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Celtuce

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Tiny Clanger:
I'm going to have a crack at growing this as our "new" crop this year.  We've grown one unsual item every year for the last 5 years and this year its going to be Celtuce.  Has anyone any tips for growing/harvesting/cooking this?  What sort of success did you have.  The "unusual" stuff we've grown in previous seasons has not been a wild success.  The resulting produce was a bit yuk!  Hoping this Celtuce will be more palatable.  :wave:

Obelixx:
Never heard of it so googled it and found info on growing, harvesting and even some recipes.  Use the leaves a salad leaves and the stems in stir fry.

What have you grown before this?  I tried asparagus pea - once! - and Chinese artichokes - also once!  Much prefer to grow veg I know I like and will use and which are expensive or unobtainable in local SMs and markets.

Beersmith:
I'm always open to trying something new. My experience is that most of the novelties are acceptable but very few have any "wow factor".  Over many years I've tried lots of them.

Among the best are Inca berries / physalis. Easy to grow, rarely bothered by pests, and delicious fruity flavour.

Asparagus peas .ok for an occasional dish, especially steamed when very young, but they soon get tough, and not worth eating when they do.

Tomatillo are actually quite good for green salsa. But that's it in my opinion. Never really found any other way of serving them that appeals.

Cucamelon perfectly edible but I find little to set them apart from snack size cucumber.

Salsify and Jerusalem artichokes are quite different. I love the flavour.  But, pardon me, pardon me, pardon me, oops, pardon me again, sorry that was me, etc, etc, etc.

Nasturtiums are worth a go. A pleasant peppery flavour, and a useful garnish on salads. But I once grew two rows and only ended up eating about one plant.

One year I plan to have a go at bamboo shoots.  Has anyone tried them?

Paulh:
I don't grow tomatillos now and I've not dug any Jerusalem artichokes up for a couple of years.

I've had some experiments that have stuck - Spanish Black Radish Round which crops prodigiously in the Autumn as a succession crop and roasts really well in place of turnips, also climbing bean "Golden Gate" which brightens up the plate.

My problem is more that I have success with an experiment and can't repeat it - land cress, Greek cress, Hamburg parsley.

I looked at celtuce a couple of years ago and decided it wasn't interesting enough.

My experiments now are mostly different varieties of courgette and winter squash (Pink Banana is a wow).

Obelixx:
Cucamelons are definitely a case of hype over reality but I do love Jerusalem artichokes.  Much better than globe artichokes which I now leave to flower as the colour is good and they attract loads of bees and other pollinators and I quite like the form of the whole plant.

My experiment for this year is a pomegranate and a feijoa.

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