Topic: Perennial veggies

[Robert_Brenchley]

We seem to have forgotten globe artichokes and cardoons. I can't really comment on either since winter waterlogging has always got them on my plot.

[goodlife]

Ah yes...I've got some artichokes too (on earlier post I meant JA's)..last year I was kindly sent some plants (now was it Squash or Betula...?)..I've got fingers and toes crossed that those have survived the winter and I had few plants that I grew from seeds as well.

Goodlife I suspect you and I are rewlated somewhere in the distant past, we seem to like a lot of the same things.

Call me Auntie 'G'

[Vinlander]

Lovage is quite a thug and I don't know many uses for mine. I have never noticed seedlings, though, and assume our climate is not warm enough for the seeds it apparently sets to be viable. It is a very deep rooted perennial and almost indestructable.

We love lovage as something between a salad leaf and a salad herb (we probably put more in than parsley or coriander) - basically we regard it as curried celery. We also quite like the Italian bitter salad style.

It's also good in stews as a background flavour like parsley, garlic etc - L.D. Hills wrote that t'other side of the channel/north sea they call it the Maggi plant.

Unfortunately once it catches leaf-miner it is a write-off, unless you can train yourself (and everyone else) to hold off picking the good ones until they have removed the mined ones. I either microwave the miners or put them in the non-recyclable waste.

Cheers.

[artichoke]

Yes, I've heard the "Maggi plant" idea. It's just that it is so strong a flavour that you cannot use all of the gigantic plant that it becomes. My children (now in their 40s) remember that I read it was good for skin and hair, so were bathed in lovage as seaweed-like strands in the water.

However hover flies and other insects seem to love it, so it cannot be all bad. I have never seen leaf-miner on it?

[manicscousers]

Is russian tarragon perennial, mine is coming up again and twice as much ??

[Mrs Tweedy]

Yes, all tarragon is a perennial although the french tarragon needs a sheltered spot, Russian is more hardy.

[Paulh]

Interested on your comments on Jerusalem artichokes - I had read that if left to their own devices, they get weedier and produce smaller tubers (through competion, presumably). I grow three plants each year as that's enough for me, digging up all the tubers (that I can find!) and using some of the largest ones for the next year's crop. I pot each tuber in a large pot and they overwinter fine (at least I hope so). So I grow them like potatoes. The tubers I've missed in the plot do come up as well, so they would certainly be a perennial crop if I left them to their own devices. I'll have to see if the people on the site who leave theirs be get good tubers or not.

[goodlife]

I would not say the 'weediness' is about getting smaller...what I meant with the comment is that there is more of them and all over the place. In my JA batch there is huge number of both...BIG ones and and little ones.

[Jeannine]

I am curious here. I have mentioned large size tubers and so have a few other folks, but just what is a large JA. How big isd evryone biggest? Is there an average size. We all undersatnd sizes in poatoes but frankly I am in the dark about JAs

XX Jeannine

[Paulh]

I am curious here. I have mentioned large size tubers and so have a few other folks, but just what is a large JA. How big isd evryone biggest? Is there an average size. We all undersatnd sizes in poatoes but frankly I am in the dark about JAs

XX Jeannine

The largest ones that I get are about 5" long, perhaps more and 2" or so in diameter. There will be other smaller tubers growing off them. It's the smaller of these largest tubers that I save to grow the next season.

[Jeannine]

Wow, 2" in diameter is very thin, that is interesting. They sound more lke the shape on Chinese Arts. Mine are much more round but knobbly and  about the size of a medium sized apple. There are smaller ones of course but no sausage shaped ones. Do you know what variety they are?

XX Jeannine

[goodlife]

I've got Fuseau that is the 'sausage type' that grow nice and tidy way...largest about 4-5" long and 1 1/2- 2"  across thick...and then I have the knobbly sort, old fashioned type that can grow 'huge'. So far my biggest individual has been nearer large orange size...but that is not norm. Like you Jeannine..they tend to be more of apple sized.

[Paulh]

Wow, 2" in diameter is very thin, that is interesting. They sound more lke the shape on Chinese Arts. Mine are much more round but knobbly and  about the size of a medium sized apple. There are smaller ones of course but no sausage shaped ones. Do you know what variety they are?

XX Jeannine

They were possibly Fuseau but not named on the pack. They grow like dahlia tubers, but a bit larger. Definitely long and narrow though not thin. They are not very knobbly. They taste good but give my wife and others wind so I am only allowed to grow them for my own consumption.

[goodlife]

Code: [Select]

Like you Jeannine..they tend to be more of apple sized.Whopsie daisy...sorry....not 'you'...should have said 'like your Ja's Jeannine'

[Vinlander]

They were possibly Fuseau but not named on the pack. They grow like dahlia tubers, but a bit larger. Definitely long and narrow though not thin. They are not very knobbly. They taste good but give my wife and others wind so I am only allowed to grow them for my own consumption.

Fuseau don't seem to have the flavour of the knobbly ones - though the difference is small - it took me nearly 2 years to cotton on...

Stuff always loses some flavour when you breed for anything except flavour. I like the knobbly red ones (I bought my growing stock from Selfridges food hall) - they might be Garnet.

As to the windyness - I find that if you roast them without burning until they become little bags of mush then the windyness goes from absurdly and irritatingly persistent down to tolerable. They are also delicious - almost like JA soup (heavenly) in a bag.

Incidentally Alys Fowler says on her "Edible Garden" show that making a dauphinois with JAs and Winter Savory removes the wind entirely - she seems dedicated and credible - but I haven't had a chance to try it yet...

Cheers.

PS. Jeannine - I think I'm lucky if half my Chinese Arts. are 2 inches or more in length, never mind diameter - how do you do it? Do you specialise in giant veg?

[Jeannine]

I don't have ant Chinese Arts, sorry if I mislead you, I used to years ago but they were small like large cocoons.

[Robert_Brenchley]

That sounds typical for chinese artichokes, Vinlander. One of the veg which would be good if it just got to a reasonable size!

[Jeannine]

I put this on another thread but got no bites,

I have got plants of Eauwig Moes, Delaway Cabbage and  Nine Star perrennial broc all planted together more or less and the labels have faded. One is very tall like a palm tree with lightish green leaves that are almost sorrel shaped, one is squat and close to the ground and looks kale like and the  third looks more like a regular cauli plant.

Does anyone have any pictures of Delaway or can tell me what the leaves look like.

XX Jeannine