I can have real tomatoes in the ground (no vicious nematodes) and winter root veggies. That's a fair enough trade AFAIC :)

Threadworthiness: The oddest thing I've got going right now are my kiwis. They're just babies yet, but the 2 girls and the little boy made it through their first summer. We'll see how they take the few vicious little cold snaps we get. The rest of my garden is pretty prosaic -- for now.

Believe it or not, there are key limes up here. I didn't believe it either until I blundered into one (OUCH!). They actually survive the winters and they fruit. A co-worker has several on his property and this fall he's going to nab me a couple of saplings. Mind you, I'm 12 miles due south of Danville, VA, so that's one heckuva lot further north than I had thought citrus of any sort would survive, let alone set fruit.

[Gormy Cuss]

26. Re: shiso. How do you plan to use it?

I just planted some and have not looked for recipes, but I cook Asian food frequently and would love some ideas.

To answer your question about what odd things I'm growing, this summer the rat-tail radishes are probably the strangest thing out there. http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2008/06/rattail_radishes_produce_delic.html