Good morning Silvia. I'm glad to see the high ranking you gave the black jungle butterbean. I have grown it for fifteen years without a crop failure. We had three hurricanes in a five year period and I just picked them up off the ground after they blew over and they kept on producing.I also am growing the willow leaf lima and I rank it almost as good. My wife cooked a 50/50 mixtute of both beans that were dry and we really liked the end product. They were delicious. I'm glad I found garden web and was able to share seed with many gardeners. It would have been a shame for that bean to go extinct when I go to the happy hunting ground.
Thanks for promoting it.
Harry

Good afternoon Harry

You are a good man! sharing with us your beans, each year that I will grow them I will remember you.
When I had people over at my house, that is the first thing they noted, such a strong and good looking vines! and the beans are delicious and keep very well in the freezer.

Here is a picture that you did not see of the beans that I have already in the freezer. Did anybody said that I got small garden? LOL

Silvia

Hi Sylvia,
I just came in for lunch & my daily afternoon nap and I see you have posted this horrible question which have my taste buds up in a quandary because they cannot decide which is the better tasting choice. I seem to have the problem of liking everything that grows and is edible. I've even chewed on a few plants that were inedible in the military survival school... I do draw the line on eating bugs & small critters -- PATOOWEY!!

I will have to give this question more thought.
Lou

Hi Lou

I am going to be waiting for your nominees,lol. We are running a contest here.
Probably you are still eating persimmons, I saw your good harvest. Think of your citrus, you have many. I like my red lime, very productive for a small tree, very good taste, goes great for salsa!

Here it is at the corner of the dish

Silvia

I like...cucumbers. Not too exciting, but I find they save me the most money because I eat them a lot. Not my favorite for taste or ease of growth, but they are the most useful to me.

Hi Amber

I like cucumbers too, they are very exciting! in fact most veggies and fruits are. They are one of the most difficult crops to grow in our weather because of the heat and humidity. The past 2 seasons I have been successful with the diva variety. I like my cucumbers with greek yogurt and when I made refrigerator cucumber pickles, they lasted me a good amount of time. But I think tomatoes are one of the crops that is cost effective, like when I made sauce this past season, I still have a lot in the freezer and you can use any variety of tomato, the good or the ugly,any color, it is all good for sauce.

Diva cucumbers in May were the first to fruit

Pickles, salsa and sauce that I made this past June

Silvia

Seeing I cannot make up my mind of just one, I list some of my favorites.
Tomato -- Big Boy -- Ripe off the vine(seldom makes it into the house)
Melons -- Juan Canary Melon or Israel Ogden Melon chunks with Havarti Herb Cheese, we have this as snacks very often.
Mango -- We eat all varieties for desert(we each get half)
Black Turtle Beans -- for soup -- often in winter
All Onions -- French Onion Soup -- often in winter
Garlic -- I eat cloves like candy(I ate all my leftover seed bulbils after planting---oops)
Citrus -- Honey Bells and (Ugly fruit peeled sections) yes I peel and eat lemons too
Persimmons -- All the Fuyu -- Smoothies all summer to keep cool
Fruit -- Red Baron Peach, Sunred Nectarine, Tropic Gold Apricot, Granny Smith Apple(Ein Shemer)
Nuts -- Stone Pine nuts & (I hope to grow peanuts when I make my outside garden) I love Cajun hot boiled peanuts

I'll stop here --- I'm finding it impossible to list everything I like. It is easier to list what I don't like and as soon as I find something I don't like I will list it. I even chew the bark off our willow tree(Original aspirin)

Lou

Hi Silvia, great post!

Love that Butterstick, although I may have some contenders for next year. For now I'll just stick with tomatoes.

I have two fav tomatoes I like equally:

Beefmaster
Brandy Boy

Both lager excellent tasting tomatoes with great production and disease/pest resistance.

Tom

Hi Silvia - What a hard question because what ever is in season happens to be my favorite at the time. Fresh picked anything (edible) is such a joy and delight.

My persimmon trees still have fruit but in a week or two they will be done. Miranda (featherhoof) just started a big batch of wine with about 20 pounds of defrosted persimmons that I saved. Yes, Tom, Miranda said you will surely get a bottle.

A lot of my winter vegetable garden is planted now. Tuscan (dinosaur) kale is my favorite kale. Other kales are planted too. Collards, Swiss chards, turnips, snow peas, carrots, beets, cabbages... There are still some remaining sweet potatoes that I will harvest as I need the room. Love those sweet potatoes.

I am looking forward to my favorite orange ripening, the ponkan tangerine and also the pummelos. I've been using calamondins already. The carambola fruits (starfruits) on my trees aren't large enough to eat yet. I guess I have late season varieties.

I like the butterstick summer squash too, like Silvia and Tom. I'll be sure to plant them again in the spring.

Christine

Lou - What an ambitious list! There is probably very little that you don't like, good for you.
I don't remember trying the big boy tomato yet, I will maybe next season
I love Israeli melons, I always had them from a little produce store when I lived in NY, I don't know how they will do here.
Mangoes are great! I still have some in the freezer from the time I went to Fairchild, two of my favorites Alphonso and Fairchild.
If you like dry beans, I always buy mine in Purcell Farms the products are very good and fast delivery, a little bit pricey but worth the quality and variety.
Some of my onions are planted, the garlic will be planted soon, can not cook without them.
On the fruit front, I am getting 2 new additions, a Bella Gold Peacotum and a Flavor Grenade Pluot, I will report on the flavor in the future.
And is in my list for the future to grow some peanuts, I like them too.
Now, do you like gourds? LOL. Ask Tom...

Tom - You have to add more things to your list, it looks so reduced,lol.
I am growing Beefmaster and Brandy Boy, hope they ripen soon, I have few fruits on the Beefmasters but only 1 on the Brandy Boy, we will see if I get more, we are getting colder temperatures already.
And I will be waiting for the next contenders of the Butterstick.

Hi Christine - We are getting into the season that we like everything! And I have about the same list that you have of cool season veggies. I have been using the calamondin too. I have 2 carambola, different varieties, one in the ground 1 in a pot, the one in the ground has small fruit, I hope I get to sample before the cold hit us.:(
I am looking forward to go to the near farm and pick the different citrus that they have, they do the growing for me.:) Citrus are great and so refreshing!

Silvia

Well this week's fav is the starfruit thanks to Treefrogs generosity and D'anns willingness to transport. I was able to make a few spice breads and 2 sweet breads with coconut. Today I chopped, seeded and pureed the rest and froze them in 2 cup increments for future recipes. Then the scraps went into the composter. I don't know how you do it Silvia, I'm pooped!

Hi Kristi

Those spice breads sound yummy! Hope to get soon some ripe starfruit, I tasted one in Excalibur that was so delicious and I bought it, but first winter I did not protect it and is a goner. Next time I will get another at Excalibur, they are the large kind.

I always freeze fruits and veggies in 2 cups also, this way it is easier to use it later, I froze a lot of persimmons to make bread later.

It is so hard for me to do nothing, like when I was in the vacation, is hard work not do a thing! LOL. I am the kind of person who always worked as a child in the family business and when younger had 2-3 jobs, now I am doing the garden, the house and the dogs, that is plenty! :)

Silvia

Silvia- Canning is not something I have tried yet. I will probably get around to doing it someday though because I can see how much more you can save from the garden.

Hi, Silvia,

My favorite vegetables:

Tat Tsoi (the seeds you gave me)
Pak Choy
Chinese Cabbage
Napa Cabbage
Yard long beans, red or green ( the seeds you gave me)
Asian eggplant
Oriental cucumber
Chinese kale ( the seeds you gave me)
Chinese Peas
In short any Oriental vegetable.

My favorite fruits:
Asian Pear
Persimmons
Again, in short any Oriental fruit.

As a transplant from NOVA to FL, I am just learning to garden here, you are so generous with your wisdom and sharing your seeds and plants; you are an inspiration to new gardeners like me.

Thanks!

Freya

Amber - I used to do a lot of canning in Arizona because I had a lot of grown fruit trees that I planted them myself, when I left they were between 5and10 years and heavy producers. When I moved there there was only dirt, here when I moved I only had lawn and my fruit trees are still young. For now I do a lot of freezing, canning is easy once you learn the basics and always being careful, when you are ready you can get the new edition of the ball book to start. Because I don't have the amounts that I had to can, I usually just put them in the freezer or fridge. You can take advantage of fruit and veggies in season that way, when they are in season they are fresh and cheaper. Try to find a good farmers market in your area, a u-pick farm to supplement the veggies that you grow. I have the farm near by and when I went to pick the persimmons and chestnuts, one person from Tampa was there, she just got a few minutes before me.:)
The tomato sauce in the picture was the leftovers after giving a lot of people that came to the house as a door prizes. They are ready in the freezer to make a quick meal, they are good on anything, even just plain pasta.

Freya - Little by little you will learn everything there is to know about gardening anywhere and grow all your favorites.
You have a lot of favorites because you are a great cook and I am sure you can make fabulous dishes with the veggies above. I like all the eggplants that I grew this season, I prefer asian and smaller size ones. From all the veggies in the garden, when I was away Cheryl only picked the Orlando eggplant variety, she said that was so good! her favorite, she said next season plant more of those. I guess the chinese peas are something like snow peas? We do love peas in the house and I am planning to do succession planting of different kinds this season.
And you are welcome Freya, I also learn tips from you and everybody else, thank you.

Silvia

Blueberries all the way....I eat them every single day in some form.

Oh yes! on the tatsoi & other Asian greens - so fast & delicious - I just wish the snails didn't agree.

Thanks for the tip on the butterbeans - I love them, but the FL speckled I grew last year didn't produce very much.
I, too, have problems deciding on my faves.

Packman broccoli always performs great for me, as do Rattlesnake pole beans. Sugar snap peas are a must every year.

Tomatoes can be quirky, 1 year I'll have a wonderful harvest from a variety & the next, not so much. I do love Speckled Roman - trying again this year w/ fingers crossed. 1 year I grew Hillbilly tomatoes & they were fabulous! They were huge & sweet & lusciously juicy w/ very few seeds. I keep trying new heirloom/OP varieties every year, but my best performer so far has been a no-name that came up from a pkg I got from Pinetree. I don't recall what the variety in the pkg was, but this is NOT that variety. I've saved the seeds for a couple of years now. Grape tomatoes from store-bought fruit have done really well too.

I love Egyptian onions, but mine died out & I forgot to order new this year, so I'll have to make do w/chives & red bunching onions for awhile.

I love chiles & sweet peppers, & they seem to operate like the tomatoes. 1 year I'll have great success, then the next very little. I seem to have better luck w/ non-bells & chiles than the more common variaties. I've had good success w/ Aji Dulce, Jimmy Nardellos, chocolate & purple Beauty, Corno di Toros & Pasilla Bahio. I year I grew Mulato Isleno & they were so sweet we ate them fresh in salads.

Florence fennel is dead easy to grow & so good in Mediterranean/Italian dishes. & I also like the Tuscan kale. I had 1 plant that lasted until August - the stalk was @ least 4'. Wild (perennial) arugula is another dead easy green. I grew a chicory mix last Fall & found out that they are perennials. The flowers are beautiful too.

I love it when I can save seeds from things; I try to find OP varieties as much as possible & I have a winter squash that volunteered years ago & is about the only squash I've been able to grow successfully. It seems impervious to mildew & pests, grows rampantly & produces 2-4# pear-shaped fruits w/ a smooth buff, slightly ribbed hard shell. I think it's C. Moschata. I had 3 vines this year & they were kicking out dozens of male blossoms daily all Summer long. I've used the blooms in everything I can think of, but the best is fritters. I've harvested about a dozen mature fruits & literally dozens of immature green fruits (still have 5-6 in the fridge) that we use like Summer squash. The taste & texture is slightly different & really good. My Fall/Winter garden has been on hold while I wait for this monster to finally die out - I still have 2 mature fruits & 3 babies that I will harvest soon. I've been trimming away as much as I can & gradually setting out my Fall transplants.

We have a Rio Red grapefruit, Meyer lemon & Ponkan tangerine - all favorites.& we love our Mysore bananas. I've also grown a nameless papaya that I think may be a Hawaiian variety - originally from a store-bought fruit. Hubby finally had to take down the trees last Spring (they were taller than the house, w/ almost 2' dia. trunks!) & have some new 1s starting now. Best papayas I've ever had - smallish & red-fleshed & very, very sweet. & we finally got to enjoy a large harvest from my Daytona grapes this year - also supremely sweet, but more like Muscadines than regular grapes.

Whew! apologies for length, but this is a good thread = )

My list is never very long because I'm gardening with only 375SF, but I did forget the Super Sugar Snaps, 5 foot tall plants that always produce tons of peas during the coldest of months.

Tom

Hi Bamboo - That is a good one! I never met anyone who does not like a good blueberry and they are so versatile and full of antioxidants for us. Next time, I will harvest more blueberries from the u-pick farm. And I also have a few varieties of my own.

Hi Carol - You are well versed in all things edible. And I think the same about the veggies, one time they are great performers and other times they are not, that is one of the reasons that I have them in the merry go round of growing, especially tomatoes sometimes they make me look good, others times not.:)

I like sweet peppers and always try to grow a combination of different ones and have to have at least one plant of hot peppers for cooking.

My favorite winter squash this season was the delica squash, I bought seeds of this hybrid in spring and I did not save any seeds because it is not open pollinated. And surprise, I am growing 2 vines in 2 different places and one is different than the other one, by the way yours sound it is like the same thing, and all the seeds came from the package, I have yet to tried the second variety.

And I do prefer the one single serving papayas, when I was growing up the papayas available were like watermelons, you need a whole family to eat those, they were also very tall. We are all in the waiting game about who is having the first papaya to ripen.:)

And I will be looking forward for the broccoli and the cabbages too.

Your Daytona grapes sound like a winners!

Tom - Super Sugar snaps are winners and the best part we can grow them vertically and there is nothing going to waste when we eat the whole peas, I am sure looking forward for those!

Silvia

You shouldn't take down a papaya, you just cut it two or three feet above the ground and it will send side shoot branches that grow upwards again producing papaya, You have to 'cap & seal' the cut part (as papaya trunks are hollow) or it will fill with water and rot. If you have a great tasting papaya.. keep it growing.

Lou

Hi Lou - FWIW, my trees had already been trimmed back twice & were in a spot we wanted for something else.

Well, I'm not good at growing anything yet, but have had relative luck with Packman broccoli from bought seedlings and this year in addition I've grown premium crop broccoli from seed, and although many have met their surmise from squirrels, some are doing well at this point.

I am almost afraid to say I'm having some luck with tomatoes this season. The ones I seem to do best with and like the taste of are beefmaster and black cherry. I am getting a few sungolds right now, but prefer the above two.

Collards are always easy for me, but I use them mostly as an adjunctive in soups, stews, etc. Minneolas are my favorite fruit I grow, and the Nam Wah bananas have always done well for me and taste great. No pictures yet, but hope to have some pretty soon.

Anna

Carol - Here is the picture of the delica squash that is not -( it is the yellow one with different shape, I will be eating those for a while, the vines are producing in big amounts. If you want to try the butterbeans, send me your address to my email.

Hi Anna - I knew that you were going to nominate the gorgeous head of broccoli that you usually grow and you make good recipes too to use up all the bounty.

From all the broccoli and cauliflower that I am growing, one looks very healthy is a variety Veronica, I hope that it does not disappoint me and keeps growing well and the taste is good too.

I am glad to know that you have the nam wa bananas too, that is the only one that I have fruiting now.

This morning harvest, I am going to have to get creative with the delica winter squash that is not,lol

Silvia

My 3 favorites are, in order:

1.Peaches
2.Peaches, and
3.Peaches

The Florida variety are smaller than their GA and SC cousins but just as sweet and juicy.

WOW!!! Billbrandi, those are some beautiful peaches! What a nice harvest you had. And I agree with you, I always love peaches and the Florida ones even smaller size are great!

Here are the ones I picked from the farm. I will have some of my own from my young tree, I hope soon...

Here are the picked peaches in May.

And a very delicious pie, I also made peach and vanilla bean preserves.

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Silvia

Sivlia, You are saying "delica" squash, not "delicata", right?

Yes Christine, I am going to show you the difference between the bush delicata, the baby delica and the unknown from the same packet of seeds.

Bush delicata are the light colored ones

Baby delica

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And the unknown, I cooked it tonight and tastes like a zucchini. In the plate it is the round one, the other ones are the butterstick and the costata romanesco.

Silvia

Sylvia,
The Baby Delica looks very much like some small Seminole Pumpkin varieties I have seen. Is the taste similar? I have seen colors on Seminole Pumpkins from battleship gray to dark green to charcoal black, and many different markings (most likely from cross pollination over the years).

Lou

Silvia - Thanks so much for the excellent explanation of the different squashes. So, the Baby Delica looks like a pumpkin. And the unknown was a surprise bonus.

Thank you for the beautiful pictures Silvia! You inspire me!
Is it too late to try squash this fall? I have had no luck in the warmer months- it seems to rot on the plant before I get to it. If so, which do you recommend?

Lou - The taste and size of the vines are completely different, also kabocha type of oriental winter squash is almost always hybrids. I really like them both for different purpose. I grew several kabocha type this season and my favorites were the delica and sweet dumpling.

On the native american heirlooms my favorite is the seminole, but the vines use a lot of space it is also very productive and if that is the only squash that you grow, you can save seeds. I also grew this season the lakota squash, while it has very good flavor, it is not productive in our weather conditions, it probably does great in other places.

Seminole pumpkin is almost twice the size of the delica, the delica also has some warts.

Seminole

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Lakota

Christine - I bought the delica from the Kitazawa company, they mostly sell hybrids, so I don't think I will be saving seed from the unknown, it is very productive!

Ebackman - Thank you, you have to update the zone on your profile, this way we can advice you better. While it is too late for my zone 9b near Orlando, in your zone it might be right on time. Did you said you are near Tampa? If so, maybe Tom can say when he plant his.
If you are going to do containers or ground it does matter. My favorite for flavor is the costata romanesco, this one will do well in a raised bed or amended soil, it gets too big for a pot. The butterstick is also good flavor with the advantage that you can grow in a pot. Everybody should also grow at least one winter squash, they are very versatile and keep well, because I don't have too much space I prefer the compact vines. This way I have space available to grow other veggies for the table. I like to see all the colors in my plate.:)

Silvia

I am in Zone 9, according to this site's zone finder- in North Tampa/Odessa area.
I am trying both container & in the ground- trying to see what works best- Thank you for your help

Silvia, you are reading my mind. I was writing down your favorite varieties and thinking, "I wonder where she bought the seeds. I know not Baker Creek since they are hybrids." Thanks for telling me so as to save me some time searching. I didn't do very well with my winter squashes this year - trying too many unproven varieties. I want to grow what will do best. When I ordered my Seminole pumpkin seeds I ordered a package for you. I'll give them to you when I give you the papaya seedlings.

Christine

Today's favorite veggie are the green beans. When you grow them next season, try to grow different varieties, almost all the beans do very well for me, it takes no time to prepare them and eat them as a part of a meal or like me as a snack flavored with herbs, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Ebackman - It is always a good idea to plan for the next season, gather info and seeds, the time comes fast when we will be planting squash again.

Christine - Thank you for the offer on the seminole, but I still have seeds left that I saved, they are 3 years old but will give them a chance again, that is if I have enough room in the garden by then. I may try new varieties this year, you never know...

Silvia

Beautiful pictures everyone! I have a small tree that I planted last year but no fruit yet. It is a near superfruit. Not for everyone because of its egg yolk like texture. I also have its 'cousin' Ross Sapote which apparently solves the texture issue.

Hi Alex

Thank you. I am sure that you can get to grow a lot of more tropical fruit trees than us in zone 9.

The truth is I like most fruits and vegetables:) One of my harvest last week.

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Silvia