Edible Vancouver Island May/June 2024

...AND THE LIST GOES ON! I don’t have the space to list all the fun and adventurous edibles you can grow, but here are a few more varieties that can also be grown locally: 1. Black nebula carrots (bright purple vegetable that keeps their colour when cooked) 2. Castelfranco radicchio 3. Chayote 4. Chinese pink celery 5. Chioggia striped beets 6. Cucamelons and lemon cucumbers 7. Dragon tongue bush beans and purple King Tut peas 8. Edamame beans 9. Egyptian walking onions–like chives but hardier 10. Glass gem corn (a multicoloured, Easter egg-like corn) 11. Ground cherries, tomatillos and boldly coloured Brad's atomic grape tomatoes 12. Horseradish 13. Japanese eggplant 14. Miners lettuce (aka Claytonia) 15. Peruvian purple potatoes with fiery colours 16. Pink watermelon radishes or black Spanish radish 17. Purple sprouting broccoli 18. Shishito peppers

used in many other creative recipes including stuffed. Baby artichokes can be trimmed and shaved thin to eat raw in salads. Kohlrabi is a crisp and tasty vegetable related to kale but it develops a large, edible bulb at its base which is the best part. Be sure to pick it before it gets too large and woody. Kohlrabi grows well on Vancouver Island. You can choose white or green, but I love to plant the purple ones for extra colour in my garden. Romanesco and Fioretto are a great alternative to broccoli and cauliflower. Romanesco is a gorgeous chartreuse-green with uniquely patterned florets and Fioretto is a sprouting cauliflower with long stalks. These grow similarly to broccoli and cauliflower and can be used in all the same recipes. They make for stunning vegetable platters and salads. Yardlong beans, also known as asparagus beans are super long, stringless green beans that are harvested at one to three feet long! Plants start slowly as a small bush and when the heat hits the plant grows rapidly up, like pole beans. With pretty flowers and an impressive amount of growth, these are lovely for areas that can use a little summertime privacy. Pick these long beans before the seeds fatten for tender eating and to keep it producing. With an aversion to rules, Sabrina Currie has tried growing many fruits, herbs and veggies unusual to our area–though ginger, lemongrass and peanuts were fails. Although with a larger greenhouse she might try again...Find her recipes for many of these unusual veggies on her website, sabrinacurrie.com

19. Shiso (used as herb and salad green) 20. Strawberry spinach (a wild species) 21. Sunchokes

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20 MAY/JUN 2024 EDIBLE VANCOUVER ISLAND