I want to see what everyone is planting this year in hopes of finding some new vegetables to try and get some tips for the ones I am growing. This is something I am trying this year. It is a Perrenial and a tuber, part of the sunflower actually but something interesting to me since I am diabetic. Says it can be used in place of potatoes and it 's not got starch. Says it has INULIN. Anyone familiar with the plant or INULIN?
they grow all over old farmland here. make sure where you plant them is where you want them as they are hard to get rid of once established. someday ill go dig some to try them out. put in some kennebec groundnuts last fall. hopefully they take and i can try some this fall. there are LSU bred culitars of ground nuts that are much bigger/ better producing than wild ones that would probably do well in your neck of the woods. think they are diabetic friendly as well and grow in partial shade. i think they are in the legume family and some make edible bean like pods.
Never heard of them before. However, most things I have tried that I had never heard of turned out to have a good reason I had never heard of them. Tell us how they turn out and how you prepare them.
the groundnut was a staple of the natives and they collected and stored them to get thru the winter. the pilgrims also ate them as a survival food when they 1st came here. only reason potatoes caught on instead of the groundnut is they produced a crop every fall where as groundnuts were a biennial crop. they are native to most of the eastern us and s canada. LSU developed some bigger / more prolific cultivars. oikios in MI carries some of them. i grow a maine variety called kennebec.
Well, tentatively we are growing tomatoes, peppers, corn, a small amount of cukes, beans, okra, radishes. Try to get some leafy greens, like spinach, lettuce, chard, and cole crops like cabbage and broccoli started indoors then transplant. Oh, and try to get some taters, onions and sweet potatoes to make it though our wet season (no go last year).
Yep. I’m doing three different tomatoes, 4 different lettuce 2 kinds of cabbage, onions TX sweet… Kale, carrots , Lima beans, green beans, 2 types beets, green peppers, orange habanero pepper, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, amaranth, sorghum, sunflowers and quinoa. I’ll do pumpkins later. Also eggplant two types and winter squash and butternut squash. I’ll do two 100 foot rows of cukes for pickling. Trying my hand at broccoli and Brussels this year. Asparagus is on its second year and I just cut it all back and it’s looking pretty good. I’ve got horseradish in its second year, ginger and turmeric will tell the tale if they will survive Florida this year. Going pretty full plate. Doing 6 different mushrooms indoors too!!! Oh yeah …my garlic is looking great too…
I do a special pickle blend for all my friends. They are already asking if they will have any this year! I give a bunch to the guys who are my salesmen. 7 of them and their families. A couple of managers and my boss get some. And I’m experimenting with the sorghum, sunflowers, quinoa and amaranth as maybe money crops for my retirement in 3 years. Those will go to feed this year and I’m going to try my hand at sorghum molasses this year. Can’t tell I’m OCD can you?
I’ve got room. My wife stays down in Ocala. She’s not a great gardener being disabled and all. I always wanted to be a farmer and hope I live a long retirement. It’s a great joy in my life. And I love giving fresh from the ground and handmade stuff to my guys and friends. My salesmen work their arses off and I just love helping them out. They pay me back with hard work and increases in sales every year. It’s a good life for me right now friend… Very good life.
Jerusalem Artichoke aka Sunchoke. Patrick Dolan of One Yard Revolution grows them in his Chicago backyard. He has several video’s on YouTube referencing them. In regard to Inulin, this was noted in regard to Sunchokes:
A Word of Warning
Sunchokes have a bit of a bad reputation, and for good reason—the root vegetable is high in inulin, a type of carbohydrate that causes gas and bloating. It’s most likely to have this side effect when served raw, so go slowly the first few times you serve the tuber in a salad. The amount of inulin varies from sunchoke to sunchoke, and a person’s sensitivity varies, too. Therefore, it won’t affect everyone the same way.
I actually read that in an article. TY for the warning. There are usually a few men and Grand daughters here and that becomes a sport sometimes…LOL!!! I usually win so sunchokes will give me the edge…
Putting in a variety of sunchoke called Supernova. I’m also planting Chinese artichoke(Stachys affinis). Both are going into large 30 and 40 gallon pots this weekend. Can’t chance the suckers escaping. Mexican Sour Gherkins, malabar spinach, and golden purslane(I might regret this one) are sprouting now. The norms: sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, husky cherry tomato, miniature white cucumber, okra(not sure what variety I want this year), and ground cherries.
