Interesting & tasty alternative crops for this year's garden

[southeast-isher]

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/ ... rawberries

An interesting article from Permaculture magazine...

:-)

[grahamhobbs]

There has been a fantastic increase in the number and types of vegetables grown on allotments since the days of 'The Vegetable Garden Displayed', but what other fruit and veg crops are there, that are still not now found in the mainstream seed catalogues, that people would really recommend growing, plants that are fairly straighforward to grow, give a reasonable crop and are worth eating?

[southeast-isher]

Nothing that adventurous for me here Graham though i'm envious of others that do grow things off the beaten track. The lady that wrote that book and article has a podcast thing here if you or anyone is interested.

http://coopette.com/akg

[CasperCastle]

You could go all fashionista on everyone's behind and start growing Synsepalum Dulcificum... it'd save you a fortune, seeing as you could just eat the grass and the roses, yet it'd taste like honied artichokes and 'refreshers', ha

Plus, they sell for 2 or 3 quid a berry at posh farmers markets.

[snapdragon]

Am just about to divide a clump of white alpine strawbs if anyone wants a plant or two

[southeast-isher]

You could go all fashionista on everyone's behind and start growing Synsepalum Dulcificum... it'd save you a fortune, seeing as you could just eat the grass and the roses, yet it'd taste like honied artichokes and 'refreshers', ha

Plus, they sell for 2 or 3 quid a berry at posh farmers markets.

Wow i just looked it up on Wikipedia - sounds incredible.

[Nomada]

I'm wondering if I can get hold of quamash, native amaricans used to eat it. It sounds lovely, you can bake it like a potato but it's got a taste of sweet chestnuts to it apparently. Anyone grown honeyberries before?

[thesunflowergal]

Am just about to divide a clump of white alpine strawbs if anyone wants a plant or two

Are you serious Snappy? I would love some please. Willing to pay postage!
Nikki

[southeast-isher]

An article here from Ken Ferns of Plants for a Future...

(please buy back issue as a PDF if you fancy it! via their Green Shopping website)

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/ ... our-garden

[snapdragon]

Am just about to divide a clump of white alpine strawbs if anyone wants a plant or two

Are you serious Snappy? I would love some please. Willing to pay postage!
Nikki

Sure am possibly easier to bring them over to you, shall I give you a shout next time I'm out your way??

[thesunflowergal]

Yes please that would be fab, will swap you for some eggs or something Thanks Snappy

[Green Aura]

If you find a source of quamash, nomada, let me know. It's one of the perennial crops I'm trying to source for my forest garden.

[Dave]

Hello everyone. I'm keen on growing some quamash too if anyone finds them, not come across them before they sound like a fun thing to grow.
Also yakon and oca would be interesting, I've drawn a blank trying to find tubers on the internet.
I had some success with Chinese Yams last year, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_opposita although they are bloody difficult to harvest.
Kiwanos look amazing but that's where the amazement stops - I think they can be called a horned melon.

[Green Aura]

You can get oca and ulluco(sp?) from realseeds, Dave.

[Green Aura]

I've also seen them elsewhere sold as Chinese Artichokes - I read somewhere they were the same thing.