Burdock is mostly known as a weed throughout the United States, but is considered an important root vegetable in Asian cooking. One burdock plant can produce up to 2 feet of edible root, which makes it a great addition to a wild vegetable garden.
A great way to grow fresh vegetables if you live in an apartment or have limited garden space is to grow micro-greens. Oat sprouts are micro-greens high in minerals and vitamins. Oat sprouts are also easy to grow in that they require no sunlight and minimal time and effort.
Add a little extra color and nutrition to your garden by growing swiss chard this season. Swiss chard is considered a leafy green vegetable; however, the stalks may be white, yellow or red.
Kale is a hardy growing green from the cabbage family. The plant originated form Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean. Kale can tolerate both mid-summer heat and cold temperatures.
Winter squash is harvested much later in the season than summer squash. There are a wide variety of winter squash species you can choose to grow in your garden.
Homegrown greens are not only a healthy addition to your garden, but are easy to grow. Spinach is high in vitamins A, C, K and folate. It also contains manganese, potassium, iron and phytonutrients. In the garden, spinach is a hardy plant that can be planted successively from spring to late fall. It can survive temperatures as low as 20 F degrees. Add spinach to your greens garden for a vitamin packed punch.
Salad greens are great to add to your garden because they are fast growing and can be grown successively throughout the season. Arugula is a salad green with a tangy, peppery taste. It is commonly found in mesclun salad mixes at the supermarket. You can grow your own arugula in your salad garden.
You’ve probably walked over one of the healthiest vegetables available without even knowing it. Purslane often grows in the cracks between sidewalks. It was introduced around the world from Persia and India. Until recently, purslane has been forgotten as an important vegetable and seen as a weed in the US.
Herbs can spice up your garden harvest cooking, and add pleasant aromas to your outdoor space. Thyme is one of the more common herbs grown in gardens.
Oregano is a common culinary herb, and an essential to add to a herbal garden. Originally, the herb was native to the Mediterranean and central Asia.
Snow peas are delicious in stir-fry recipes and soup. Snow pea pods are typically harvested before the peas in the pods are allowed to develop.
Cantaloupe is sweet tasting and high in vitamins C, A, B6, folate, niacin and potassium, which makes it a healthy snack for satisfying a sweet tooth.
You can plant arugula continuously year after year without ever buying seeds again by saving your seed from your harvest.
Watermelons grown in a home garden promise to be a sweet, thirst-quenching treat at harvest time. Typically, watermelons are grown indoors and then transplanted into an outdoor garden area after the last frost date has passed.
One of the easiest mushrooms to start growing at home is the Wine Cap mushroom, also known as King Stropharia. Wine cap mushrooms grow as big as portobello mushrooms, and have a meaty texture and taste. The spawn can be grown on a bed of wood chips and soil, which makes them a lot easier for the beginning grower compared to some species of mushrooms that have to be inoculated into logs.
Mulberries are often underestimated as an edible berry. They may not share spots by the strawberries, blueberries and raspberries that line the supermarkets, but they are excellent preserved as a jam, cooked in recipes or to enjoy just as a handful. Mulberries are also great because they grow abundantly on trees.
Wild American ginseng root has sold for as much as $350 per pound. Today, wild ginseng is a protected plant and it is illegal to harvest in many states. However, you can grow and harvest your own ginseng.
Just about anyone has free access to mulberries. They grow abundantly in the wild in many areas. You can take advantage of the health benefits of mulberries you harvested for months to come by making them into a jam.
Use your homemade vinegar to make salad dressing or for pickling recipes.
This spring we inoculated hardwood logs with shiitake mushroom spawn plugs. We received our first harvest this week and threw them in the smoker with our sirloin steak. De-e-elicious.
Potatoes are one of the earliest vegetables adapted to gardens, and are considered as important of a staple crop as rice or wheat. They are a cool-season vegetable. Potatoes are started from the “eyes” of larger potatoes, which are cut into pieces or whole small potatoes are used.
Quail eggs are delicious and packed with more protein than chicken eggs. Substitute three quail eggs for one chicken egg in recipes. Raising quail is a great alternative to chickens if you don’t have a lot of space. Each egg contains just 14 calories and 1 gram of fat. Quail eggs also are a source of Vitamin A, B12, Iron, Folate, Riboflavin, Choline, and Phosphorus.
