Category: Featured Plant

After growing all last summer, then through the winter, these heads of cauliflower appeared the other day:

It’s truly one of the prettiest cole plants I grew this past year.

It looks similar to purple sprouting broccoli, that I have been reading about on several UK blogs, but I am quite certain this is another plant. Among other things this has one large main head, and few if any side shoots.

When cooked it turns green, tastes really nice and is a lot like broccoli.

The plants were really hardy. They survived the winter without problems. While my other cole plants had problems with root maggots, these didn’t seem to. No problems with birds or other animals. I’m sure I picked off a few caterpillars, but nothing unusual.

I planted 4 plants, and got 4 perfect heads of cauliflower. This almost never happens, and was a very pleasant surprise.

Kenny on Veggie Gardening Tips recently posted his list of favorite tomatoes, so I thought I would post mine as well:

• Brandywine — Gourmet flavor. Red
• Snow White Cherry — Pale yellow, large cherry sized
• Black Prince — Early, nice tasting purple tomato
• Black Cherry — Heavy producer of tasty purple cherry tomatoes
• Yellow Taxi — Gourmet taste, color of a NY taxi cab
• Sugar Cherry Currant — Wild or currant variety. Sweet and prolific
• Yellow Oxheart — Not very prolific, but attractive and tasty.
• Mortgage Lifter — Large, red, good tasting
• Tiny Tim — Small red tomatoes.  Determinate (all tomatoes ripen within a short time).

When you grow heirloom tomatoes, remember to save some seeds!

Also when growing tomatoes keep in mind that while the plants can be direct seeded into the ground, they will do better if you start them indoors 6-8 weeks before moving them outside. Tomato plants that are direct seeded will have weaker roots, and will form tomatoes later.

One of the reasons for starting them indoors is because they like to be both transplanted and at the same time buried deeply in the ground. Tomato plants can form roots from any part of the plant that is buried, so when you transplant them it is only necessary for a few top leaves to be left showing above the soil line, and the rest of the plant should be buried. Ideally, you will start the seeds in a seed tray, transplant them in a few weeks to a small plastic pot, then transplant to it’s final growing location.

Dr Carolyn J. Male has written an excellent book on this subject, 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden.

Do you have favorite heirloom tomatoes? Please share them with us in the comment section, or post them on your own blog!

Okay, these are a little small. It wasn’t a very good year for brussel sprouts in our garden this year. This is a type of red heirloom brussel sprout called Red Rubine.

The taste is very nice. Not like green sprouts, and not like red cabbage. They cook to a very dark red color, making them look nice along side green brussel sprouts.

They look kind of like white carrots, and some people might shudder at the thought of eating them. Some of us already know what a treat buttered, baked parsnips can be. Parsnips produce a natural sugar in defence of cold weather, and so get sweeter through the winter and are their sweetest when harvested in early spring.

To cook parsnips, clean, tip the ends and slice lengthwise about 500g (one pound). You can peel them if you want, but it is not necessary. Put them in a covered baking dish with about 175ml (3/4 cup) vegetable broth, 1 tablespoon butter (or to taste) and salt to taste. Cook for 30-45 minutes at 175C (350F).

Also known as scorzonera, black salsify is maybe not my favorite everyday vegetable, but it is a real treat to have once or twice a year.

It’s not a difficult vegetable to grow in your own garden, but what you see in the picture above came from a local market. The hard clay of my garden is too heavy for black salsify.

Black salsify has a cousin called salsify or haverwortel (oat root) in some Germanic languages. It is similar, but is white in color and the roots are bigger and thicker. I have grown salsify in my garden successfully, but the problem was it began to naturalize, in other words started to grow wild and turn into a weed. Both salsify and black salsify are cooked in a similar way, and both taste a bit like oysters.

Anyway, to cook black salsify you first need to remove the skin. I find the simplest way is to just use a vegetable peeler, but some people prefer to first blanch it in boiling water for 2 minutes then rinse it in cold water to loosen the skins. After peeling, cut into bit sized pieces. At this stage it will discolor very quickly with exposure to the air. To prevent discoloring, place right away into a bowl of water with some lemon juice or vinegar added. Rinse, then steam for a few minutes until it is soft but not mushy. Add butter, salt and pepper to taste.