Back in 2010, when I was travelling to promote the release of my second book, Grow Great Grub, I made a stop at a small bookstore in Montreal. Before the event, I went plant shopping with the store manager, who wanted to get a little herb garden planted in front of the shop. In the …
I grow several allium species and cultivars in my garden and I find that many of them serve as a hub for a surprising range of pollinators. This is nodding onion (Allium cernuum), an easy to grow, multi-use plant that is native to Carolinian habitats (parts of Canada and the US, including right here in …
‘Golden Nugget’ is a favourite “hot” pepper variety going way back to when I was a rooftop gardener. It’s a fruity flavoured little pepper with a bit of heat that can be used fresh or dried. I’ve found it to be very good infused in vinegar or tossed into a mixed vegetable pickle for a …
I have two criteria when choosing beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) to grow: they must be delicious at the tender, green bean (aka snap bean) stage and they must have something about them that is aesthetically pleasing. Over the years I have experimented with a lot of bean varieties and by these criteria ‘Trionfo Violetto’ and ‘Royal …
Chiltepin (Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum) aka (Capsicum annum var. aviculare) or bird pepper is a small, pea-sized chile that grows wild on 3-4 ft-tall shrubs in parts of Texas and Northern Mexico. Coming in at 50,000-100,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), this pepper is ferociously hot and pungently flavoured. The heat comes on violently, yet diminishes …
Continuing in a running theme of hot peppers that aren’t hot, I present to you another exceptional variety, ‘Pimenta Biquinho’ aka Little Beak Peppers. Hailing from Brazil, these funny little peppers are round with a distinctive, tapered point or tail that resembles a birds beak (hence the name). Like ‘Trinidad Perfume’, another not hot, hot …
Back in late July I told you about a two-for-one squash from Argentina called ‘Pilar’ aka ‘Zapallito Redondo de Tronco’ that can be harvested young as a zucchini, or left to ripen and enjoyed later in the year as a winter squash. Well, three months have passed and I have begun harvesting and eating the …
I love the idea of hot peppers much more than my body likes it when I eat them. For that reason I am always on the look out for what West Indians call “seasoning peppers.” That is, varieties that impart the flavour of hot peppers without the heat.* One of the best seasoning peppers that …
Barbie Doll Watermelons, that’s what I call them, because, well… that’s what they look like. Their real name is Mexican Sour Gherkin (Melothria scabra), but they also popularly go by mouse melon, cucamelon, and sandíita (meaning little melon in Spanish).
I bought the seed for ‘Pilar’ aka ‘Zapallito Redondo de Tronco,’ an unusual squash variety two years back from New World Seeds and Tubers. I tried to direct-sow the seed outdoors twice in that first year, but was unable to coax a single seed to germinate. This spring I over-sowed indoors underneath light to be …
Back in June I wrote in my Globe & Mail column about growing beans. Within the piece I mentioned a favorite pole variety ‘Trionfo Violetto.’ It’s been years since I have grown this particular variety and now that the plants are in full swing and producing a little crop of beans daily, I can’t understand …
I know it’s been a slow week around here. I’ve been fighting off the worst cold/flu/virus I can remember in recent history and have been in bed all week feeling like utter crap. Today is the first day I have felt confident about sitting up for more than an hour-long stretch or forming complete sentences …