Favorite garden vegetable or fruit

[Wvroach]

Well gardening season is coming upon us again soon, I've started a few things in the greenhouse with heat and under the grow lamps in preparation for the 2022 season.

What are some of your favorite things to grow? looking for more obscure/uncommon things as well, I'm in zone 6a but have greenhouse with ventilation and heat so I can grow a fair variety of stuff.

Some of my favorites to grow are tomatillo and a variety of hot peppers, ghost, Thai dwarf, Carolina reapers etc.. I always grow the standard stuff as well but I find it more enjoyable to grow out the obscure stuff you can't find at your local supermarkets plus they always seem to sell better at the local farmers market.

 

[dieselchessy]

Pattypan, delecata, and sweet mama for squash. Garden salsa peppers. Then all the usual stuff.

 

[Like2hunt]

Nothing too special but my favorite thing is salsa made with some nice garden tomatoes

 

[FLATHEAD]

Tomatoes, Peppers and Onions.
The peppers we dont eat fresh are dehydrated and run
through a blender to make our own ground pepper. I call
it garden dirt. Great on pizza, eggs, chili, tacos,,,, anything.

 

[3forks]

Don’t laugh - but, Rhubarb.

My wife and I like to garden and we live in Colorado. We grow the typical veggies everyone else does and spend a lot of time trying to get the best yield we can out of what we plant. But, I’ve always liked rhubarb because it comes in early and is about as easy to grow as a weed.

My wife does a lot of baking with rhubarb, and I never get sick of it.

 

[AZ8]

Love the greens…. Swiss chard, spinach, kale, Amaranthus blitum, beet tops. Unfortunately, we have a very short growing season up here and these really can’t be started indoors. But we get a good harvest every summer.

Squash, tomato, eggplant, green peppers also grown in the garden, which we start indoors and transplant after Memorial Day weekend. Really love it all.

Apple and cherry trees also.

 

[Wvroach]

Don’t laugh - but, Rhubarb.

My wife and I like to garden and we live in Colorado. We grow the typical veggies everyone else does and spend a lot of time trying to get the best yield we can out of what we plant. But, I’ve always liked rhubarb because it comes in early and is about as easy to grow as a weed.

My wife does a lot of baking with rhubarb, and I never get sick of it.

I haven't grown rhubarb but I will be adding it to the list this year, I enjoy perennials but they do like to spread out which is good and bad sometimes. Do you let it seed or plant it as an annual each year?

 

[Wvroach]

Love the greens…. Swiss chard, spinach, kale, Amaranthus blitum, beet tops. Unfortunately, we have a very short growing season up here and these really can’t be started indoors. But we get a good harvest every summer.

Squash, tomato, eggplant, green peppers also grown in the garden, which we start indoors and transplant after Memorial Day weekend. Really love it all.

Apple and cherry trees also.

Swiss chard is a go to for us, I enjoy it in a cast skillet with bacon and eggs.

Our last frost is usually around the middle of may so I set up green house tunnels over the transplants when it is calling for near frost temps to protect the more intolerant plants.

 

[GARLICSALT]

My favorite is the peach, home grown with a little fuzz or without.

 

[Jimmy]

Green beans and cantaloupe I can eat day after day, and we preserve the green beans for winter.

 

[Runningwater]

I like lots of herbs on hand - both annuals and perennials. Thyme, basil, cilantro, parsley, loveage, mint, Sage, etc.
I really enjoy raising hardneck garlic. Our best "discovery" last year was komatsuna, a Japanese mustard. It way out produced our spinach both in output and production time, and it just a super very mild green you can cook or use fresh. Lots and lots of all the other usual suspects as well in our garden.

 

[dieselchessy]

I haven't grown rhubarb but I will be adding it to the list this year, I enjoy perennials but they do like to spread out which is good and bad sometimes. Do you let it seed or plant it as an annual each year?

Rhubarb generally is grown from a root wad (rhizome) and needs a year or so to get established and grow large.

 

[3forks]

I haven't grown rhubarb but I will be adding it to the list this year, I enjoy perennials but they do like to spread out which is good and bad sometimes. Do you let it seed or plant it as an annual each year?

I think growing from root is easiest.

Because Rhubarb is a perennial, I chose an area to grow it where the plants will always be located.

The only drawback that I can see for Rhubarb is that it you need to let the plants mature for a couple of years before you can harvest as much as they will yield. the first year you shouldn’t harvest any stalks. In the plant’s second year, you can harvest them for a couple of weeks, and after the third year you can harvest for 6 weeks or so. In the plant’s fourth year, you can harvest as much as they will give.

 

[Wvroach]

I think growing from root is easiest.

Because Rhubarb is a perennial, I chose an area to grow it where the plants will always be located.

The only drawback that I can see for Rhubarb is that it you need to let the plants mature for a couple of years before you can harvest as much as they will yield. the first year you shouldn’t harvest any stalks. In the plant’s second year, you can harvest them for a couple of weeks, and after the third year you can harvest for 6 weeks or so. In the plant’s fourth year, you can harvest as much as they will give.

A lot like asparagus then, only with a longer harvesting window. I purchased seeds and had planned to grow it as an annual but I will consider letting it go a few years to take hold.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Don’t laugh - but, Rhubarb.

My wife and I like to garden and we live in Colorado. We grow the typical veggies everyone else does and spend a lot of time trying to get the best yield we can out of what we plant. But, I’ve always liked rhubarb because it comes in early and is about as easy to grow as a weed.

My wife does a lot of baking with rhubarb, and I never get sick of it.

My mother use to make Rhubarb pie, which I would take and bury in the back yard so I wouldn't be forced to eat it. I suspect, some day there will be violent eruption and cover the small town in slime.

 

[Dexter Grayson]

Okra, and it’s not even close.

 

[3forks]

My mother use to make Rhubarb pie, which I would take and bury in the back yard so I wouldn't be forced to eat it. I suspect, some day there will be violent eruption and cover the small town in slime.

Ha!

Rhubarb is the perfect conduit for sugar.

I don’t know what recipe your mother used, but I would guess that she was trying to prevent you from getting cavities or diabetes and didn’t add enough sugar to her pies or put enough ice cream on them to be palatable for you.

I’m kidding, but rhubarb can be too tart or stringy… It‘s not too hard to get right though, and it‘s a popular vegetable for baking. Maybe try it again sometime and see if it still disgusts you as an adult?

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Ha!

Rhubarb is the perfect conduit for sugar.

I don’t know what recipe your mother used, but I would guess that she was trying to prevent you from getting cavities or diabetes and didn’t add enough sugar to her pies or put enough ice cream on them to be palatable for you.

I’m kidding, but rhubarb can be too tart or stringy… It‘s not too hard to get right though, and it‘s a popular vegetable for baking. Maybe try it again sometime and see if it still disgusts you as an adult?

I got bit by a rattle snake a few years back, I didn't get very sick but, I don't want too try it again just to see if the results would be different.

 

[Tod osier]

Okra, and it’s not even close.

Fun to pickle, plant is good looking. Pickled okra with a couple hot peppers in to give it some heat and some garlic is good stuff.

 

[Runningwater]

and rhubarb and asparagus are also staples here!