A work in progress!

I’m starting this page February 2009 to add notes especially of the more unusual edibles we’ve grown. I especially find that varieties which I’ve inherited through swaps, from the Heritage Seed Library or smaller seed suppliers are hard to find information on so I hope to help some people like me who have been searching for details on more unusual varieties.

Any information here will be my own research, whether from catalogues, books or just my own experience and although I have some notes ready to go I’ll add them slowly. If someone else has better information I’ll link to them so please do let me know if there’s anything I could add.

By the way, some of these things I might have seeds to share – see the separate page on http://fuggles.wordpress.com/seeds-to-share/

Pea  – Golden sweet

Pale yellow mange tout pods on medium tall (up to 1.5m, much shorter in my

Pea Golden Sweet hiding behind bread seed poppies

garden), with bicolour flowers in deep pink and purple. Very prolific, fairly large pods.  Seed is dimpled and tan flecked with purple, and the occasional seed is all purple (I had a whole pod of purple seed in 2008 and plan to sow these in 2009, but Søren at In the Toad’s Garden has already done just the same thing and thinks it is probably down to environmental factors, so I don’t have much hope for discovering a purple pea!  It’s still fun to try though!)

It is said to be drought tolerant and to dry well as a soup pea, and it is said to be one of the peas Mendel experimented on.   I can’t corroborate any of these facts…

My stock originated with Real Seeds who observe that the yellow colour makes picking easier, which is very true, and the reason I then looked for purple podded peas the following year!  They sometimes turn up in the Heritage Seed Library catalogue.

Links:

Rebsie has a marvellous detailed and much more erudite review here:

http://daughterofthesoil.blogspot.com/2007/06/heritage-vegetable-review-pea-golden.html

Søren’s observations with some very nice photos of both seeds and pods:

http://toads.wordpress.com/?s=golden+snow+pea

Real Seeds, who sell the seed:

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/peas.html

Pea – Kent Blue

Flowers of Kent Blue pea

Another HSL allocation, I chose it because it had been grown in Sevenoaks since the 1940s. The bicoloured flowers turn from maroon and pink to navy and pale blue as they mature.  The pods are smallish and sweet, and can be eaten as mange tout or mature peas (we mostly do the former).  Plants are quite short for us, which is convenient as our garden is exposed.  Since growing this I have discovered numerous other peas with lovely coloured flowers but I retain a soft spot for this variety – Pauline Pears was quoted as saying it’s the best pea she has ever grown and she knows her onions (and peas…).  Seeds are prettily speckled, most convenient for those seed-admiring moments in the dark days of winter…

It does appear intermittently in the HSL catalogue, or I might be able to spare a few seed.

Pea  – Victorian Purple Podded

Tall. Pink and claret flowers, lots of purple pods (the latter may not come as a surprise but the former is worth noting). “Vigorous dense plants” are promised by the HSL and this is true but the colour of the pods makes it easy to spot them – handy as the pods can be eaten as mange tout while immature.  However it isn’t a true mange tout as the inner skin does become tough.  Still beautiful on a plate, with for example Golden Sweet and Kent Blue.

Victorian Purple Podded Peas in flower, "fruit" and drying for seed

Pea – Parsley Pea

Named for the “mutated” tendrils, which are actually more like leaves and are said

Parsley pea tendrils and flowers

to resemble curled parsley – it’s a bit of a stretch to say this in my opinion but they are herby. Plants will need staking because of the lack of tendrils – string wound between posts is helpful, or we have grown them in a hanging basket! They are only about 45cm high when staked upright.  The tendrils taste of peas so it’s a nice addition to your pea collection, letting you get the flavour early and more economically perhaps than pea sprouts.  The peas themselves are, of course, also nice to eat, but they aren’t the point of this variety, I think.  Ooh, also, it’s round seeded, and I can’t remember what that signifies…

Chilli Pepper -  Trifetti

Chilli Trifetti

White flowers with a purple edge which produce blunt, dark purple-black fruit, about 1 inch long. These will eventually turn an orangey shade of red.  The “tri” part is in the leaves, which are striped with cream and, I find, prone to creasing up and making young seedlings look a bit sickly.  HSL (where my seeds came from) recommends a long season. We managed to over winter mature plants but with difficulty. Seedlings are certainly fairly slow to grow and it has a delicate habit, being sparsely branched and leaved, with a “tree shaped” outline.  Fruit is pretty hot raw but it is useful for cooking, and because of the shape, easy to deseed once halved.  It has been suggested that it is attractive as a houseplant but I can’t get over the colour of the leaves!

From seed catalogue descriptions it may also be the same plant as Purple Tiger or more likely Tricolour Variegata .  Some descriptions say the flowers are purple but I’ve found all of ours to be this white and purple mix which is very pretty.

Nicky’s Nursery seems to have this new this year, and I have probably got some home-saved seeds to spare (I haven’t sold it well though, have I?!)

Bean – Pea Bean

Pea bean seeds, burgundy and white with splashes

A climber, supposed to be disease resistant, eventually the green pods turn yellow and bumpy, as the seeds themselves are fairly round.  The beans are half white and half burgundy, often with burgundy “splashes” on the white half. Raw beans supposed to taste similar to peas, immature beans supposed to be cooked as for French beans.  Most common use is for drying to use in soups etc.  I haven’t yet tasted the pods or “peas” as I’ve only grown them to increase my seeds so far!  This is still a commercially available variety – my seeds originated from the Organic Gardening catalogue.

Bean Poletschka

Another climber, this time an heirloom variety sourced from the Heritage Seed Library.  Its name is in honour of the donor’s family, who originate from Western Ukraine. Green pods, knobbly again because of the fat, roundish jet black seeds – described by HSL as blackcurrant-like.

Climbing French Bean Poletschka

They say: “Stringless pods are prolific with a long cropping season”. Nice taste, but should be picked small (before they go too bumpy) or can used as a dried bean – they look lovely so I think would be a good alternative to “turtle” beans in chillis or soups, but I haven’t tried them as I haven’t had space to grow enough for drying yet.

Sorrel – Shchavel

Russian (hence the name) tough variety, can provide greenery all year round. Description from HSL is that it is succulent, tangy, good for salad, soup, quich and stir fries. I haven’t bothered to save seed from this type as I couldn’t tell the difference, not being much of a connoisseur of sorrel, from the other types we had growing, but I think I still have some seed and will try again another time.  Can obviously be divided which is probably easier than trying to save seed.

Ballerina tomatoes - where are you Esther Rantzen?

Tomato – Ballerina

Determinate plants produce plenty of small red plum tomatoes, with a pointy tip – for those who remember That’s Life amusing vegetable section, this is the tomato for you.  Must grow this again as I can’t recall much more about it!