Weird vegetables?

Yam bean, Jicama


Another $1 purchase from China town.
No botanic name on packet.
the packet says sow when temps are above 20C.
yet the Oz veg site says sow in Autumn.
Any one grown this?

Grown in Florida and the Caribbean and mexico
https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PAER3

https://www.filipinoherbshealingwon...-scientific-name-pachyrrhizus-erosus-linn.htm

https://www.sandmountainherbs.com/jicama_yam_bean.html
Jicama is another of those vegetables that we had never tried until a few months ago. I have to say that shrinking our waistlines has had an incredible impact on our food explorations . . . at one time I was dreading it but now I have come to appreciate it to no end!

https://jdeq.typepad.com/jerrys_thoughts_musings_a/weekend_herb_blogging/

https://www.jungleseeds.com/SeedShop/RootVeg.htm

https://www.cas.cqu.edu.au/FCWViewe...bi0TbNuMbhqSaxz0n6jAmljGr5XDqQLvpAe?page=6836

I still don't know when to sow it!!!

 

I'm growing jicama and it has just set pods. I planted it in spring. I'm going to start lifting it soon and see what I've got in the way of tubers.

My other "weird" vegetable at present is hairy melon - the seeds (like the jicama) came from the Perm Noosa Seed savers collection. It looks sort of watermelon-ish. White flesh with seeds in the middle. Very bland, not sweet. I have made vege bake using it instead of zucchini. It's in the oven at present so check in again in an hour and I'll tell you how it went!

 

What great (and funny) thread!

I like everything in my garden to be edible, and although maybe slightly OT for this thread since they are not vegetables, I have quite a lot of different edible flowers. You would be surprised as to what is actually edible (but many of them taste of nothing at all). Many flowers are wellknown for being edible, like violets and nasturtium, but did you know that tulips are edible?...and the flowers of Amaranthus caudatus and Dracocephalum moldavica

Another edible that I think is wierd is rhubarb. A plant/flower which is a psyciatric patient: "I'm a vegetable", "I'm a fruit"....and really what we eat, is the stem.

 

Malabar spinach is a warm season plant , so sept-oct depending on local conditions etc.
prune tips often and you get better yield of tender veg.

I'm growing Ajipa (Pachyrhizus ahipa) just for seed atm.
I think it's not daylength sensitive like Jicama

Amorphophallus konjac ....the starch has a very unique texture when cooked quality
and is made into a gelatinous dessert type of noodle.
If textures of foods are your thing, you really should try them.

 

Tar
looks like i can't plant anything
I NEED to plant some seeds its a compulsion!

Can others (say on this forum) get seeds from Noosa?
https://www.genevar.com.au/seedsavers/lsn/15.html

 

Have just got some malabar spinach putting out first leaves, so thanks for the tip (pun intended). Picked up the seeds in an oriental grocery. It seems to be loving the heat of Florida summer. Looking forward to tasting the leaves for the first time in a few weeks. Any cooking suggestions?

I am also trying out winged bean (few inches tall) and my moringa seedlings (3 feet tall) are growing quickly. I love my sweet potato leaves. Great sauteed with sesame oil and a little salt. Also like them mixed in stir fries, or even in the miso soup.

As many have remarked, our sense of vegetables seems mostly shaped by market forces. On top of that, at least here in the U.S., we lean mostly towards temperate vegetables, but I live in subtropics. It doesn't help that most of the population here came from up north, and hasn't been here more than a generation or two, so they understand little of how to garden in this climate.

Everyone here in S. Florida complains that you can't grow anything in summer. Farmer's markets close down. The CSA's all shut down from May to October, which is absurd. Meanwhile, tropical veg and perrenials are doing just fine. Lots of intense sun and rain most days in summer. Just don't try and grow lettuce.

My wife and I love experimenting with new vegetables and creating new dishes, but most people are very conservative when it comes to trying to cook new things. I think if I ever have a market garden, I am going to hand out recipes with all the weird vegetables. Or maybe samples of prepared dishes. Demand has to be manufactured.

 

Well the hariy melon vege slice was great. Even the fussy eater 11 year old finished it up.

MA Elizabeth Fekonia is the keeper of the seeds at Perm Noosa. Her business is Permaculture Real Foods (I think). You should be able to find her on the internet, and you could ask her if she could post you some seeds. I also got a red eggplant from the seed savers collection - egg sized and tomato red. Sweeter than the big eggplants too.

 

My Walking Stick Kale (Chou Moellier) I got from Diggers or Eden and it is now around 7 foot. I think my mums was larger but she grows stuff in Karri loam so its not fair

 

Dear Matthew,
Please try and keep your posts relevant to the thread topic.

 

Not sure if others think these peas are weird but they have tons more tendrils than any other I've ever grown.

 

How far are you from the Nuclear power plant?

 

Hey MA - I harvested some jicama today and steamed it for dinner. Yum! It has the texture of firm potato, but sweeter - like apple and sweet potato mixed together. I only got 2 small yams, but I now have about 100 seeds to dry for next years crop....

 

They are "Lacy Lady" and they are supposed to look that way, I bought the seeds several years ago and now can't find them listed anywhere.

 

Sounds delicious-- look after those seeds!

 

Not sure we have done this one but deserves a place because of it's appearence. We use it so many ways and it is delightful. Firstly it can be peeled and eaten like an apple, or grated for salad. We like to slice it thinly as bamboo shoot in stirfry. It can be baked or mashed or used for coleslaw. A great plant in my opinion.

 

Purple Okra

 

I planted mine in spring. It germinated fine and grew well till hot weather hit. Then it barely grew, just tolerating the heat. Once it cooled off again it has started growing just fine.

To those who want to know what to do with okra, you can fry it, steam it, boil it, stir-fry it, grill it, thicken soups with it. My 3 favorite are fried, boiled, and in gumbo. If you boil it, don't let it go too long or it will get really slimy. On the grill, just brush a little olive oil on it and a little salt and pepper. Cook it so that there is only a slight crunch left. Most varieties are best when cut small, 2-4 inches, though there are a few that stay tender at larger sizes. For growing it, it loves heat. You can plant it early, but It will just sit there 6" tall till the temps start hitting 80 F. Once established it will take dry weather. Plants can grow to over 12 feet in long season areas. The leaves can be prickly so most growers cut off the lower limbs to provide easier access to the okra.

 

Glass Gem Corn, the Multi-colored Corn Variety You Should Probably Know About

https://foodbeast.com/content/2012/...-corn-variety-you-should-probably-know-about/

https://milkwood.net/2012/05/12/glass-gem-corn-and-other-heirloom-jewels-of-the-corn-cabinet/

Here's Seedstrusts's story:

Seedsman Greg Schoen got the seed from Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee man, now in his 80's, in Oklahoma. He was Greg's "corn-teacher". Greg was in the process of moving last year and wanted someone else to store and protect some of his seeds. He left samples of several corn varieties, including glass gem. I grew out a small handful this past summer just to see. The rest, as they say is history. I got so excited, I posted a picture on Facebook. We have never seen anything like this. Unfortunately, we did not grow out enough to sell.


https://secure.seedstrust.com/

 

If you remove the flowers you get bigger yams
I got a monster last year about the size of a big pumpkin

Seeds are poisonous so be be careful.
They are triggered to go off when the humidity is right
You get a bang and they fly everywhere...cool

 

Thanks for reminding me - It's time to put some seed in the ground for more jicama.