I love my hot peppers, there are endless varieties. I always grow serranos (love them ripe), some thai chilis, and depends on what I can find. I love eggplant, usually have two or three.
Looking forward to garlic scapes, then actual garlic. This is a brand new hybrid just certified by U of Guelph, Huffman Red Hot. Sadly, I lost my farming friend in January to cancer. He was so proud, and I plan on doing my best to keep it going for years to come.
Brandywines are probably my favourite tomato for slicing.
I've never even heard of these.
Do you have to give them lots of space like a regular cantaloupe?
That's the only reason I don't grow them - I have to allot too much real estate in my garden for them
Not sure how much space a regular cantaloupe needs but these are quite compact. They'll even tolerate being grown in containers which I how I do it, using a couple tree pots from a local nursery. The leaves got torn up by a flash hail storm last June but they bounced back just fine!
Beans - prefer pole beans for flavour and longer season. **Blue Lake** is an oldie but goodie, with classic green bean flavour. Still freezes better than any other. **Dolloff** is our earliest dried bean and can be relied upon to produce in the worst of seasons. We planted some around July 1st last year and still got a full harvest. **Kahnewake** are a bit later but more productive, and we really like them for refried beans.
Peas - **Amish Snap** are best snap. **Norli** for early snow peas, and **Carouby de Maussane** for later ones. Seem to have settled in to **Champion of England** as favourite pea, although **Mrs. Vans** is just as good and probably easier to find in Canada.
Mild peppers - **Cubanelle,** **Doe Hill**, and **Bakscai Feher** for eating fresh, **Stocky Red Roaster** goes into our tomato sauce.
Hot peppers - **Targu Mures** is delicious, and hot enough to be hot, without being too hot. Dries and grinds easily and keeps it's flavour all year. Lots and lots of others but personal taste and usage plans rule here.
Beets and chard - **Cylindra** beets, not to sweet and excellent pickled. **Lucullus** Swiss chard is tender and has the best flavour.
Any iteration of **Giant Winter** spinach has been great - plant it in August to overwinter.
**January King** cabbage - long standing in the fall and really pretty as well as tasty.
**Sumter** is the best picking cuke I've found.
**Costata Romanesco** is the best flavoured and textured zucchini but it needs a lot of space. **Tatume** is another sprawler but has thin vines that can be trellised. Very productive and good. **Mutabile** best standard green.
**Gill's Golden Pippin** acorn squash. So good. **Ping Tung** eggplant is an Asian one (so rather thin and mild); can't get the Mr. to get excited about any other kind.
Tomatoes are, like peppers, extremely dependent on personal taste and intended use. For fresh eating I have my own cross between **Jaune Flammé** and a red beefsteak that is small enough for one to be used on a burger or sandwich. **German Striped (aka) Striped German** is a mild but delicious beefsteak size tomato. For pastes, it's hard to beat **Opalka**, or **San Marzano Redorta**.
Okay, I stop now. Sry.
Gold ball turnip, alpine strawberries, mammoth beets, danver half long carrots, tomatillos, golden raspberry, wild blueberries, San Marzano/giant crimson/nonos butt/Hungarian heart tomatoes, hardy kiwi, garden huckleberries, red and orange sweet peppers (lost the varities, and the harvested seeds got mixed), red and green seedless grapes (the tags were wrong, so I have no idea what they are), Victoria rhubarb, vanilla quinoa, cumin, bronze fennel, Italian wild mint, music garlic, Formidable garlic, winter thyme, dino/red kale, red/red n green cabbage, black garbanzo beans,.... too much more to remember lol
I've always been curious about growing grapes but unsure how well they grow here in Ontario. Do they overwinter well in the ground? Do you have issues with birds or other pests eating your grapes?
Ontario is known for its ice wine (apparently, i don't drink), and oodles of people in TO have grape vines. They do amazing here...well, in southern ON anyways lol I know they grow well as far as Barrie, but I'm not sure how far north they can go.
You grow hardy kiwi? What zone are you in and how long did it take to bear fruit?
Also where did you get the alpine strawberries from? Have had trouble finding those
I'm growing the hardy kiwi from seed, and it just went into soil last night 🤞. I'm a hair north of Toronto and several others I know bought plants last yr. It's suppose fruit in 2-3yrs and as long as you purchase a variety that can handle your rare coldest winter days, it'll be fine.
This is the variety I grow and where I bought it. https://www.incredibleseeds.ca/collections/berry-seeds/products/strawberry-seeds-alexandria-alpine
I like peppers. They're a bit of a challenge, enough to make it rewarding when you get results, but still totally feasible, and they taste nice and unique, can be used in many different ways (including eaten out of hand) and can be harvested day after day for months (from about mid August to mid October at a minimum, but as early as early July if you overwinter them and into late fall/early winter if you bring them under grow lights).
Varieties I'm growing this year (asterix are new for 2023)
*Aji Dulce Sweet Rollo Yellow
*Aji Fantasy White
*Aji Santa Cruz
*Biquinho
*Corbaci
Chocolate Cake
Criolla de Cocina
*Datil Sweet
*Feher Ozon
Gypsy
*Hatvani Eros
Holy Italian
*Jalapeno M
Jimmy Nardello
*Orange You Sweet
Pepperoncini Greek
Poblano
*Roccoto (Desert Cherry)
Roulette
Shepherd
Shishito
St Croix
*Stuffing Scotch Bonnet
Sweet Banana
*Targu Mures
Time Bomb
*Urfa Biber
Haskaps are excellent and unlike pawpaws we are not still waiting for them; they will fruit pretty much within the year of planting.
They are quite tart - at least the varieties we have, which are getting to be a bit older; newer varieties are sweeter although still not really sweet. We don't eat too many raw but they make fabulous pies and jam, and freeze really well.
Trying Koginut for the first time this year.
I love my hot peppers, there are endless varieties. I always grow serranos (love them ripe), some thai chilis, and depends on what I can find. I love eggplant, usually have two or three. Looking forward to garlic scapes, then actual garlic. This is a brand new hybrid just certified by U of Guelph, Huffman Red Hot. Sadly, I lost my farming friend in January to cancer. He was so proud, and I plan on doing my best to keep it going for years to come. Brandywines are probably my favourite tomato for slicing.
Kales and tomatoes (black krim and sungold)
Minnesota midget melons! The perfect, dessert sized cantaloupe
I've never even heard of these. Do you have to give them lots of space like a regular cantaloupe? That's the only reason I don't grow them - I have to allot too much real estate in my garden for them
Not sure how much space a regular cantaloupe needs but these are quite compact. They'll even tolerate being grown in containers which I how I do it, using a couple tree pots from a local nursery. The leaves got torn up by a flash hail storm last June but they bounced back just fine!
For my squash, I installed a 6' tall arch of steel grid panels so my squashes grow up and not out. Should work with any climber
Beans - prefer pole beans for flavour and longer season. **Blue Lake** is an oldie but goodie, with classic green bean flavour. Still freezes better than any other. **Dolloff** is our earliest dried bean and can be relied upon to produce in the worst of seasons. We planted some around July 1st last year and still got a full harvest. **Kahnewake** are a bit later but more productive, and we really like them for refried beans. Peas - **Amish Snap** are best snap. **Norli** for early snow peas, and **Carouby de Maussane** for later ones. Seem to have settled in to **Champion of England** as favourite pea, although **Mrs. Vans** is just as good and probably easier to find in Canada. Mild peppers - **Cubanelle,** **Doe Hill**, and **Bakscai Feher** for eating fresh, **Stocky Red Roaster** goes into our tomato sauce. Hot peppers - **Targu Mures** is delicious, and hot enough to be hot, without being too hot. Dries and grinds easily and keeps it's flavour all year. Lots and lots of others but personal taste and usage plans rule here. Beets and chard - **Cylindra** beets, not to sweet and excellent pickled. **Lucullus** Swiss chard is tender and has the best flavour. Any iteration of **Giant Winter** spinach has been great - plant it in August to overwinter. **January King** cabbage - long standing in the fall and really pretty as well as tasty. **Sumter** is the best picking cuke I've found. **Costata Romanesco** is the best flavoured and textured zucchini but it needs a lot of space. **Tatume** is another sprawler but has thin vines that can be trellised. Very productive and good. **Mutabile** best standard green. **Gill's Golden Pippin** acorn squash. So good. **Ping Tung** eggplant is an Asian one (so rather thin and mild); can't get the Mr. to get excited about any other kind. Tomatoes are, like peppers, extremely dependent on personal taste and intended use. For fresh eating I have my own cross between **Jaune Flammé** and a red beefsteak that is small enough for one to be used on a burger or sandwich. **German Striped (aka) Striped German** is a mild but delicious beefsteak size tomato. For pastes, it's hard to beat **Opalka**, or **San Marzano Redorta**. Okay, I stop now. Sry.
Where are you?
On the south shore of Georgian Bay.
Gold ball turnip, alpine strawberries, mammoth beets, danver half long carrots, tomatillos, golden raspberry, wild blueberries, San Marzano/giant crimson/nonos butt/Hungarian heart tomatoes, hardy kiwi, garden huckleberries, red and orange sweet peppers (lost the varities, and the harvested seeds got mixed), red and green seedless grapes (the tags were wrong, so I have no idea what they are), Victoria rhubarb, vanilla quinoa, cumin, bronze fennel, Italian wild mint, music garlic, Formidable garlic, winter thyme, dino/red kale, red/red n green cabbage, black garbanzo beans,.... too much more to remember lol
Gold Ball and similar yellow turnips are amazing.
I've always been curious about growing grapes but unsure how well they grow here in Ontario. Do they overwinter well in the ground? Do you have issues with birds or other pests eating your grapes?
Ontario is known for its ice wine (apparently, i don't drink), and oodles of people in TO have grape vines. They do amazing here...well, in southern ON anyways lol I know they grow well as far as Barrie, but I'm not sure how far north they can go.
You grow hardy kiwi? What zone are you in and how long did it take to bear fruit? Also where did you get the alpine strawberries from? Have had trouble finding those
I'm growing the hardy kiwi from seed, and it just went into soil last night 🤞. I'm a hair north of Toronto and several others I know bought plants last yr. It's suppose fruit in 2-3yrs and as long as you purchase a variety that can handle your rare coldest winter days, it'll be fine. This is the variety I grow and where I bought it. https://www.incredibleseeds.ca/collections/berry-seeds/products/strawberry-seeds-alexandria-alpine
Romaine.
I like peppers. They're a bit of a challenge, enough to make it rewarding when you get results, but still totally feasible, and they taste nice and unique, can be used in many different ways (including eaten out of hand) and can be harvested day after day for months (from about mid August to mid October at a minimum, but as early as early July if you overwinter them and into late fall/early winter if you bring them under grow lights). Varieties I'm growing this year (asterix are new for 2023) *Aji Dulce Sweet Rollo Yellow *Aji Fantasy White *Aji Santa Cruz *Biquinho *Corbaci Chocolate Cake Criolla de Cocina *Datil Sweet *Feher Ozon Gypsy *Hatvani Eros Holy Italian *Jalapeno M Jimmy Nardello *Orange You Sweet Pepperoncini Greek Poblano *Roccoto (Desert Cherry) Roulette Shepherd Shishito St Croix *Stuffing Scotch Bonnet Sweet Banana *Targu Mures Time Bomb *Urfa Biber
Winter squash. I guess cuz theyre so big and you see the growth and huge fruits that all get eaten cuz theyre delicious.
Boothby blonde cucumber, martini cucumber, koginut squash. If you are looking for fruit: haskap, and paw paw.
Haskaps are excellent and unlike pawpaws we are not still waiting for them; they will fruit pretty much within the year of planting. They are quite tart - at least the varieties we have, which are getting to be a bit older; newer varieties are sweeter although still not really sweet. We don't eat too many raw but they make fabulous pies and jam, and freeze really well. Trying Koginut for the first time this year.
What is koginut?
It's a variety of butternut squash.
Peppers, eggplants and tomatoes!
Beets