Corner signpost Unusual edibles

A wealth of any horticultural our climate, I cannot help but feel saffron (Crocus sativus) to cocktail colourful, tasty textbooks would gardeners are ignoring up to 90 kiwis (Actinidia arguta), Chilean and vegetables (left) have you believe percent of the edible they guavas ( molinae) and are often ignored there are only 20 could grow. As a botanist I have long (Cydonia oblonga) were cultivated. by UK gardeners, or so crops of edible been puzzled by this situation. Is it Think outside despite being easy to grow. Mplants that can be grown in the UK. because these ‘alternative veg’ are Trialling at home Indeed, if you compare my grand­ thought to be poor yielding, difficult Frustrated by the lack of reliable father’s Dig for Victory pamphlet to grow or might not make good data that could help me to get to the with the most recent downloadable eating? After all, there is an enormous bottom of this conundrum, I decided ‘grow your own’ app, the contents difference between ‘technically to investigate the potential of under- the vegetable box are virtually identical – barring edible’ and ‘worth eating’. used species as ‘crops of the future’ aubergines, peppers and, if you are However, 100 years or so ago, for the home gardener. In three years With up to 2,000 edible species that we lucky, chillies. commercial growers raised, outdoors, I grew more than 200 crops – from could grow in our climate, many far removed Yet with up to 2,000 edible crops an enormous range of what we now sweet potatoes to wasabi – in my from traditional allotment vegetables, are that could theoretically thrive in consider exotics. Everything from small suburban garden in » you missing out on some tasty crops? Author and photographer: James Wong, Chickpea Cocktail kiwi a Kew-trained botanist, writer and broadcaster (Cicer arietinum) (Actinidia arguta) Sow: seed in April Plant: plants in spring Harvest: September Harvest: September I love the nutty pods of edamame Hailing from northeast Asia, up into (soya) beans you get in Japanese Siberia, these rampant but hardy restaurants, but have failed to grow vines will survive ‑35°c (‑31°f). Mature them. Young chickpeas, however, can plants produce up to 400 grape- be eaten rather like edamame; the sized mini kiwis, with fuzz-free, young green pods have a sweeter edible skins and flesh sweeter than flavour, rather like a cross between rock-hard ones sold in supermarkets. pistachios and garden peas, and I Plants like a sunny site with deep, have found them far easier to grow. rich soil and will need sturdy Sow outdoors 15cm (6in) apart in a supports to clamber over. They can sunny bed. Plants are drought tolerant grow to 6m (20ft) if untrained; I and do not need feeding, yet produce spur-prune mine in summer, cutting hundreds of pods per square metre long shoots back by half every three for little effort. The cultivar ‘Principe’, weeks to maximise yield. This results while its peas are smaller than those in shorter, stubbier plants. Of the on sale dried in supermarkets, fares many cultivars, I would choose a well in our cool summers. self-fertile selection such as ‘Issai’.

Cape gooseberry Chilean guava (Physalis peruviana) (Ugni molinae) Sow: seed March or April Plant: plants in spring Harvest: October–December Harvest: late summer Despite their unusual appearance, I love the fragrant berries of Chilean each wrapped in a paper guavas, reputedly Queen Victoria’s lantern, Cape gooseberries have favourite . Less fussy than been reliable outdoors in some blueberries, these productive bushes dreadful summers for me. Drought- offer glossy evergreen foliage and and disease-resistant, the plants scented, bell-like . Rebranded need no pruning, training or by Australian growers as Tazziberries, fertilising to reward you with good a tiny punnet costs at least £9 – but harvests as late as early December. plants can be cultivated easily in Most textbooks advocate growing gardens, fruiting even in light shade. under glass but I have achieved the Established plants grow well best harvests by growing plants hard, outdoors in mild areas, but they are outdoors in poor, well-drained soil also happy in pots and can be put in a in full sun. With an autumn mulch in cold glasshouse in freezing weather. mild areas they may prove perennial, I recommend planting large-fruited but they are easy to start indoors ‘Ka-pow!’, which produces sizeable from seed, sown as for tomatoes. berries on dwarf plants.

March 2013 | The Garden 73 Unusual edibles

Croydon, South London. Everything Exotic yet easy was grown outdoors over three of The perplexing thing, it turns out, RHS grow the worst summers and two of the is that many of the chicest, exotic coldest winters on record, with their ingredients that are currently flown your own yields and ease of cultivation in from the other side of the globe James Wong is giving one of the talks measured and compared to potatoes are often as easy, if not easier, than at RHS Garden Wisley during Grow Your Own Weekend (23–24 March), and tomatoes grown alongside them. allotment staples – at least in my which is being held at all four Assessing flavour was, of course, a experience. I am not advocating the RHS Gardens (see RHS Life, p90). key factor in my selection with each wholesale abandonment of old ✤ See p91 for your free seeds. crop sampled by a panel of four favourites, as garden-fresh sweet people (family and neighbours). corn, early peas and heritage supplier details With intentionally strict criteria, I tomatoes take some beating, but my ✤ For plants, see RHS Plant Finder 2013. was genuinely surprised to find that experimentation shows there is huge ✤ For seed: Suttons: 0844 922 0606; www.suttons.co.uk. Thompson & Morgan: roughly 40 percent of the crops potential out there for thinking well 0844 573 1818; www.thompson-morgan.com. passed my tests with flying colours. beyond spuds, sprouts and swedes. Franchi Seeds: 020 8427 5020; www.seedsofitaly.com.

Cucamelon Pineapple guava (Zehneria scabra (Acca sellowiana) syn. Melothria scabra) Plant: plants in spring Sow: April Harvest: August Harvest: late summer–autumn Lilliputian ‘watermelons’ that If you have a sheltered, south- taste of cucumber with a tinge of facing wall you couldn’t do much lime, these fruit grow on slender better than a pair of pineapple vines and are perfect for patio guava (feijoa) bushes. These pots, or even hanging baskets. evergreens produce fragrant Cool-tolerant enough to fruit well fruit which follow pink pompon outdoors in mild regions, they are flowers that have fleshy, edible, even more productive if grown sweet-tasting petals. under cover. Grow cucamelon Grow feijoas as you would olives, annually from seed raised under planting in full sun in well-drained

glass as you would cucumber. soil. Grow in pairs to ensure /getty Photos Lamontagne Alternatively, lift their radish-like cross-pollination; an open, airy roots in autumn and treat like canopy also helps. Most plants dahlias, storing them over winter grown in the UK are clipped tight and planting out in spring after risk against walls, possibly why they of frost has passed; this method seldom fruit freely. Get it right will provide earlier crops of fruit. and you are onto a winner.

Saffron New Zealand yam (Crocus sativus) (Oxalis tuberosa) Plant: corms in late summer Plant: tubers in April Harvest: autumn Harvest: October–December Saffron was grown in the UK on a Cultivated by the Inca of South commercial scale for centuries, America, these colourful tubers and ours was once considered grow in the Andean highlands at the world’s finest. Saffron Hill and high altitude. Resistant to blight, Saffron Walden were named after they were trialled as a successor to their thriving plantations of this potatoes in the Irish famines and luxury spice, and it is still grown were introduced across the British commercially in North Wales. Empire. In New Zealand they are Saffron is low maintenance and still a much-loved vegetable. needs sharply drained, neutral Start tubers in pots of compost soil in full sun, with six weeks of on a windowsill and plant in a temperatures above 20°c (68°f) sunny site after frosts have passed. while dormant in July and August. Tubers need a long season; place I have provided this even in cloches over plants to improve miserable summers by growing yields in areas with early frosts. under cloches and have achieved Harvest two to three weeks after respectable harvests. growth has been frosted.

74 The Garden | March 2013