Does anyone grow quinoa or radicchio or sorrel? Are they tasty? How do you prepare/eat them?
What other uncommon things do you grow and eat from your garden?
(HG feel free to chime in about all your weeds
)Unusual plants
I've been browsing the seed catalogs trying to decide what to order for next year (shocking right?) and have come across some interesting plants I've never heard about before.
Does anyone grow quinoa or radicchio or sorrel? Are they tasty? How do you prepare/eat them?
What other uncommon things do you grow and eat from your garden?
(HG feel free to chime in about all your weeds)
Does anyone grow quinoa or radicchio or sorrel? Are they tasty? How do you prepare/eat them?
What other uncommon things do you grow and eat from your garden?
(HG feel free to chime in about all your weeds
)I eat quinoa and radicchio; I grow sorrel.
My sorrel, maybe 15 years ago, was a little French sorrel herb start in a 4" plastic pot. I moved it into a 12" terra cotta container with a couple of other herbs and it did well. So did its neighbors (I can't remember now which of my terra cotta herb pots its neighbors *were*).
The sorrel was so happy in the shared 12" container that it grew by leaps and bounds. A season or two later, I gave it a "personal" pot all to itself. It was absolutely thrilled in its VERY OWN 12" terra cotta pot. The sorrel was maybe five or six years old now, and we had moved everything--household belongings, compost bin *and ingredients,* containers *and their plants*--to El Cerrito. The sorrel positively thrived on its southern exposure, especially when I moved some of the containers to the area which eventually, in 2008, became Bed #1.
Sadly, one day there came a mighty storm. Full of water and wind and fury was this storm. He threw down the terra cotta home of the doughty French sorrel plant, which by now had furnished leaves for many pots of potato/sorrel soup by which the people warmed themselves of a stormy night. The terra cotta home, upon being thrown down to the earth and a cement block, was shattered into lo these many sherds, and the people feared for the life of the French sorrel, watching and caring for it faithfully, lest it pass on to the Great Compost Pile.
But hark! Forty days and forty nights [ed. note: these legends have curious similarities, do they not?
] had passed since the mighty storm, and the doughty French sorrel put forth new growth, showing its will to survive despite the loss of its terra cotta home. Via the secret ways known only to plants and the earth herself, the French sorrel had sent roots directly into the soil, through the ornamental cement block upon which the terra cotta home had been placed, and took new strength from these roots.
Where it lives today, 2 feet across and 2 to 3 feet high. I cut it back using pruning shears and going around the lower circumference of the plant, mashing the leaves and stems into a 1-quart measuring cup. 1 quart of sorrel leaves, plus the other ingredients, makes a pot of Potato/Sorrel soup. I can make this soup two or three times during the rainy season (winter) without endangering the plant.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
My sorrel, maybe 15 years ago, was a little French sorrel herb start in a 4" plastic pot. I moved it into a 12" terra cotta container with a couple of other herbs and it did well. So did its neighbors (I can't remember now which of my terra cotta herb pots its neighbors *were*).
The sorrel was so happy in the shared 12" container that it grew by leaps and bounds. A season or two later, I gave it a "personal" pot all to itself.
It was absolutely thrilled in its VERY OWN 12" terra cotta pot. The sorrel was maybe five or six years old now, and we had moved everything--household belongings, compost bin *and ingredients,* containers *and their plants*--to El Cerrito. The sorrel positively thrived on its southern exposure, especially when I moved some of the containers to the area which eventually, in 2008, became Bed #1.Sadly, one day there came a mighty storm. Full of water and wind and fury was this storm. He threw down the terra cotta home of the doughty French sorrel plant, which by now had furnished leaves for many pots of potato/sorrel soup by which the people warmed themselves of a stormy night. The terra cotta home, upon being thrown down to the earth and a cement block, was shattered into lo these many sherds, and the people feared for the life of the French sorrel, watching and caring for it faithfully, lest it pass on to the Great Compost Pile.
But hark! Forty days and forty nights [ed. note: these legends have curious similarities, do they not?
] had passed since the mighty storm, and the doughty French sorrel put forth new growth, showing its will to survive despite the loss of its terra cotta home. Via the secret ways known only to plants and the earth herself, the French sorrel had sent roots directly into the soil, through the ornamental cement block upon which the terra cotta home had been placed, and took new strength from these roots.Where it lives today, 2 feet across and 2 to 3 feet high. I cut it back using pruning shears and going around the lower circumference of the plant, mashing the leaves and stems into a 1-quart measuring cup. 1 quart of sorrel leaves, plus the other ingredients, makes a pot of Potato/Sorrel soup. I can make this soup two or three times during the rainy season (winter) without endangering the plant.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
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applestar
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All we need are some appropriate sound FX's or maybe a flowing robe and a stringed instrument 
Thank you for the tale.
French Sorrel is Rumex scutatus.
I have the wild cousins, Rumex crispus (Curly Dock) and Rumex acetosella (Sheep Sorrel) in my garden that I occasionally try eating. I also bought Rumex sanguineus (Bloody Dock) this spring.
I had an older packet of Rainbow Quinoa seeds in my seed box, so I tried sowing them this spring, but they never came up.
I sowed a mesclun mix last year. What I thought was some kind of red mustard (spicy somewhat leathery oval leaves) kept on trucking even after several light frosts and developed a perfectly recognizable head resembling red cabbage -- yes! it was a Radicchio. I harvested it just before our first hard freeze. It overwintered and is now gracing the garden with lovely blue flowers that only stay open until the sunlight touches them.
Thank you for the tale. French Sorrel is Rumex scutatus.
I have the wild cousins, Rumex crispus (Curly Dock) and Rumex acetosella (Sheep Sorrel) in my garden that I occasionally try eating. I also bought Rumex sanguineus (Bloody Dock) this spring.
I had an older packet of Rainbow Quinoa seeds in my seed box, so I tried sowing them this spring, but they never came up.
I sowed a mesclun mix last year. What I thought was some kind of red mustard (spicy somewhat leathery oval leaves) kept on trucking even after several light frosts and developed a perfectly recognizable head resembling red cabbage -- yes! it was a Radicchio. I harvested it just before our first hard freeze. It overwintered and is now gracing the garden with lovely blue flowers that only stay open until the sunlight touches them.
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lorax
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I grow and eat Quinoa and Radiccio.
One of the things your catalogue may not have mentioned about Quinoa is that until the plant matures, it's a tasty salad green similar to spinach. Once it's bloomed, the leaves become bitter and when the seeds are ready for harvest the heads will have an attractive purplish colour (or at least, the most common cultivar down here in the Andes does - others may turn red or gold.) The dry seeds are a superfood - prepare them in the same way as you would rice. However, before you go about eating the seeds you need to wash them in mildly alkaline water (dissolved baking soda does the trick; so does mild lye, which is the traditional method) to remove the bitter saponin coating, then dry them in the sun.
You won't have any difficulty at all with the plant - it's a relative of the pigweeds, and very vigorous. However, the seed is only viable for replanting for 6-8 months after harvest - it stales really fast so you need to be assured that what you buy is super-fresh or you'll be quite disappointed. This said, if you can get it to grow once in the garden, you'll have it for life.
Radiccio has the same requirements as other endives, with the added bonus that it doesn't need to be wrapped to produce heads. Treat it like an iceberg lettuce and you'll be fine. For full red colour and flavour, though, you'll want more sun for it than you'd normally give a lettuce. As applestar notes, it's a slow maturer, but it's worth the wait.
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Other unusual things that I grow and eat?
Epazote (Dysphania ambrosoides) comes to mind. This is a relative of Quinoa, but used almost exclusively as a leaf veggie in soups that also contain beans. It has a fairly strong herbal flavour, which is quite pleasant in soup, and it also kills the llama-gagging gas that the beans would otherwise give me.
I also grow Finoccio (sweet fennel) for the bulbs, Canna 'Achira' for its leaves (not edible in and of theirselves, but excellent rice wrappers), and Cacao in order to make my own chocolate.
Babaco (Vasconcella x pentandra) deserves its own special mention. It's a hardy (well, hardier - zone 7) relative of the papaya, and is used in juices, sauces, and pies. Cooked, the texture and flavour of the fruit resembles apple, but in juice is where it really shines - it has a flavour best described as "straberry-pineapple-pear" and is naturally a bit fizzy.
One of the things your catalogue may not have mentioned about Quinoa is that until the plant matures, it's a tasty salad green similar to spinach. Once it's bloomed, the leaves become bitter and when the seeds are ready for harvest the heads will have an attractive purplish colour (or at least, the most common cultivar down here in the Andes does - others may turn red or gold.) The dry seeds are a superfood - prepare them in the same way as you would rice. However, before you go about eating the seeds you need to wash them in mildly alkaline water (dissolved baking soda does the trick; so does mild lye, which is the traditional method) to remove the bitter saponin coating, then dry them in the sun.
You won't have any difficulty at all with the plant - it's a relative of the pigweeds, and very vigorous. However, the seed is only viable for replanting for 6-8 months after harvest - it stales really fast so you need to be assured that what you buy is super-fresh or you'll be quite disappointed. This said, if you can get it to grow once in the garden, you'll have it for life.
Radiccio has the same requirements as other endives, with the added bonus that it doesn't need to be wrapped to produce heads. Treat it like an iceberg lettuce and you'll be fine. For full red colour and flavour, though, you'll want more sun for it than you'd normally give a lettuce. As applestar notes, it's a slow maturer, but it's worth the wait.
---
Other unusual things that I grow and eat?
Epazote (Dysphania ambrosoides) comes to mind. This is a relative of Quinoa, but used almost exclusively as a leaf veggie in soups that also contain beans. It has a fairly strong herbal flavour, which is quite pleasant in soup, and it also kills the llama-gagging gas that the beans would otherwise give me.
I also grow Finoccio (sweet fennel) for the bulbs, Canna 'Achira' for its leaves (not edible in and of theirselves, but excellent rice wrappers), and Cacao in order to make my own chocolate.
Babaco (Vasconcella x pentandra) deserves its own special mention. It's a hardy (well, hardier - zone 7) relative of the papaya, and is used in juices, sauces, and pies. Cooked, the texture and flavour of the fruit resembles apple, but in juice is where it really shines - it has a flavour best described as "straberry-pineapple-pear" and is naturally a bit fizzy.
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applestar
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That would be my dream!!! I saw cacao plant in a catalog and seriously thought about buying it.lorax wrote:Cacao in order to make my own chocolate.
Babaco (Vasconcella x pentandra) deserves its own special mention. It's a hardy (well, hardier - zone 7) relative of the papaya, and is used in juices, sauces, and pies. Cooked, the texture and flavour of the fruit resembles apple, but in juice is where it really shines - it has a flavour best described as "straberry-pineapple-pear" and is naturally a bit fizzy.
Out of curiosity, how many plants do you need to have sufficient yield to make it worthwhile?I never heard of Babaco. How intriguing! But, again -- oh what does Agent Max Smart say? -- "Missed by THAT much" Zone 6 here.
I'm going to look that up though.... 
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FieldofFlowers
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I'm growing quinoa for the first time this year - a rainbow variety. It sits in two planters in the front lawn (looking like a large weed got in and out-grew everything, or some kind of joke.). Probably wasn't the ideal container choice, but I hope in the fall it will look prettier than it does now.
I also have two in my back garden, but those produce more leaves/ less seeds and are attacked by leaf minors. The container ones seem to be doing the best even though they are shorter/ have more seeds. The leaves taste pretty good, especially in a salad. I found they also do okay in stir fries. (I like to mix weird stuff.) In stir fries the leaves turn bright green.
I also have two in my back garden, but those produce more leaves/ less seeds and are attacked by leaf minors. The container ones seem to be doing the best even though they are shorter/ have more seeds. The leaves taste pretty good, especially in a salad. I found they also do okay in stir fries. (I like to mix weird stuff.) In stir fries the leaves turn bright green.
Try https://www.bountifulgardens.org , run by John Jeavons' people up in Willits, California. They're currently offering three varieties of quinoa on their website. Here's their description of Biobio Quinoa:Dixana wrote:Hmmmm, the only quinoa I've seen thus far ....
IF I were to decide to grow some (I know squat about it other than that it gets HUGE) where else might I find some?
"An excellent variety to start with. Rare, beautiful and productive quinoa from Chile. Five foot plants have large yields of small white seeds from a beautiful red inflorescence. Matures well here, with a fairly short season and cool nights. Tasty with good biomass production for compost as well. Stands 5-6’ tall."
Cynthia
P.S. I'm glad others liked my telling of the French sorrel's struggle.
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LindsayArthurRTR
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lorax
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In Ecuador, at least, one fully mature 'Arriba' cacao tree (about 5 years old) is more than enough for personal consumption, but if you have friends, three to five is better. Of course, I'm such a cacao addict that I eat the nibs right after roasting, so less actually makes it into my chocolate.applestar wrote:That would be my dream!!! I saw cacao plant in a catalog and seriously thought about buying it.
I never heard of Babaco. How intriguing! But, again -- oh what does Agent Max Smart say? -- "Missed by THAT much" Zone 6 here.
Ah well, it's a moot point at my current house - it's too cold and high up for cacao to do really well.This is a friend's tree in the upper Amazon basin; it's about 10 years old. Those pods are not quite mature - they'll turn gold when they're ready for harvest.
[img]https://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh196/HabloPorArboles/Cacao.jpg[/img]
If you protect your Babaco or grow it in a big pot, you can easily have one in Z6. [url=https://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/babaco.html]California Rare Fruit Growers[/url] has a good factsheet on it, but I have absolutely no idea where you might find a plant in the US. I'd probably start with exotic fruit specialists - the plant is grown exclusively by cuttings since it has no seeds. Good luck!
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applestar
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My cottons are doing well
Gorgeous white flowers:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image7795.jpg[/img]
Closes up pink for one more day of display:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image7797.jpg[/img]
And here's a seedpod :
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image7794.jpg[/img]
(Note the seedpod with dried up flower still attached in the back of first photo)
Gorgeous white flowers:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image7795.jpg[/img]
Closes up pink for one more day of display:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image7797.jpg[/img]
And here's a seedpod
:[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image7794.jpg[/img]
(Note the seedpod with dried up flower still attached in the back of first photo)
Wow, looking good App!applestar wrote:My cottons are doing well
While were on the subject of exotic plants, I once saw an ad in a catalog for a banana plant that can be grown indoors.......needless to say I was so tempted.
Somehow, though, I just couldn't believe that a banana plant could be grown indoors to bear fruit.
Now, hopefully, that ad isn't in there again this year or I may just be posting about my new banana plant
.
Ask me more. I'm a terrible enabler of banana addiction in marginal zones. If I could grow them in 2a, you certainly can.-
lorax
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OK, the very best selection for trustworthy, disease-free plants is had at [url=https://www.agristarts.com]Agristarts[/url] but you'd have to go in with a number of friends on the order, because the minimum number of plants you can buy from them is 72 (although you can do Assortment trays of three species, 18 plants each). For single plants, [url=https://stokestropicals.com/super-dwarf%20cavendish-39.htm]Stoke's Tropicals[/url] is very reliable in terms of getting a healthy plant of the cultivar you ordered to you (but don't listen to them about the naming conventions of Musa, or believe their hardiness ratings.) [url=https://northerntropics.mybisi.com/product/mini-super-dwarf-cavendish-musa-banana-plant]Northern Tropics[/url] is also an excellent source.
This said, probably the best place to look for the super-dwarf cultivars I mentioned are the big-box stores like Home Depot and Loew's, which often sells them as ornamentals. But read the tags carefully, because box stores also carry true ornamental bananas (normally labeled "hardy banana" and "blood banana"), which produce beautiful leaves and flowers, but highly seeded fruit.
If you're interested in really hardy bananas for landscaping, ask me sometime about Musa basjoo, the most commonly available big-box banana. Some people have great success on e-bay as well.
Each plant bears fruit once in its lifetime, somewhere between 12 and 24 months from its first true leaf. (A more accurate way to put it would be between the 64th and 75th leaf produced by the plant, depending on cultivar and conditions.) However, the other thing banana plants produce are offshoots, normally called "pups" or "keikis." These are small, new banana plants. So, by purchasing one plant, you can end up with 2-10 in the first generation of pups, and exponentially multiplying out from there. You continue to harvest fruit from the pups as they mature and bloom.
This said, probably the best place to look for the super-dwarf cultivars I mentioned are the big-box stores like Home Depot and Loew's, which often sells them as ornamentals. But read the tags carefully, because box stores also carry true ornamental bananas (normally labeled "hardy banana" and "blood banana"), which produce beautiful leaves and flowers, but highly seeded fruit.
If you're interested in really hardy bananas for landscaping, ask me sometime about Musa basjoo, the most commonly available big-box banana. Some people have great success on e-bay as well.
Each plant bears fruit once in its lifetime, somewhere between 12 and 24 months from its first true leaf. (A more accurate way to put it would be between the 64th and 75th leaf produced by the plant, depending on cultivar and conditions.) However, the other thing banana plants produce are offshoots, normally called "pups" or "keikis." These are small, new banana plants. So, by purchasing one plant, you can end up with 2-10 in the first generation of pups, and exponentially multiplying out from there. You continue to harvest fruit from the pups as they mature and bloom.
Hmm...I'm really getting intrigued, now. How tall to the SDC types get? From the time that I order them, would I probably be looking at 2-3 year before fruit.
Also, how many bananas will I get?
The "pups" you mentioned, I can expect 2-10 the first year, or over the life of the plant?
I'm a pain, I know it, but I just love bananas .
Also, how many bananas will I get?
The "pups" you mentioned, I can expect 2-10 the first year, or over the life of the plant?
I'm a pain, I know it
, but I just love bananas .-
lorax
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SDC get about 4' tall overall; 6' if you're really lucky and bang-on about growing conditions and fertlizer schedules. (That's a measurement of pseudostem and leaves; considering psuedostem only - the way taller bananas are measured - they're about 2' tall.)
You'll get one bunch of bananas totalling between five and ten hands; a hand on Cavendish variants generally being between 10 and 12 bananas. So, between 50 and 120 individual fingers. It will probably take about 2 years to get that. You should mature your fruit on the plant, rather than cutting it green (as done commercially) - you get the best flavour that way. Fruit matures in 2-3 months and ripening begins at the top of the bunch.
For pups, 2-10 over the life of the plant.
You'll get one bunch of bananas totalling between five and ten hands; a hand on Cavendish variants generally being between 10 and 12 bananas. So, between 50 and 120 individual fingers. It will probably take about 2 years to get that. You should mature your fruit on the plant, rather than cutting it green (as done commercially) - you get the best flavour that way. Fruit matures in 2-3 months and ripening begins at the top of the bunch.
For pups, 2-10 over the life of the plant.