Let’s grow weird!

Unusual vegetables you can grow in your own garden.

Spring is around the corner and its time to sort out your veggie planting schedule.

The usual suspects:

If you are like us, it’s tomatoes, radishes and lettuce all the way. Onions and green peppers when we’re feeling adventurous, and maybe, MAYBE, we’ll concede to some butternut or gem squash.

My vegetable garden only ever grows what I know my family will eat…

BUT: Isn’t the point of having your own veggie patch that you get to experiment without worrying about retail prices and food waste?

That’s why we decided to go crazy this year. We went looking for the strangest, silliest and most out of the ordinary vegetables we could find. Move over beans and potatoes, it’s time for Amaranth and Oca!

Amaranth (Interesting. Indigenous. Invaluable.)

Also known as Love lies bleeding because of its beautiful cascades of crimson flowers, this is the new Quinoa. Not technically a cereal grain, Amaranth can still be used as one and its seeds are often ground into a gluten-free flour.

Amaranth grows best in average, well-drained soil, so ensure your chosen site has good drainage and air circulation. It requires at least six hours of sunlight, acidic soil, and temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius.

If you stagger your planting every two to three weeks, you will have a continuous supply of Amaranth all through growing season, and this plant needs no extra supplementing with fertilizer.

Amaranth is an ancient grain, which means for the most part it has been free from human interference and commercialization. More importantly in a South African context though, it is an indigenous plant, and both the seeds and leaves are edible.

Kohlrabi

This alien looking plant is actually part of the brassica family. Also known as German turnip, it’s bulbous stem is firm and nutrient dense. Most often it is eaten raw in salads and slaws. It tastes like broccoli stems, with the same texture but a much milder and sweeter flavour.

When we say nutrient dense, we mean DENSE – kohlrabi is a fantastic source of micro-nutrients.

“The bulb and the leaves are all edible (the freshest kohlrabi will still have the leaves attached, which can be eaten raw or cooked like any greens). Every inch of the veggie is packed with fibre, vitamin C, potassium and even some protein.” Foodnetwork.com

Kohlrabi thrives in colder climates. It will lose some of its sweetness if it overheats or experiences water shortages. The best time to plant it will be late winter or very early spring. According to Gardening South Africa, “Kohlrabi must grow quickly, or the bulb will lose texture and flavour so feed every two weeks with a balanced liquid fertiliser that is high in nitrogen. Do not hill the plants with soil.”

Romanesco

This geometrically beautiful cross between cauliflower and broccoli is a bit more familiar to South Africans. Although the seeds are difficult to find, once you get your hands on some, this striking vegetable is as easy to grow as any cauliflower or broccoli variety and can be prepared and enjoyed in exactly the same way.

Oca

Eaten like potato, this colourful tuber comes from South America, where it’s enjoyed as a staple food, cultivated over centuries and referred to as the “lost crop of the Incas”.

Perfect for adding to stews or baked with roast lamb, the Oca tubers will lose their bright hue once you cook them, so if it’s the colour you are after, you can eat it raw. With a crispy almost lemony taste, it is delicious in salads.

Oca is definitely an aspirational grow (tricky to get right but rewarding) – the tubers are expensive and hard to come by, require high altitudes and cold winters and need to be frost pruned before harvest. However, if you can get them going and growing in your garden, you will have a steady supply of delicious conversation pieces for your dinner table.

Branching out when it comes to planting (and eating) new, unfamiliar veggies can be daunting, but it can be equally rewarding! Maybe you find a new favourite.

Drought resistant indigenous foods that can help provide food security for South Africans.

TreeHugger.com

10 unusual vegetables for adventurous gardeners.

Produced too much vegetables?  Read our article on vegetable exchange – the new book club.