Grow Your Own Unusual Vegetables From Seed

As more gardeners discover the joys and benefits of eating their own vegetables the desire to cultivate a few uncommon crops in the kitchen garden or allotment grows. Many are seldom if ever found in supermarkets, yet it is easy to grow your own unusual vegetables from seed.

The catalogues of seed companies including ‘Plants of Distinction’ and ‘Kings’ include a wide choice from white beetroot to multi-coloured Swiss chard. As well as the traditional mail order means of purchase, vegetables with a difference can be bought on-line and from good garden centres everywhere.

From Heritage Varieties to the Latest in Unusual Vegetables

The loss of heritage or heirloom varieties is happening throughout Europe, the USA and Canada. To save these endangered heritage vegetables from extinction seeds are stored in gene banks in the UK at the University of Warwick and in the USA the National Seed Storage Laboratory contains some 4,000,000 varieties. Garden Organic near Coventry (UK) has developed a seed library of 800 traditional varieties. To get round the law which bans the sale of these varieties gardeners pay to become members of the seed library and each year receive six heritage varieties to grow. In recent years Seedy Sundays have sprouted across Britain. In venues like town halls local enthusiasts swap seeds of rare varieties such as ‘Carruther’s Purple Podded Pea’ and ‘Whippersnapper tomato’.

From the very old to the new and the latest unusual vegetable to hit the headlines is a brassica dubbed the ‘flower sprout’. The brand new ‘Petit Posy’ is a cross between Kale and Brussel Sprouts which looks similar to both but the flavour and nutritional content are akin to spring greens. Seeds of this introduction which is already proving very popular are available from Thompson and Morgan.

Unusual Vegetables of the Legume family

• ‘Barlotta Lingua di Fuoco’ is a borlotto type of French bean whose bright green flat pods are splashed with red which gives it the common name of fire tongue. It is available in both climbing and dwarf forms.
• Dwarf French beans are available with purple pods like the variety ‘Purple Queen’ and with yellow ones as possessed by ‘Golden teepee’.
• For a pea with a difference the purple podded variety ‘Desiree’ will get the neighbours talking. It has attractive purple and white flowers. The tasty peas are the standard green colour.
• Asparagus peas have a flavour akin to asparagus. This crop is easy to grow reaching only 45cm tall and so doesn’t need any support. The winged pods are picked when 3-4cm long and topped and tailed. Steaming or lightly boiling prior to serving with a knob of butter is recommended.

Unusual Vegetables of the Brassica Family

• Cauliflowers now come in more colours than white. The following F1 varieties will add colour to the garden and the plate. ‘Graffiti’ has deep purple curds, ‘GreenTrevi’ produces delightful pale green heads and ‘Sunset’ makes unique orange curds.
• Bring colour to the Christmas dinner with some novelty ‘Red Rubine’ Brussel sprouts. The colour of the purple/red buttons intensifies in cold weather.
• Italian romanesco type broccoli is a beautiful addition to any garden. The highly attractive lime green heads are made up of a mass of small conical shaped florets forming a pointed curd.
• Broccoli ‘Redbor’ is an F1 variety with distinctive red leaves.

Unusual Vegetables Grown for Their roots

• Salsify is a root vegetable commonly called the vegetable oyster on account of its similarity in taste. The roots look like thin parsnips.
• Scorzonera is very similar to Salsify with what is often regarded as a superior flavour. It is a hardy perennial usually grown as an annual. The edible roots are black-skinned with white flesh.
• Beetroot ‘Detroit White’ is unusual as is ‘Burpee’s Golden’ with its globe-shaped orange roots.
• Yellow, white, purple, scarlet and orange carrots are all contained in a packet of ‘Rainbow Mixed’ carrot seed.

Search out the Unusual and Stand out From the Rest

Many more unusual vegetables are out there waiting for the imaginative gardener to experiment with including the wonderfully named ‘Blue Ridge Mountain’ tomato, a heritage variety with large pink fruit and the ever reliable Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’ whose attractive stems come in a range of bright colours including gold, pink, orange, purple, red and white. For more information on less commonly sold greens read Grow Your Own Oriental Vegetables From Seed