Mar 17

Mar 17 Unusual Edible Plants For Daring Gardeners

Want to spice up your garden and your meal times? Then read on for the perfect edible plant suggestion for daring gardeners.

Celeriac

Hugely popular in high-end restaurants in the form of a creamy celeriac mash, celeriac root is a great place to start your unusual edible plant journey. Slightly nutty in flavor, celeriac is great cubed and fried as well as boiled and then mashed. You can even grate it and add it to soups to give them an earthy flavor!

Celeriac needs to be planted in the early spring. This is because of two key reasons, the first is that it does not like the cold weather. The second is that it needs at least six months before it's ready to be harvested. Where possible start the growing process indoors, and then move outside when the weather warms up.

Cabbage Palm

Ever wondered where those delicious and tender hearts of palm come from? It's from the Cabbage Palm plant! There are many edible elements of the cabbage palm including crisp palm hearts and leaf buds. The latter is just like cabbage. Some people even make honey from the cabbage palm. Although it's worth noting that cabbage palms are quite beautiful in their own right, and because harvesting the edible parts hurts the plant, many people choose to have them in their gardens for purely decorative purposes.

Cabbage palms are very resilient plants and easy to care for, especially if you buy pre-established Sabal Palm Trees that you can plant firstly in your garden. Just be sure to water it deeply from time to time and you will have a gorgeous plant that will last.

Marigolds

It's the petals of the marigold that are edible, so be sure to remove them and do not eat the whole flower. One of the most beautiful ways to use marigold petals in food prep is to roll a ball of goat's cheese in them for a highly delicate and decorative finish. You can also use them as a garnish, and sprinkled over salads.

Planting marigolds depends on the type you are growing. For example, African marigolds take longer to bloom so they need to be planted earlier, usually once the first frost of spring has passed. However, other varieties such as Signet and Young French can be planted between spring and midsummer and still successfully bloom before the weather starts to get cold again.

Winter Radishes

You may be used to thinking of radishes as those little pink balls that are plentiful in the summer. Yet there are so many other kings you can try, and the great thing about many of these is that they will be ready to harvest during the colder months.

For example, Daikon, a type of long Asian radish with a pleasing subtle peppery flavor, can be harvested in the winter, along with the bright watermelon radish, and the delicious Black Spanish radish.

For maximum success sow winter radishes in the summer, so they have enough time to mature by the time the colder weather comes around. Remember to plant long-rooted winter radishes like the daikon in deep soil so they have enough room to develop.