What does seakale taste like? Bountiful Gardens, one of my favorite seed catalogs, carries it, and it looks interesting, but I've never tried planting it.

This year I've ordered some Good King Henry seed -- aka Lancastershire spinach; a spinach-like perennial green. I have a terrible time growing spinach and thought this might be fun to try.

The most exotic veggie I've ever tried so far has been asparagus beans. I happened to plant them during what turned out to be a cool, wet summer so they didn't yield all that much, but they were kind of cool to grow...and of course they taste great.

I'm too much of a tightwad to buy one, but I am intrigued by grow-your-own morel mushroom kits.

Sea kale tastes sort of halfway between regular kale (cabbagey flavor) and asparagus. The more green it is and later in the season, stronger the cabbage flavor.

Bunte Forellenschuss lettuce, walk'in on the wild side.

Malabar spinach (hated it.)
Malagueta peppers (loving them.)
Red noodle beans (awesome.)

For me it has to be pepino melons.

Tastes like a cross between a mild cantalope, cucumber and maybe a hint of kiwi.

I am still undecided as to if I like it or not. But the taste is growing on me. I have them in the greenhouse to see how they do next summer.

Gratefuled,
What didn't you like about Malabar spinach? I'm thinking of trying it this year.

I think my most exotic would have to be Galeux D'eysines Squash. Exotic in appearance anyway.

Asian greens!

There are so, so many to try even tho' - I don't really have the best climate for growing them. This is an arid part of the US, not exactly southern or coastal China.

Greens like to bolt to seed when grown in less-than-ideal conditions. That's true with regular ol' spinach in the Summer time, too. But, Asian greens will sometime bolt after hard frost in the Spring.

Still, I can grow Chinese cabbage under a plastic tunnel - uncover and harvest in June. Really, all the greens like it in that high tunnel starting out in March.

Once the weather has warmed, most of these things can be transplanted or direct-seeded. And then when temps cool again, there's direct-seeding for a Fall crop.

I've grown dwarf green-stemmed bok choys for quite a few years. Along with those and the Chinese cabbage are some other plants within these families like Fun Jen, Maruba Santoh, Senposai, and Asian mustard greens. Chinese broccoli (Kai Lan) hasn't done too well for me so I grow broccoli raab, instead. (Okay, that's cheating since I've moved from Asia to Italy. ;o)

Also, the Asian bunching onions are great as accompaniments to the greens in stir-fry. I grow green onions from sets, too, but they almost can't compare to the tender, nonbulbing Asian types.

Steve

The meaning of "exotic", one meaning anyway, is something from a faraway place, something not native to the area.

Using that definition I would have to say my most exotic crop is cowpea. Out of about 24 gardening friends at my community garden, I am the only one who grows cowpeas, knows the first thing about them or shows interest in them. Cowpeas may be one of the most common vegetables in the South but they certainly are exotic here.

Jim

Definately Apios Americana. This year I ordered ground cherry, which I greatly look forward to.

Well...this'll be blunt, but...the leaves of Malabar spinach tasted like dirt and left a slimy coating on my tongue. But that wasn't the worst part.

As soon as the weather hit 90 the vines started growing frantically--more than any gourd I've ever seen--and I found myself dreading walking by them, as if I was afraid the vines seize me by the ankles.

Then, when I realized that they had to go, I went out and cut every vine at the base.

AND THEY WOULDN'T DIE. They hung on the trellis and kept growing...feasting on the air, apparently, and maybe a few neighborhood cats.

There are people out there who swear by Malabar spinach. Not me. I swear at Malabar spinach.

Thanks...

Ed

---

...and there's Big Fun at http://www.pjhathawaynovels.com

Love the ground cherries. Have you tried melothria scabra (mexican sour gherkins, cucamelons)? They are really cool - like cherry cucumbers.

I worked at a seed company that specialized in heirlooms and rare plants for 6 years. During this time, I realized 3 things:
1) There is an endless assortment of heirloom tomatoes - many of which are awesome.
2) There is a reason a lot of the exotic or rare veges are not widely available - they are not really worth growing.
3) The seed catalog writers (authors?) rarely (if ever) taste the veges they are touting in their catalogs.

The replies to my original post reinforce in my mind the fact that everyone has different tastes. Malabar is on my "must grow" list every year, because it's such a happy, hardy plant -- it asks for nothing more than rich soil and sun, and rewards with bountiful crops of delicious spinach-like leaves, great both raw and cooked. So, everyone's taste is different.

As to whether or not unusual produce is "not really worth growing," well, I think a LOT of things that were considered really unsual in Amercan cuisine 30 or 40 years ago are pretty much routine now -- Cilantro comes to mind as a good example. A lot of things out there that aren't widely grown just haven't been "discovered" yet, IMO. Others are things that are probably not "commercially viable" in the sense that they cost too much, have difficult cultural requirements, etc., for farmers to want to grow them, but that doesn't mean they can't contribute enourmously to our cuisine.

I guess I have two purposes for starting this thread -- to encourage other people to think beyond the ordinary, and to see if others come up with something new that I haven't tried yet.

I certainly don't think of them as exotic but I haven't found many people around here that grow them. I'm speaking of celeriac and parsley root. They are staples with us and have been for many years. We also grow scorzonera when we can find the seeds. Again, not really an exotic but not many do grow it

We discovered Asia veggies this last year. Bitter melon, Pak Choi, Chinese mustard and Chinese cabbage and we even tried loofahs.........you have to eat the loofahs when they are real small.

This year I'm trying winged beans and winter squash I've never tried. Not very exotic but new for me to grow.

Learning how to cook these new veggies is the biggest trial. Thanks to the web, we have a better chance at finding how they are supposed to be cooked but it's still hard. My hubby spent most of his childhood in South America. Dad was an dept. of agriculture guy. His comfort food is from there but finding authentic recipes is tough. Luckily he can translate so I've had good luck duplicating some.

Ha!! Thanks, Ed, for the heads up. I was looking for a spinach alternative that I could grow in a container. Sounds like the texture might be like Purslane, which I don't find too bad. Maybe I'll try a few seeds in a pot and keep the cats inside!
To get back to the original post, another thing I've been considering is Prickly Pear, since finding out they are hardy in this area. They seem a bit "exotic" to me.

I'm trying a bunch of "new to me" crops. Like Jim, I'm another Yankee trying cowpeas this year. I'll also be trying Tuscan Kale, strawberry spinach, Poona Kheera cucumbers and Armenian cucumbers. I have a list of ~25 tomatoes to grow this year, only two of those I've grown before. I have quite a few peppers & hot peppers that I'll be growing that are new to me too. Oh I'll be trying shrimp beans & Flore de Mayo beans too! So no "exotic" vegetables, but maybe some exotic varieties!

Last year the most exotic thing I grew was asparagus peas. It was interesting as a novelty. It made pretty scarlet red tiny blooms, but in no way did it make enough to feed a person.

Peanuts. I can hardly wait to play with them.

At our house we're also wondering about salsify -- we like real oysters, and at least I like carrots and parsnips, so we're wondering if they're worth trying.

Here's an exotic crop -- "garden peaches," aka "mango melons." They're a member of the melon family. My aunt tried them one year. They produce little fist-sized melons that smell wonderful but are (to me) very bland and disappointing...the aroma gets your tastebuds in the mood for, say, a honeydew or honey rock melon, and then you wind up biting into a not-very-good cucumber. Anyone else here try them? Same impression, or do you think they have good qualities?

Oh...another question: Strawberry blite/strawberry spinach: Worth trying?

I grew luffa last year. The young ones were good sauteed like zucchini and they have beautiful yellow flowers. This year I'm going to try carosello. It's actually a melon that's apparently very popular in Italy, eaten immature and grown like cukes. The growitalian.com website lists three varieties. I'm also thinksing of growing bitter melon this year. An Indian friend of mine gave me some from his garden last year and they were delicious sauteed with garlic and olive oil. If you want to see some really wild tomatoes, have a look at the wildboarfarms.com website. They specialize in breeding wildy striped varieties that are reported to be as delicious as well as beautiful.

Lou

Dennis, I think we have very similar interests. Have you seen the thread below?

Having read your "hit the wall" post elsewhere, I know you will be trying a lot of new things this year. Since our climate is similar, I look forward to seeing your observations. "The wall", for you, could be overcoming the daylength barrier that prevents many unusual crops (especially the Andean ones) from succeeding here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Unusual vegetables

Zeedman - I just posted somewhat on photoperiodism in these crops on my Chayote thread.

Some of these things are fun to grow, at least one time, even if they don't yield anything due to improper conditions, just to see what the plant looks like.

Of course, I do tend to be sort of a garden "optimist." I'm still waiting for the avacado tree I planted on March 20, 1975 to bloom. I'm sure it never will, since it's had 33 years and 11 months to do so, but I still look at it all the time in hopes of seeing an unusual looking bud develop that might be a flower. Just leaves to date, 33 plus years worth of leaves.

I guess this must be how Linus felt waiting for the Great Pumpkin every year.

Dennis
SE Michigan

"Some of these things are fun to grow, at least one time, even if they don't yield anything due to improper conditions, just to see what the plant looks like."

Ditto. I've grown quite a few things that failed here... but they were still interesting, and educational. Tried bambara & Shark Fin Melon last year, even though I knew the odds were not in my favor. As it turned out, the bambara flowered fairly early, but the peanut-like seeds needed more time to develop than there was in my short Summer.

The Shark Fin Melon was really interesting; I wish I had known of a source when I lived in San Diego. No internet in the 80's & I hadn't heard of the Seed Savers Exchange yet, so no source of seeds. The vines are incredibly rampant, mine covered their 30 X 30 space, and beyond. Had they been given more time, they would probably have overrun everything nearby. They can really climb, too.

They didn't flower until September, but once they did, the squash developed very quickly. I was able to get a few cantaloupe-sized squashes, and a bucket full of baseball-sized. They made a really good soup, and I found that the vine tips were succulent, if a little bitter. Of course, I eat bitter melon & gilo (bitter eggplant) too, so "bitter" is relative. ;-)

Dennis, your weather is a little milder than mine, so you might have better luck. Then too, your experience may allow you to overcome some hurdles... I'll be paying attention.

I'll be trying Sword Bean this year, which is likely to be a challenge. Probably photo-period sensitive also, but I am prepared to bring this one in under lights in the Fall, if I have to. I've actually collected enough daylength sensitive vegetables that I am considering investing in a good lighting system, so I can bring them to seed indoors.

One person's exotic crop, is another person's....potatoes! Potatoes are my exotic crop. Hey, don't laugh! I grew up with chayote squash but unable to grow potatoes (they do not grow well in the tropics). I did not realize until recently that:

-potatoes will not form tubers in the heat.

-potatoes need a low pH.

How low? I have seen different figures. I guess I should start a thread on common (non exotic) crops. OK, so I managed to grow enough of them for one meal. This is terrible, because they were the best potatoes I ever tasted, and now I want more.

I am trying again. I got enough potatoes (little bitty ones) that I can use them as seed. I will manage to grow potatoes some day. Some say it is easy.

I started chayote squash in zone 10, now I will start again in zone 9. I even have a place for them. Very easy to start, get some at grocery stores that do not treat their produce. I got mine at a Mexican food store. It started growing sprouts all by itself, sure looks like an alien type of veggie. Very interesting indeed. I like it in creole dishes, if I call it mirliton then it really sounds exotic even to me!

Some more:

Methi greens (just use the fenugreek seeds from Indian stores). Aloo methi, yum yum....

Gai lan. I love it but it did not do too well for me. Should I try again?

Pak choi. This does great and I will continue to grow them.

I would like bananas so I need to take a cutting and transplant or something. I would prefer the plantain type of bananas.

Some day I will manage to grow an avocado tree and get avocados.

I am growing artichokes but this is not exotic to me, maybe to you?

Corn! now that is exotic, not only in Europe but also in Los Angeles.

Amaranth could be considered exotic? I grew it and now I have heaps of amaranth volunteers. I wanted it to reseed, but not that much!

My favorite topic!
Yacon
Crosnes
Melokhyia
Spilanthes
Bitter Melon
Pawpaw (exotic for us on the West Coast)
Jujube (9 varieties)
Ground Cherries
Gooseberries
Mulberry
Gogi/goji berries
Luffa (edible)
Heirloom apples (50+ different varieties)
Alpine Strawberries
Rattlesnake green beans
Aji Dulce Peppers (the best!)
Mountain Yam
Arhat
Mashua
Horned Melon
Padron Peppers
Pequillo Peppers
Citrus-Australian Finger Lime, Yuzu Lemon, Calomondin, Shangsha, Buddah Hand and others...
Lots of heirloom squash, tomatoes, etc. Now thought of as "exotic".
Again the unusual are my favorite things to grow

To me many things are unusual as I have only done the basics so far such as tomatoes, beans, zucchini etc. My parents are in FL right now and are sending me some starts of sugar cane. I'll try growing it in pots to see what happens. I am also in a cuttings swap and will be getting a lot of different things such as kiwi, prickly pear cactus, stevia and lots more! So far it has been a very interesing RR that I hope to do again in the future. So for me lots of things are exotics...I especially wanted the mexican sour gherkins which some people sent me the seeds for as a birthday gift....oh so many things to try and so little gardening space...guess I need to add more beds...oh my, dh doesn't know whats coming :-) Kim