New Crops to Grow: Embrace the Uncommon
There are plenty of benefits to growing our own food. It gives us the opportunity to sample our crop at its peak freshness, and that can make a big difference in taste. It also gives us the opportunity to try something different—something fancy or something quirky—because after a while, our food can get a little basic and boring.
Mixing up what we eat can help us learn new cooking techniques, too. I’m sure we all know how to cook carrots and prepare peas, but what about kohlrabi or saffron?
Do you really know your favorite food? Expanding your variety of foods can lead to amazing outcomes, such as finding a new food option that you love even more.
Less Common Crops to Try
Here are five new crops that you can mix up your regular routine with:
Kohlrabi
I’ve seen this alien-creature-looking vegetable, which is part of the Brassica family, being grown more in recent years. Kohlrabi is usually grown as a cool-season annual and can be green, white, or purple depending on the variety. It grows as a bulb with edible leaves shooting up from the sides, giving it an alien look. It’s a German turnip or cabbage that can be eaten raw or cooked. Slice it, dice it, steam it, or sauté it!
Saffron
Saffron is a spice popular in Spanish, South Asian, and Middle Eastern cooking dishes, and it’s known as the most expensive spice in the world! It derives from the flower stigmas of the saffron plant, a member of the Iris family. Saffron desires full sun, but I’ve seen it be successfully grown in partially shaded areas in well-drained, sandy, loamy soil. The stigmas in the center of the plant are where the bright red-orange saffron spice grows. You can mix it with tea to add a sweet, floral taste, and it pairs well with apples, honey, and proteins such as poultry and seafood.
Ground Cherries
With minimal pests and disease problems, ground cherries are another less popular crop to grow. They’re a small yellow- orange fruit with an outside husk, similar to tomatillos, and a sweet-tart taste similar to a pineapple with a hint of tomato—if that makes sense! You can grow these in traditional garden beds or in containers. Just make sure the space gets a lot of sunlight and has well-drained soil rich in organic matter. Puree ground cherries into a sauce, bake them into a tart, pie, or cake, or eat them fresh.
Yardlong Beans
Although yardlong beans are native to warmer climates such as Asia and Africa, I’ve seen them being grown in our Northgate Garden and our Holloway Hope Garden in Evanston. Their name can be deceiving as they don’t grow to a yard, but their length can reach half a yard! Belonging to the legume family and Fabaceae, yardlong beans like well-drained, loose, slightly acidic soil. Light direct sunlight is recommended. They can be eaten raw or cooked and taste similar to green beans.
Celeriac
Increasing in popularity is a vegetable called celeriac. It’s very versatile often, compared to a potato, and closely related to celery, parsley, and parsnips. It’s also known as celery root, turnip-rooted celery, and knob celery. It looks similar to a rough, off-white, misshapen turnip and has an unusual flavor, a cross between celery, fennel, and anise. Peel and chop celeriac, add it to soups or salads, or mash it as you would a potato. Sow the seeds in spring after the risk of frost has passed and harvest the celery in October. The roots may need another month or so.
Enjoy the Freedom of Growing Your Own!
When you buy fruits and vegetables from the grocery store, you’re limited to what they choose to offer. When you grow your own, those limitations are lifted and that freedom is always worth it!