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applestar
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White Vegetables for "White Sauce Vegetable Garden"

I was reviewing information about Fish peppers, and it was mentioned that the white immature peppers were used to make white sauce. This kind of got my imagination going, and since I already have seeds for several varieties of white tomatoes (which typically turn light yellow when ripe) I decided to plan a "White Sauce Vegetable Garden" for next year. 8)

Last time I grew them, I thought white tomatoes were kind of bland. But I did get seeds for a couple more varieties that are supposed to be flavorful. The bland ones will do better cooked in any case.

In addition to Fish, I'm planning on planting other peppers that are white when immature -- white bell peppers and Hungarian peppers.

I'm also going to try some white eggplants.

... Probably daikon and white turnips, too, though white cabbage butterflies may become a problem.

I was also looking for other possibilities, and came across "white celery"

https://www.fenlandcelery.com/
Rediscover Fenland CeleryWinter white Fenland celery is grown using traditional celery growing methods in the rich peaty soil of the Fens. The celery is available from October to December (great British climate permitting!)
Fenland celery is grown in wide rows with deep trenches. This allows the soil to be banked up around the celery as it grows. This ‘earthing up’ process keeps the celery warm and protected from frost as it battles to grow through the winter months. Covering up the celery with soil also blanches it giving the sticks a paler colour and is why it has become known as ‘white’ celery.
I decided to experiment by hilling up my two celery plants in the Kitchen Garden with compost-enriched soil:
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rainbowgardener
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You left out the most obvious one: cauliflower, which is normally eaten white. :)

white potatoes also.

white mushrooms, garlic, white onions, celery root/ celeriac, parsnips.

Or was the criterion vegetables that are not usually white?

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applestar
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You read my mind... Or I was reading yours? I was thinking I'm out of cauliflower seeds and need to restock for next spring. So many cauliflower varieties are hybrids -- I wish I could find a good OP/heirloom variety. But my Improved Snowball didn't flourish and I wasn't able to save seeds.

These are great suggestions -- they will round out the seasonal succession. :D

...is there any more? I just saw some white cucumbers but I want to make sure they are not bitter. Burpee's White Wonder looks as though it really has white/ivory skin, but many reviewers say it was bitter. I'm really liking cooked cucumbers they add a lot of flavor as well as moisture.

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applestar
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Ooh! I'm going to go look around! Thanks! :D

...I may have to re-think where to situate the White Sauce Vegetable Garden..... :>

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ElizabethB
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Leeks, Tokyo Turnips (pure white skin - no bitterness), white eggplant or has that been mentioned? Shallots, green onion bulbs, white onions.

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It may take awhile but if you have asparagus and blanch them you will have white asparagus.
There are white eggplants Casper is the one I remember the name of.

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applestar
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So what are your experiences with white eggplants?
I bought 'White Comet hybrid' on a whim. I'm looking at 'Gretel hybrid' too, as well as 'Thai White Ribbed' an heirloom variety from Bakers Creek.

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applestar
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Years ago I had volunteer tomatoes that turned from green to ghostly white before blushing and ripening red. Never knew what variety that was, but do you know of varieties that do the same thing? They stand out in the garden especially in twilight:

Subject: Tomato Photos with variety names
applestar wrote: I have these volunteers that are starting out palest green/almost white. They're startling in twilight/dusk light conditions:
Image
Here's a second plant of the same with Sugar Plums in the background for comparison:
Image
This might be equivalent of the white peppers and eggplants.

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applestar
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What about white potatoes -- Park seeds is listing white skinned white fleshed Russian True Potato Seeds and is described to grow 3-4" tubers :o ...not sure if I believe that or not :? -- all TPS I've ever grown only made tiny tubers first season....

Any tried and true white skinned white flesh varieties ?

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rainbowgardener
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Is it cheating to just peel the potatoes first? :) then it doesn't matter about skin color.

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applestar
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:lol: true :lol:
Last year I grew a red skinned white flesh variety called Sangre. Maybe I'll get that again.

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ElizabethB
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I accidently planted white eggplant one year. They were labeled long green. The skin was snow white and tender like the long green, not as bitter as the black beauty. The fruit was more egg shaped than the black beauty. Unfortunately I don't know the variety since it was labeled incorrectly.

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I have grown white eggplants before. They are harder than the purple or green ones and have creamy mild flesh. I use them when I am going to braise or use it in a soup or stew. These I do prefer to peel first. They can also be chopped up and added to stuffings, tapenade, or soups.

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applestar
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Was it Casper? Why did you peel them? Was it difficult to grow them blemish-free?

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applestar
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Hilled/blanched celery is looking good :D These are ...hmmm I'm thinking Tango or Ventura.
image.jpg
(I DID get the "Golden Self-blanching" celery seeds for planting in the White Sauce garden next spring)

imafan26
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It is hard to grow any eggplant here that does not get friction rubs or mites. the white eggplant often has brown scratches mostly from rubbing. I did grow Easter egg. It is an ornamental and the fruit is small but edible but usually does not rub on anything, so as long as the bug damage is minimized it will stay white. or creamy yellow.

White eggplants are less bitter and have creamy flesh. I do peel them first since they are a harder fruit than the green or purple eggplant.

What about the white tomatoes Apple, what varieties are you planting for your white garden?

You could also do parsnip or burdock (gobo). Gobo can get over 3 ft long. It is easy to grow but very difficult to harvest. The easiest way to plant it is to get a 55 gallon drum take off the top, and split it in half longitudinally. Tie or wire the barrel back together. make holes about 2 inches from the bottom of the barrel for drainage. fill the barrel with potting soil and plant the seeds on top. Alternatively, you can get 4 inch pvc pipe about 4 ft long and split it in half. Tie it together again and put about 1 foot in the ground and stake it. Fill the pipe and plant one seed on top. By the time the gobo is to be harvested it should be near the end of the pipe and the root will be straight.

Did anyone mention mushrooms yet?

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applestar
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I have these white tomato variety seeds on my list as possibles for the White Sauce Garden. I have most of them in my "stash" but need the ones marked with *

Big White Pink Stripes*, Coyote, Champagne Cherry* (clara), Cream Sausage, Great White, Juicy Saladette#, Manyel, Melonball, Primrose Gage, Wapsipinicon Peach, NOT White Queen#, White Tomesol, White Wonder, WMD White sport. #ghostly white at pre-blush#

Mushrooms were mentioned but am not sure that I could grow them next year -- I'll have to think about that. The methods you mentioned for growing Gobo is really interesting. I might try to do that. 8) I'm definitely growing parsnips. :D

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applestar
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Here are my proposed plans for the "White Sauce Garden".
image.jpg
Garlic are growing well in VGC and Fun Gen Nappa cabbage are starting to bolt. Marrowfat, Mammoth Melting Sugar and Golden Sweet snowpeas are growing well and starting to bloom.
Whole bunch of seeds sown in the VGA raised bed have been sprouting as noted, and I'm starting to plant the white fruited tomatoes.

The area is still "under construction" however.... I have to build the frames for some new raised beds and finish constructing the barrier to block the neighbor's lawn service. The compost bin/pile will be taken down and used to fill the beds.
image.jpg

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sweetiepie
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I wish I could get my garlic to grow like that. Looks great.

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applestar
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Thanks! -- these are Music and Elephant so they do grow into bigger plants anyway. (Ones to grow if you want to impress :wink: )

You ARE pretty far "north" there, but I think the trick with garlic is to get the right variet and plant at the right time for your region, and provide sufficient winter protections necessary. Which ones are you growing?

imafan26
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I tried to grow elephant garlic once. The cloves actually got smaller. But that was before I knew about bulbs and day length.

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sweetiepie
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applestar wrote:
You ARE pretty far "north" there, but I think the trick with garlic is to get the right variet and plant at the right time for your region, and provide sufficient winter protections necessary. Which ones are you growing?
I have tried elephant twice and walla walla early garlic once. I have tried planting in the spring and in the fall. Last year, I just bought garlic from the grocery store and they did ok, nothing to exciting, I dug them up and replanted in the garden in a better spot to work around, last fall and I think they rotted. I may be planting them in the fall to late, mid October. If I plant in the spring they come up but don't offer much for a bulb. When I plant in the fall, I can't seem to get them to come up. They are so expensive to keep buying bulbs and nothing.

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applestar
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I *think* I'm finished planting....
image.jpg
Snow peas were harvested and finished. FunJen was harvested as greens and seeds and empty spots have been planted with reserve white tomato seedlings. I just have to plant white ribbed Swiss chard and reserve self blanching celery and that bed will be full even by MY standards :roll:

Garlic has been harvested as well and the beds have been planted with Fish peppers and a few variegated PURPLE foliage pepper seedlings, and some (not white) beet seeds for fall which have sprouted already.

I have been thinning/harvesting Lunar White carrots. First White Soul alpine strawberry is nearly ripe, and Cream Sausage tomato in hanging basket is in color break stage.

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We bought a eggplant seedling called "Albino" at a local market. I have no idea what to expect from it.

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applestar
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Let us know how it performs 8)

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applestar
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Revised map and update photos taken from the Enterprise Apple tree side of the area:
image.jpg
Cream Sausage tomato growing in a hanging basket:
Image

I planted Falstaff Brussels sprouts seedlings in VGD today. The cauliflower never made heads but are still doing OK so I'm going to see if they will just hunker down for the summer and resume growing for fall crop. This makes the bed overcrowded, but that's not unusual in my PETC garden :>

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This is a variety I call "Juicy Saladette" because I don't know it's true name. I was going to plant at least one of these in the white Sauce Garden, but I started by planting two in the Spiral Garden. It turned out that the remaining seedlings died, leaving me without any to put in the White Sauce Garden. :roll:
image.jpg
...technically not a white (Ivory or clear skinned yellow ) when mature, but a red fruit, but at color break, it had a startlingly pale color last time I grew them. This year, these are suffering from TRM (tomato russet mite) infestation and the lower truss fruits have become russeted.

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White sauce garden plan looks great. Obviously intensive gardening. Still no fruit on the albino eggplant, but have a nice one on the Japanese eggplant (the smallest and limpist eggplant plant in the garden).

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applestar
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Not counting the Previously harvested garlic, first official mature "white" harvest from the White Sauce Garden are Cream Sausage tomato, Trucker's Favorite White sweet corn, and Golden Wax Improved bush beans :D
image.jpg

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applestar
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image.jpg
...my Mikado White PL turned out to be not really white but ripens to mottled dark pink after undergoing bicolor like blush.

-- Photos show "representative" garlic, beans, etc. LOTS more were harvested :()

-- I need to work on celery growing technique and find a better place to plant them (I tried to rotate *away * from last year's GREAT celery spot and missed :? )

-- I have more comments and summary review to post but I can't right now. Stay "tuned" :wink:



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