Category: Vegetables

Salsify and Its Many Uses

‘Hoffmann’s Schwarze Pfahl’ black scorzonera, growing at Khadighar. Will Bonsall photo. As a youth, I knew salsify only as an obscure reference in an Uncle Remus tale, along with persimmons and calamus root. But never Salsify. When I began gardening, I saw salsify in the novelty section of seed catalogs, along with plants such as

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Chufa

Starting from a single shoot, chufa soon forms a sedgey clump. John Paul Rietz photo. By Will Bonsall Many years ago I dabbled with a new crop I found in the novelty section of a seed catalog: chufa, or nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus). Doubting it would crop well in Maine, I planted some anyway. The results

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Watercress

By Norma Jean Langford From the ferry landing, day-trippers wander past a marina crowded with yachts. On Sausalito’s main street, they window-shop Versace gowns, jewelry and paintings, but commuters head for a wedding cake fountain flanked by cement elephants. Here a ceremonial stairway rises straight and steep into the cliff face, and from it trails

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Crop Problems

Leafhopper burn on potato foliage. Eric Sideman photo. Phosphorus deficiency in corn. Eric Sideman photo. The Season is Beginning. Don’t Misdiagnose Your Problems. By Eric Sideman, Ph.D. This is a good time of year to study up on the biology and symptoms of problems that may later arise in your crops. Problems will arise, and

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Artichokes

Artichokes. Photo from wiki.com/healthyrecipes. Growing Artichokes in Maine By Cheryl A. Wixson The impressive and mighty artichoke is actually the flower bud of a large thistle-family plant. This delectable but formidable-looking vegetable dates backs for centuries and was prized by Romans as food of the nobility. Widely grown France, Italy and Spain, and California, Maine

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Grow Your Own Eggplant

Eggplant drawing by Toki Oshima By Roberta Bailey Eggplant, Solarium melongena var. esculentum, originated in India from a bitter-fruited, spiny plant. Centuries of selection and cultivation have resulted in a fruit with little or no bitterness. Chinese records refer to non-bitter eggplant fruit as early as the 5th century. From there eggplant traveled to Spain,

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Rutabagas

By Will Bonsall When I was a kid, I really loved turnips, even though I had never tasted one. Oh, I thought I had; didn’t we use turnips in that traditional New England Boiled Dinner we had on special occasions, along with corned beef, carrots, beets, potatoes and so on? Sure, turnips were an old

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Colson

By Jean English Dave Colson of New Leaf Farm in Durham, Maine, shared his expertise in growing cole crops at a MOFGA-sponsored talk at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show in January. He pointed out that broccoli and cauliflower can diversify the type of labor required on a farm, because each plant can be harvested only

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Brassicas

‘Graffiti’ (top left), ‘Amazing’ (right) and ‘Cheddar’ cauliflower. Hutton says that ‘Cheddar’ is by far the favorite with the crew at Monmouth. Photo courtesy of Mark Hutton. The Maine climate is great for producing brassicas. At the 2007 Farmer-to-Farmer Conference, Mark Hutton of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Highmoor Farm in Monmouth and Jason

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Young Farmers Creative Beginnings

Young Farmers, Creative Beginnings   Young Maine farmers Laura Millay, Chris Cavendish and Mark Guzzi entered farming through three distinctly different ways. They shared their successes and a few mistakes at the Farmer to Farmer Conference last November. English photo. Farmland is often too expensive for young farmers to afford. Land that is affordable is

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