Oh my, I eat so many Asian vegetables that many people might find unusual. Bok choy, gai lan, gobo root, mizuna, gai choy, yu choy,shingiku,winter melon and others I don't know the names of. Jessy,I love Shiso (Perilla) too, and copied your recipe to try it out. When I make tempura, the Shiso leaves make an interesting and attractive tempura. I like seaweed too, the crisp Nori sheets, the Wakame, and also Hijiki. Not too many people I know (who aren't Japanese) have had Hijiki. One buys it dried and I have found that the Japanese brands are of better quality than some less expensive, non-Japanese brands I have bought in Chinese markets. I don't use a recipe, since I have been making it for years, but I found this one on the net, and the proportions sound about right. My only quibble with the recipe is the part about soaking it for 30 minutes. In my opinion, that would make it far too squishy. I soak it for about 10 minutes, and then rinse it repeatedly to make sure it's clean of sand and grit. It will soak up plenty of moisture from the other ingredients and still retain a bit of crunch. NGREDIENTS * 30g dried hijiki * 1 piece abura-age (thin fried bean curd) * 1 small carrot * 150ml dashi * 2 tbsp sugar * 1 tbsp sake * 2 tbsp soy sauce Hijiki no nimono HOW TO COOK Rinse the hijiki well until the water runs clear, then soak in plenty of water for 30 minutes. Put the fried bean curd in a sieve and pour boiling water over it, to remove excess oil. Cut in half lengthways and then into strips. Cut the carrot into fine strips. Place the hijiki, fried bean curd and carrot in a pan, then add the dashi, sugar and sake, and bring to the boil. Cut out a round of cooking foil slightly smaller than the diameter of the pan, and cover the hijiki with it. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce, then simmer again until the hijiki absorbs the broth. I love fiddleheads, but can get them only rarely around here. But there is a bracken fern that grows in areas on the coast that is very good to eat. You pick the fern shoots in the Spring when they are still quite tightly curled up. I use a good number of edible flowers in salads. Right now I've got alyssum, roses, nasturtiums, and pansies. I can't think of a fruit I would consider unusual, maybe Lychees? I do have a penchant for Moroccan preserved lemons.

Can't help you much with the fruit. I live a half-mile down the road from a berry farm so I let them do the growing! (They also sell pumpkins so I don't grow those either as I don't have the room). I also get other fruits from a local organic orchard. I do grow garlic. I have limited space - well, I have a large yard but limited SUN. So my go-to variety of garlic is called Chinese Pink, and I grow it mainly because it can be harvested by late May, early June, which frees up the space for my summer veggies. Last year I waited too long to order and Chinese Pink was sold out. And for the life of me I can neither remember what two varieties I ordered nor find the invoices for them. I think one of them was something like Western Rose. I know I had decided to try a softneck and a hardneck, but sorry, that's the best I can remember. Last season I discovered the beauty of onion sets! I have grown from seed before (copra is one onion I grew) but last year my friend's husband had extra sets left and gave them to me, and that is the only way for me now! But since they were given to me, I don't know what kind they are. Geez, I don't know why I bothered responding to you - I'm not much help here, am I?! Beans - I always grow Fortex; peas, I like Lincoln; cukes, I often grow Marketmore but like to mix things up; peppers, I like Jimmy Nardellos and Rocket. Herbs - I like (or I should say my husband the cook likes) Genovese basil, although I've grown the purple basil as well (and used it in bouquets!). I also grow the large flat-leaf parsley (Giant of Italy). Ditto on what nhbabs said about the cilantro - needs resowing all season. I also grow rosemary from seed but have yet to successfully overwinter indoors (I can't overwinter anything indoors!). Oregano grows very easily here - actually rip some out every year as it reseeds. And I've had success with thyme as well. Letuces - ah, you are talking to someone who loves lettuce, and who helped grow it at a farm. My all-time favorite is New Red Fire, a red leaf lettuce, but it seems to be a delicate lettuce. I try some every year anyway because I love it. Another red leaf option is Red Sails. Green leaf Black Seeded Simpson is an old standard, and Tropicana is a good variety. Red and green oakleaf are beautiful varieties, as is Lollo Rosso. Summercrisp (we grew a lot of Nevada) I believe holds up better during the heat of summer. A good bibb lettuce is Winter Density, and a nice, somewhat unusual heirloom is Deer Tongue. All lettuce prefers cool weather, and you will get smaller heads during the heat of summer. The woman I grew with was a lettuce magician, lol, and was the only person at the farmer's market who had lettuce in the dog days of summer! I don't quite have the touch that she did but I still try growing it all season long, and I do get some lettuce in the hot days. I also always like to try new things along with my old "stand-bys". I also usually grow some of Johnny's greenhouse mixes, which I cut as baby lettuces, and also some of the greens mixes, which I mix in with the baby lettuces. Yum. Now I can't wait for spring and a REAL salad!

It looks like Jamun (Syzygium cumini ), also called "Indian Blackberry" or "Java plum". These trees are sometimes planted by immigrants from India. The fruit has a very "smoky" taste and is very high in tannins. Most Americans find the fruit distasteful, but many Indians have fond memories from their childhood eating the fruits off a Jamun tree in the summer. The fruit has a large seed inside, is very messy and the juice stains. Adding just a sprinkle of salt can supposedly help bring out the sweeter flavor. If the shape seems distantly reminiscent of pomegranate, it might be because the two happen to be in the same order Myrtales.

My daughter lived on the south hill of Spokane. I would plant a small garden for her in the spring and it seemed to do pretty well with little care. Potatoes, tomatoes, beans, herbs and even peas did well. She had raspberries, strawberries and the grapes were spectacular. There was a cherry tree and apple tree already in her yard, but the cherry always had worms. Apples were good. If I were to have a small garden, I would plant basil, a tomato, lettuce, zucchini and a grape vine. There was also a community garden a block from her house near the Sacajawea School. Community gardens are a good place for ideas.