Unusual crops

[seedcorn]

So papalo has stickers? Then that’s a big NO for me.

 

[seedcorn]

Deja vu @digitS' ... I remember you & I engaging in a similar discussion years ago.

I've always enjoyed trying unusual vegetables, and still grow a few. Soybeans for one, although they have gained in popularity considerably since I first grew them. Bitter melon (my avatar) is still grown mostly by people of Asian or Pacific Island cultures, but is becoming more widely recognized for its health benefits.

One of my favorite unusual vegetables is gherkins... not small cucumbers, but true gherkins (Cucumis anguria). These are small-fruited relatives of the common cucumber, Cucumis melo. The most well known of these uncommon vegetables is the West India Gherkin; but there is an improved cultivar, Liso Calcutta, that has fewer thorns & is slower to develop seed. Picked young, these are sweet, bitter-free, and exceptionally crunchy. When pickled, they don't get soft centers as cucumbers do, and remain completely solid & crunchy throughout. Pickles made from these are exceptional, and I will never go back to cucumbers.

View attachment 46632
Liso Calcutta gherkins
View attachment 46634

From your description, it sounds like something I should try. BUT, those dang stickers, it looks like bur cucumbers....I HATE bur cucumbers! Stickered up nasties.

 

[digitS']

Perhaps you can try cucamelons, Seed'.

I won't advocate for them because I'm nearly clueless even tho they were in last year's garden. They are a Central America, tropical native and must have found the conditions completely not to their liking. By the end of the season, I think that I harvested 2 . Tiny things.

Cucumber relative but ...? LINK

Steve
who, unlike @AMKuska , likes cilantro but has little appreciation for culantro, despite a couple years of trying. cilantro can be summer-sown in the shade of the corn patch. one thing, it's an easy crop to save all the seed you can possibly need

 

[Pulsegleaner]

So papalo has stickers? Then that’s a big NO for me.

No, papalo doesn't have stickers, culantro Erygium foestessum does.

Perhaps you can try cucamelons, Seed'.

I won't advocate for them because I'm nearly clueless even tho they were in last year's garden. They are a Central America, tropical native and must have found the conditions completely not to their liking. By the end of the season, I think that I harvested 2 . Tiny things.

Cucumber relative but ...? LINK

Steve
who, unlike @AMKuska , likes cilantro but has little appreciation for culantro, despite a couple years of trying. cilantro can be summer-sown in the shade of the corn patch. one thing, it's an easy crop to save all the seed you can possibly need

Be careful with that name. I know Meliothera scabra is sometimes called the cucamelon (or the Mexican sour gherkin or the mouse melon). But cucamelon is also used for the members of C. melo that are used like cucumbers, such as the Italian Carosellos and the Armenian cucumber.

 

[Zeedman]

From your description, it sounds like something I should try. BUT, those dang stickers, it looks like bur cucumbers....I HATE bur cucumbers! Stickered up nasties.

What you might see as "stickers" are just soft hairs or spines on the gherkins when immature. They may harden if the fruits are let go for seed, but even then are no more annoying than the spines on cucumbers. Their cousins the West India gherkins have more pronounced spines though. Liso Calcutta has shown that the tendency for spiny fruits is not locked in; after 3 generations, I've already substantially reduced the spines by selecting for the smoothest fruits.

 

[heirloomgal]

I guess it MUST take acclimatization, as I, who love cilantro, HATE the taste of Papalo. Not fond of Rau Ram (Vietnamese coriander) either. And while I have no problem with the TASTE of Culantro/Saw Leaf herb, I DO have a problem with the TEXTURE (I find it too coarse, plus I'm always worried about all those spines on the leaves.)

I've always liked the idea of growing ahipa (the Andean version of the tropical Jicama) but while I have gotten it to grow alright, I have never gotten it to make tubers (or seeds for that matter).

@Pulsegleaner if you have been able to get culantro to sprout from seeds, wow, I tip my hat to your seed starting skills! I tried to sprout those so many times, with dozens of seeds, and NOTHING. I misted them daily, heat mats, the whole deal. Nada. That is one plant that I've given up on for good.

I do understand your feelings about papalo, even though I really like it. While the #1 description given for it is 'just like cilantro', and there is an overlap for sure, you're right it is not exactly the same. There are some other strong flavours in there, along with the cilantro taste. Arugula and rue are 2 that tend to be referenced. I've never eaten rue, so that one is lost on me. I think arugula is a bit of a stretch but they have similar potencies, if different tastes. It is certainly something that you have to get used to. It's tough to try new things; a friend went to Jamaica and was served what he thought was potatoes. Turned out to be fried plantains, and he was turned off plantains forevermore. I really like fried plantains, but if I had been expecting potatoes that would really have thrown me too. Even the unusual texture of plantains was an adjustment for me, but over time I grew to really enjoy them. Maybe at a certain point in life, to actually incorporate new tastes invloves a bit of effort.

 

[heirloomgal]

I considered suggesting cucamelons too, they are popular. But, I've grown those several times and came to the conclusion that they're easy, cute (mini Barbie watermelons) and very productive but.....they taste like lemons!
Actually, they don't taste like lemons when young, much, but as they get older they really do and their skins really thicken up like leather. I was afraid @seedcorn would try them and think I'm one crayon short of a box...

 

[Pulsegleaner]

@Pulsegleaner if you have been able to get culantro to sprout from seeds, wow, I tip my hat to your seed starting skills! I tried to sprout those so many times, with dozens of seeds, and NOTHING. I misted them daily, heat mats, the whole deal. Nada. That is one plant that I've given up on for good.

I do understand your feelings about papalo, even though I really like it. While the #1 description given for it is 'just like cilantro', and there is an overlap for sure, you're right it is not exactly the same. There are some other strong flavours in there, along with the cilantro taste. Arugula and rue are 2 that tend to be referenced. I've never eaten rue, so that one is lost on me. I think arugula is a bit of a stretch but they have similar potencies, if different tastes. It is certainly something that you have to get used to. It's tough to try new things; a friend went to Jamaica and was served what he thought was potatoes. Turned out to be fried plantains, and he was turned off plantains forevermore. I really like fried plantains, but if I had been expecting potatoes that would really have thrown me too. Even the unusual texture of plantains was an adjustment for me, but over time I grew to really enjoy them. Maybe at a certain point in life, to actually incorporate new tastes invloves a bit of effort.

To be honest, I don't remember if I started it from seed or I got a pre-grown plant. I'm fairly sure I GOT seed from it (that's probably what's in one of the little glass vials whose contents I can't identify.) but how I started I don't remember.

Speaking of herbs, another one I will never deal with again is Ocimum granitissimum , Clove or Tree Basil. At first I thought it was a great idea, a basil that was fully perennial (if you brought it inside over the winter). But 1. I tasted really funny and 2. Every Time I DID bring it in for the winter It would immediately get the worst case of whitefly imaginable that NOTHING would shift. It's languish over the winter, then in the spring back outside drop all of it's damaged leaves, grown new ones and go straight into seed production (If you for some reason ever want to try it I still have TONS of seed)

I also gave up on Tulsi (Holy Basil) simply because it was not practical. I would drink it up faster than it would grow. It was sort of the same problem I have now with the Cuban Oregano, I can't bring the pot in over the winter because, while it will live over that period indoors, it doesn't grow and I end up eating it all. I guess sort of the same thing happens with the Egyptian mint (well, it did until the gardeners weed whacked it to the ground, I'll get more in the spring. The only way to get enough to meet my needs would be to break the rule of mint, plant it directly in the ground, and LET it take over.

 

[digitS']

Ha!

Eat it all out of the winter storage . Well, that's something of a positive endorsement.

I did it with my shallots one recent winter. It was back in the day when I had what a catalog described as French & Dutch shallots. I suppose that was sufficient. Years, I had them every winter in the garage - probably began before I moved to this house with its cellar room. Below zero weather and the garages at both homes were free-standing with no heat. It worked fine. Anyway, what was left in the box by Spring were the culls. Oops!

Steve
who would probably like Holy Basil tea

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Oh, Cuban Oregano/Spanish Thyme/Broadleaf Thyme (all names for the same plant, Plectranthus ambioticus ). is wonderful. It's like oregano, but since it is a succulent, you can basically "juice" it which allows you to get the flavor into things a lot faster. Of course the tradeoff is that it doesn't really dry.

Tulsi tea has a sort of anise licoricey flavor. It's also supposed to work as an antidepressant (for a long while, IT worked better than the pills I was being given) . Though the actual flavor varies a little depending on which strain you are working with (one I used to get had an almost watermelony scent to it).

Another plant I have trouble with is something called wild mountain garlic (never been sure of the real species name) This shows up once in a blue moon at the Korean grocery store, never in great quantities. as I like the flavor I would LOVE to have it growing in my garden. The problem is that it shows up in the winter, and no matter how I have tried, I can't get the bulbs to last intact until spring. (bagged in plastic, they rot and go moldy. In a breathable cloth bag, they dry out).

Sort of like when I tried to grow rakkyo. It lived, but never seemed to multiply much. And since it never got cold enough to kill the tops outright, the would keep trying to grow through the winter and drain out all of the energy the bulbs had made over the summer (I have sort of the same problem with garlic.)