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Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Duke Ellington on April 22, 2016, 07:40:43

Title: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Duke Ellington on April 22, 2016, 07:40:43
Asparagus Peas 😱😭 YUK YUK YUK!!!...........pretty flowers though
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: markfield rover on April 22, 2016, 08:43:38
There is just something about broad beans........
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Digeroo on April 22, 2016, 09:08:59
Onions, leeks, cabbages.

Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Deb P on April 22, 2016, 09:34:09
Parsley peas........though to be fair I probably left them too long on the plant and they were truly yuk.

Rats tail radish were not very hot and just very chewy.

Artichokes as mentioned in an earlier post, taste revolting to me but clearly others love them!
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: sunloving on April 22, 2016, 09:35:22
Totally agree with you on asparagus peas they are vile.

I think I also have a lifelong dislike of turnips after roasting some my first year, tasted like sewage. Never again! X sunloving
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: penedesenca on April 22, 2016, 10:06:57
Agree with asparagus pea.
Pot leeks are not great either.
I can see the appeal of kohl Rabi and oca but they are not for me.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: ed dibbles on April 22, 2016, 10:35:46
Okra. Don't much see the point in it. :happy7:
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Digeroo on April 22, 2016, 10:46:27
Once had Chicken gumbo in the US.  It was delicious but I have never managed to replicate it with okra in the uk.   

And I forgot asparagus. 
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Silverleaf on April 22, 2016, 10:50:18
I didn't exactly hate asparagus peas, but I'm never planning to grow them again.

Radishes don't taste good to me either, but I don't think I've grown anything else I didn't like.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Deb P on April 22, 2016, 11:14:42
I think like a  lot of people when they first get an allotment, I got enthused and tried to grow lots of unusual or rare stuff. Most of which  you only grow the once because you realise there is a reason it is rarely grown!! I love the idea of growing heritage seeds, particularly tomatoes, but find there are drawbacks to some of them, either in terms of disease vulnerability, yield or most importantly taste, so I try all once, but keep my list of favourites relatively small. I still try lots of new things, but they have to compete against that list to be grown again......
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Paulines7 on April 22, 2016, 11:47:30
I grew asparagus peas and as others have said, they are not very tasty and are a complete waste of space, time and money.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Silverleaf on April 22, 2016, 13:13:40
I do like oca though, that was a successful experiment for me.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Tee Gee on April 22, 2016, 13:26:47
Cucumber!!

If you were to put ten vegies on a plate and I ate them the only one that I would taste would be cucumber!

It so bad that if my wife makes a salad and cuts up the ingredients with the same knife I can tell which one was cut after the cucumber.

Add to that Cucumber are my achilles heel when it comes to growing vegetables!

I often think it is my dislike for the veg that causes me to fail when growing them.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Vinlander on April 22, 2016, 14:25:06
I love most of the things everyone else hates - but I must admit I'm very lukewarm about asparagus pea.

What DOES qualify is nearly all the unusual stuff I've tried when the description didn't say edible AND delicious - that always means it's famine food.

Worst examples:

Apios americana roots (amerindian "groundnut") - supposed to taste like nuts but taste of nothing but slightly bitter old rope - very dry fibrous texture (very slightly better if you grow them on the very cusp of drowning). Not to mention the latex-like sap. On the other hand Lathyrus tuberosus roots really do taste like chestnuts (I'd still rather have a sweet chestnut tree but it would need its own allotment).

Orache - a total flavour vacuum - I've eaten better tasting newspaper - and paper has the advantage of not coming back as a weed.

Anything advertised as an asparagus substitute - it may come up around the same time as asparagus but 99% of them are unpleasant or at best no flavour at all. The only exceptions are hop shoots & salsify shoots- both taste nice but but still nothing like asparagus.  However salsify shoots are actually nicer than winter spinach & chard.

Cheers.

PS. I don't like boiled spuds - even new potatoes taste much better mashed with butter or REAL gravy - it's a hangover from 11 years suffering school dinners' grey lumpy mash with solid gravy made from flour and brown dye.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Obelixx on April 22, 2016, 14:58:36
Asparagus pea for me too.  Pretty plants but not very productive and nasty, fibrous things to eat.

I loathe Brussels sprouts and have given up growing them for OH.  He now goes out and buys his own Xmas ration and has to cook them too.

We like kohl rabi but grated raw in salads.  No good cooked.    Love asparagus but can't grow it here.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Jeannine on April 22, 2016, 20:00:36
I don't like any of the bitter salad veggies, chicory, arugula, radicchio and I am not fond of  the mustard greens either..radishes OK if right from the garden and very young, turnips on the whole no..but I keep trying on that one and am growing Hahure ,think that;s it's name this year.

I wish I could get to like the greens as they all grow well in the winter under glass.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: winecap on April 22, 2016, 21:33:36
I am beginning to wonder if anybody actually eats asparagus peas more than once. They are foul. I would also add huckleberries to the list, but to be fair they may have been under ripe. Turnips are great up to about the size of a golf ball.  I think everything else is good in my book.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: sparrow on April 23, 2016, 01:16:38
Asparagus peas were pretty but tasted vile. I don't like chard either for the same reason. Am none too keen on broad beans, but OH loves them so I am trying to adjust.

I didn't use to like leaf chicory, but having had it Italian-fashion I'm a convert. Most other unusual stuff I've grown I've liked. Fortunately.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: plotstoeat on April 23, 2016, 20:28:20
Salsify: spindly roots and poor flavour
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Palustris on April 23, 2016, 20:35:10
Once grew a packet of mixed Japanese Greens. Shudder. Took a week of honey to remove the taste.
Sprouts, beetroot, asparagus are all incredibly bitter to me, but that is the tablets I have to take. Shame, because I like all three of them.
Oh and garlic, hate the taste, the smell , especially second hand. Why does the garlic eater always sit next to me at lectures?
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Jeannine on April 23, 2016, 23:44:13
I intensely dislike the smell of some  garlic on folks but the worst comes from the powdered garlic that is used so much today. eg if you make a salad dressing with fresh garlic, compare to one made with powdered garlic or buy a bottle of  readymade dressing, you can smell the difference so easily. one of the worst uses for it is BBQ flavor crisps or BBQ flavor sauce, it really stinks on the breath and then is sweated out of the body which is even worse.I really believe if the folks that ate these realized just how bad it smells and for how long they wouldn't eat them

There are ways of preparing fresh garlic that doesn't leave the odour on your breath at all. 24 Clove Garlic Chicken is one recipe that springs to mind.. 24 cloves and no mouth odour.

XX Jeannine
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: ACE on April 24, 2016, 07:19:35
Parsnips, also this year it will be sweet potatoes, I do not like the sweetness, but somebody else does, so I grow them. But the taste buds have changed over the years. Once upon a time I would not give broad beans a look in, but since growing my own, I love them even the big ones in their leather jackets. Nearly forgot Jerusalem artichokes, I tried them and all I seem to associate them with is the time I spilt paraffin on my hands then ate a sandwich. I do grow them as it is fun to watch the Yeti in pink knickers mincing around with her @rse clenched tight.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Froglegs on April 24, 2016, 11:48:33
BEETROOT!!!!!
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Vinlander on April 24, 2016, 13:39:47
Quote from: plotstoeat on April 23, 2016, 20:28:20
Salsify: spindly roots and poor flavour
Salsify roots are spindly (especially as I prefer to make my roots work harder so they pick up a wider range of minerals), BUT they hardly ever fork or wrinkle so they are smooth apart from the root hairs and pretty easy to clean - I usually just scrub them even though that leaves a few 1/2mm root hair stubs on them (as long as all the soil is off). Given the choice of scorzonera (with bigger roots but a black skin to peel) I find salsify much more convenient.

The flavour is lovely to me - and it's a bit subtle so I prefer to avoid boiling in water. I steam them (microwave as often as not) or cook them in a stew/soup or roast them (which concentrates the flavour) - everyone is entitled to their opinion but I'm surprised that anyone who eats other roots could be put off - it's not as if they are marmite, durian, garlic etc.

My approach may be equally eccentric - I love all the usual veg.(apart from boiled potatoes - and I count potatoes baked in foil as boiled) and I love many of the unusual ones even more (I actively seek out and enjoy slight bitterness eg. sprouts) - I've already posted my dislikes...

Cheers.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Duke Ellington on April 24, 2016, 16:19:31
I agree with whoever mentioned chicory and bitter lettuce, I just cannot acquire a taste for those. Cucamelons I didn't dislike but I didn't like them either. Oh and elephant garlic is another I couldn't take to. I would rather use the space for regular garlic.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: markfield rover on April 25, 2016, 08:47:04
Palustris  I think I would have needed those Japanese greens to take away the taste of sweet corn shoots 5 years on I can still taste them weapon grade  sweetness  not good.
Title: Re: What is the worst tasting vegetable you have ever grown?
Post by: Crystalmoon on April 26, 2016, 06:31:05
Asparagus peas for me, vile things I grew many years ago when I first got a plot. I also don't like broad beans so have never grown them....may be I should give them a try sometime as I last tasted them at school dinners many many moons ago!
Jerusalem artichoke are something I won't grow on my new plot, taste ok but didn't agree with my tummy, kids used to call them fartichoke  :tongue3:
I don't grow brussels either as I dislike them intensely & we never have them with our Christmas dinner.