Weird vegetables?

Re: Weird vegetables?

Apparently you need to add something acidic (lemon juice for eg) to stop the grey colour with purple spuds. Am yet to try it myself....

 

Re: Weird vegetables?

I'm jealous of your okra-growing climates! I love the stuff, but can understand distaste at the 'slimy' texture.
If you're looking for ways to cook it, look up 'gumbo', 'ladies fingers', 'Cajun' or 'bhindi'. The Japanese love to use it in tempura.
By the way, the purple Peruvian spuds and our (NZ) urenika make some pretty psychedelic purple gnocchi, no acid required... I don't know if Aussies can get them, but the urenika potato is incredibly prolific and basically indestructable: once it's in the garden, it's there forever.
Not really 'weird', but unusual, is black scorzonera aka black salsify. It has the same cultural requirements as parsnips, including really short-lived seed and painfully low and slow germination. And it is totally delicious.

 

Re: Weird vegetables?

Tempura sounds interesting-- thanks for the key words, that will help.

A bit cranky today Customs have impounded my Lotus tetragonobolus syn Tetragonolobus purpureus Asparagus pea seeds from Chiltern seeds in the UK. Annoyed because it is not in their AQUIS prohibited import data base.
i won last time they impounded my vanilla grass (although they never sprouted. Did they gamma radiate them?)

MTC
.


I am not going to try with the peony poppy although it S@#&s me that ever other county on the planet can grow them except us. Also you can buy them from profiteers on Oz ebay for $3-4 per 20 seeds. Usually packets OS contain 1,000 to 2,000 seeds!
What annoys me more is the wonderful gardens of exotic plants these Customs guys have. One I was proudly shown around one, 5+ acres near Kenthurst? NSW. It had golden bays all sorts of rare variegated ornamentals and other stuff i had only drempt about in books. By the end of the tour it was all I could do to hold in my bile.

 

Re: Weird vegetables?

Why do you torture yourself MA? Did they have wierd vegetables in their collection?
Did you ask for cuttings? Gardeners usually like to share slips of plants.

BTW zeolite still in bags - will get to use it soon.

 

Re: Weird vegetables?

I like pain?
I was very angry. My young apprentice took me to the garden as a surprise. He knew I would love seeing all the rare plants. He didn't know was my history with Customs and my attempts at bringing plants in via customs went like this:-
(First talk someone from OS into bothering. pay heaps for the phytosanitary certificates and air express mail.)
"You pay us rent to look after your plant" for many months (6?)
"Then we give you live plant"

end of quarantine period

"Where is my plant?"
"O, it died."
"When did it die, day one of my rent, or day 100?"
"no reply"
They make it so hard for people to be honest.They are just going about it in completely the wrong way. I read somewhere that their bloody minded policies result in a new bug, disease or whatever coming into Oz every 30-60 days.
I am going to talk to a guy with his own Quarantine station next week (what you do when you get fed up with renting dead plants) Although i hear he has now given up and is sick of the hassle and red tape.
Menanwhile, my ethnic customer says "Did you get the plant." He can't cook/ live without it
"No, sorry."
"O. no matter ,my bother -Lewegii, kim san whatever- is coming to visit next month; he bring cutting"

playing with Z this Pm --you don't need much -too much and if the soil drys out you have problems.

 

Re: Weird vegetables?

Hey Mikey mike. I think its important that we get these things right and that we deal with the government as non-confrontationally as we can. I have some experience with The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) and Biosecurity Australia, with regards to imported plants and seeds. Customs and AQIS do work closely together but they are entirely different entities.

Customs generally don't care about seeds unless they are protected (see CITES), narcotics or very poisonous. Imported seeds are more the domain of AQIS.

So, what reason did they give you for seizing them? Did you declare them, that is to say were they clearly marked in commercial packets and did the package itself have a declaration of them containing seeds? As far as I can see Lotus tetragonobolus is on the 'permitted seeds list' which is more accurately called, Schedule 5 of the Quarantine Amendment Proclamation 2006 (No. 7), so there should be no reason they have seized it in respect to the species itself. However, if you imported it under the synonym Tetragonolobus purpureus there is no sign of that on the permitted seeds list. You should be able to clear this up with them if that is the case by providing them with a reputable source for the synonym.

A little more on the permitted seeds list as opposed to using ICON (AQIS's Import conditions database) I think it is worth checking both as there are some inaccuracies or more correctly missing info on ICON. I think it is probably best to check the legislation itself - you can find Schedule 5 here...

https://www.frli.gov.au/ComLaw/Legi...A0071BFF957636D2CA25723C001F0020?OpenDocument

Further to that, if you believe that a 'prohibited' species is already here and widely distributed or commercially available and is not 'under official control' (which is jargon for some government, state or federal is spending money trying to eradicate it or control it) then you can apply to have it added to the permitted seeds list - as I understand it.

I don't know about the peony poppy, what is its botanical name?

I have never heard of AQIS irradiating seeds for sowing. However if you imported it as food, that may be a different matter. Let me know exactly how you imported it and what they said and I can offer you some advice. Was it definately Customs or was it AQIS?

Cheers
Grahame

 

Re: Weird vegetables?

Oh, well live plants are a whole different ball-game!

We are talking about government here my friend, the best way to make people stop doing stuff is to make 'em pay for it. Innit?

 

Re: Weird vegetables?

Thanks Graham,
The voice of reason.
How do you keep a thread on topic when the moderator is feral?

The Poppy is P. somniflorum (var Peony sometimes added). See my problem?
The DAFF & AQIS is on the letterhead & Mail Centre Sydney Parcels Office, & Canberra I need to reply to. For a mere $42.50 they will send them back to UK for me!

i have sent an email asking for clarication of their reasons for holding the pea seeds.

I have winged about the Peony Poppy before and they said take it up with Canberra "But I don't like your chances".
How should I approach them if I felt like investing the emotional energy into it, and asking for an import Permit? A $4 packet of seed i could sell at 100 times the price on ebay!!!!
i was naughty ordering it but. . .

The flowers are almost as big as Peonies (which I cant grow-not cold enough) or the size of a big man's cupped fist. I saw a trial field of Suttons the seedsmen in Cambridge England and have been hooked ever since.

I usually check ICON database before I import. The problem with the Vanilla Grass was a slighly differnt botanical name but a cursory search of AQiS data base would have given them the synonym-(where i found it!).

Another herb that is on the banned list that S**ts me is all Ephedra species. I can just see The Bikies starting Ephedra farms and producing ephedrine/thence speed ! Bloody botanical/herbal/chemical ignoramassis!

 

A new plant for me this season is Jersey Kale or Walking stick kale. the seed i got from Chiltern seeds in the UK has almost jumped out of the pot.
I am looking forward to seeing how large it can get with some warm Ozzie weather.
I have far too many plants for my garden, I think -if it is true to description- if anyone wants to try one!

[video=youtube;ZucqWOKZ60E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZucqWOKZ60E[/video]

 

You know Eden Seeds stock it too. Coulda saved you seed miles....

 

LOL
Thanks --but do they have peony poppies?

Have you ever seen the Tree Kale mentioned in the Video?

 

Just some photos of ordinary plants gone crazy. I thought it may have been weirder.
(One kid's gardening book suggests planting carrots in potting mix with lumps of rock and tile and overfeeding them so you get odd shapes!)

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010...enumber=JbbtAaRaUbg=&&&&slideshow#slide_image

This is better, just pics of slightly uncommon;y used vegetables

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009...225.html?slidenumber=0K1LaEBCv2Y=#slide_image
(The slides change quicker if you vote)

 

Elephant Yam, Suran , Amorphophallus paeoniifolius

THese are some of my favourite plants , and grow very easily to a large size , and lok amazing in the garden .
Still not eaten one , but will one day . I recently set seed on one and will plant out a lot next year .
Here is a large size tuber I planted a while ago . And the unusual flower it gets .

 

Can you eat Amorhophallus? I thought they stunk to high heaven?

 

New to me too!

https://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Amorphophallus+paeoniifolius

Any recipies aroideana?

There seems to be a number of types
https://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/singhs/aroids.html
Which ones are worth eating?/ or
Can be eaten?

 

Remember that TARO Colocasia esculenta and COCO YAM Xanthosoma sagittifolium are AROIDS and both widely eaten , as is Monstera deliciosa [though fruit and not tuber].
There are probably nearly 200 species as new ones are still being discovered . Many are edible , the main one being the Japanese Amorphophallus konjac
Some of the Chinese endemic spp. like albus are also used for food . Quick google on 'suran' found a few recipes .
https://www.aayisrecipes.com/2006/08/15/yam-chutney-surna-koot/

Eco its only the infloresence that stinks , and then only for a day or so , and PHEW my front yard really stank for a while with the dozen or so flowers .
Just like road kill really

 

Well I reckon that Aroideana gets the weird vegetable for 2010 award for her splendid smelly phallic flowering edible tuber!

 

uhm , its HIS . here are some more of my pics , the habit of the clump last year with the spike setting seed in the middle .
THe flower is very low . but elongates as the seed matures . In the end it was over 1m high .

 

Some edible Australian natives

https://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2009/09/edible-australian-natives.html
What are Muntries?

 

Malabar spinach and desert onion.

I just purchased a $1 packet of Malabar Spinach seed from China Town.
Apparently it is a vine.
Just trying to work out when to sow it
Any ideas?
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This "desert onion'' must be the strangest edible plant yet. Though I wouldn't feel right about eating a plant older than me!

https://www.thenatureanimals.com/2010/05/worlds-strange-plants-species.html