Bell Capsicum/chilli - the outside edge is not as hot as the inside.
Beans
Madagascar Beans - Take bean seeds out and used in curry and salad. Eat them before they dry. Use like Lima Beans. They form a rampant vine.
Winged Beans - soak in boiling water for 2 hours, then plant. Vines will come up in the 2nd year. They have a pretty mauve flower.
Snake Beans - Pick and eat when young.
New Guinea Beans - (Italian Edible Gourd,Serpent Gourd, Cucuzzi, Indian Squash) Not actually a bean - Gourd family - can get to a metre long! Eat at about a foot long. Treat and eat like a Zucchini.
Bamboo Shoots - harvest at about a foot long - peel, chop and cook in salted water at least 20mins.
Choko - harvest small.
Monday 12 March 2012
Sunday 11 March 2012
Identifying and Using Tropical Vegies No.1 'c'
Kale - (can be classified by leaf type: Curly (Scots), Plain, Rape, Leaf and Spear and Black cabbage or Dinosaur)
Lovely steamed. Will grow through to the following season if you can stand how bad they look!
Pumpkin Vine tips - chopped and steamed, in stir fries.
Choko - same as pumpkin vine tips.
Sweet Potato Vine - same as both of the above.
Root Veggies
Arrowroot - Cut a piece of new growing end off. Cut the scraggly root bits off. Peel, chop into chunks and put in curry, or bake, or chip. Can eat curled up inside leaf; take out spine and treat like cabbage. Can make Arrowroot powder. Don't confuse with the 'scrappy' type (no red and small tubers).
Cassava - grows from woody stem. Massive tubers - get the side ones without pulling the whole plant out.
Taro and Cocoyam - Leaves are high in Oxalates. Grow big leaves. Do not confuse with Tahitian spinach which have dimply leaves which join the stem part way down. Cocoyam joins at the bottom, Taro joins 1/2 way down and has red stems.
Yam - Purple - can be used as potato in potato salad. Easy to grow, rampant vines can grow up trees.
Sweet Potato - great in potato salad with yams. Come in many types, can be grown in large pots, keep well watered. For favourite types, cut top off, put in saucer until it sprouts, then plant out.
Water Chestnuts - grow in old baths, sinks or polystyrene boxes. In a bath put or 3 at most. 1 in a sink or box. Don't put too many - or they will be restricted as they grow bigger. They need full sun. Put in a good 6 inches of soil or compost and keep water over soil. You can put cow or horse manure in at the start. They are cooked lightly - can be thrown in a stir fry near the end.
Lovely steamed. Will grow through to the following season if you can stand how bad they look!
Pumpkin Vine tips - chopped and steamed, in stir fries.
Choko - same as pumpkin vine tips.
Sweet Potato Vine - same as both of the above.
Root Veggies
Arrowroot - Cut a piece of new growing end off. Cut the scraggly root bits off. Peel, chop into chunks and put in curry, or bake, or chip. Can eat curled up inside leaf; take out spine and treat like cabbage. Can make Arrowroot powder. Don't confuse with the 'scrappy' type (no red and small tubers).
Cassava - grows from woody stem. Massive tubers - get the side ones without pulling the whole plant out.
Taro and Cocoyam - Leaves are high in Oxalates. Grow big leaves. Do not confuse with Tahitian spinach which have dimply leaves which join the stem part way down. Cocoyam joins at the bottom, Taro joins 1/2 way down and has red stems.
Yam - Purple - can be used as potato in potato salad. Easy to grow, rampant vines can grow up trees.
Sweet Potato - great in potato salad with yams. Come in many types, can be grown in large pots, keep well watered. For favourite types, cut top off, put in saucer until it sprouts, then plant out.
Water Chestnuts - grow in old baths, sinks or polystyrene boxes. In a bath put or 3 at most. 1 in a sink or box. Don't put too many - or they will be restricted as they grow bigger. They need full sun. Put in a good 6 inches of soil or compost and keep water over soil. You can put cow or horse manure in at the start. They are cooked lightly - can be thrown in a stir fry near the end.
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