Edible plants to grow that you can’t buy in the shops

[Whatevergetsyouthroughthenight]

I picked a large handful of tiny wild strawberries from my garden to add to my porridge this morning and it got me thinking, are there any other lovely unbuyable fruit and veg that anyone grows in their garden?

If so, what sort of conditions does it need to thrive? My strawberries do brilliantly in very free draining soil and in partial shade.

Mulberries are delicious but I haven't been brave enought to plant a tree yet.

Nasturtiums, the leaves and flowers are edible and have a mild peppery taste.
They are a great way to liven up a salad. ( dont try cooking them , 🤢 )
They take over gardens though so best grown in a pot.

Chard, white or yellow beetroot, Aztec broccoli, Bronze fennel, lovage, quince, medlar

Mulberries, I have a tree, it must love its location because it wont stop growing.

I don't have a tree but have also heard good things about mulberries.

We used to do fried courgette flowers, I certainly haven't seen them in the shops where I live but that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't available.

Red and white currants, gooseberries, honeyberries - all abundant in my garden now but hard to find in the shops. Greengages and different plum varieties too.

What do you like to eat? Something like celeriac can be hard to buy in the shops, but if celery tasting mash isn't your thing, you're probably best off not growing it.

I'd also suggest growing things that are dear in the shop for what they are - herbs etc. so you can just cut as you need them.

@Geneticsbunny @Itisyourturntowashthebath ooh, yes Mulberries. I remember visiting somewhere with an old mulberry tree, there was a sign up saying you could try the fruit. It was magical as you had to duck under the canopy (weeping mulberry) and all the fruit was inside the tree.

I have a mulberry tree, they are delicious but a very short season and mine is too tall to get the ones at the top.

I would also think about salad leaves and tomatoes- things you use a lot of or in the case of salad leaves, go off quicker than you can use- not an issue when you can pick what you need

all on clay in a shady garden unless otherwise stated. None difficult to grow.

Different apple varieties. I have Herrings Pippin and Cornish Aromatic, both of which have a lovely spicy taste, Ashmead’s Kernel universally praised for its taste.

Medlar, Mulberry
Quince (I make my own membrillo) which is only rarely available in shops. Prefers warmth and sun

Magentaspreen - like Aztec broccoli but with stunning magenta coloured new shoots.

Chard - rarely available at farmers markets because it doesn't keep well

Couve tronchuda for Potuguese dishes. Asturian Tree Cabbage, pick a few leaves at a time and let the plant go on for years - instantly available cabbage all the year round

Broad beans that are tender and flavourful, totally unlike frozen ones or those bags of tough fresh ones you can buy.

loganberries, tayberries etc - all the blackberry/raspberry hybrids, heavy cropping and freeze well

Fresh Black Turkey figs - much richer than the blue fresh figs in the supermarket

Different lettuces, with taste. At the moment from a packet of mixed seeds I have butterheads and cut-and-come-again types, in green, red and with red splashes and stripes.

Radishes that have taste and not just watery hotness. Cucumbers - having tasted my own I’ve not bought a supermarket one since. I grow them in the greenhouse.

Interesting herbs - Korean mint with a hint of aniseed, and quilquiña which gives a hint of bitterness to an otherwise boring salad. Grow both of these on windowsills.

and of course, lots of alpine/wild strawberries. Universal ground cover.

Put a sheet on the ground and let them fall. They freeze well. We eat them with oats and nuts for breakfast all through the winter.

Chives.
They're unbelievably easy to grow but I've yet to see them in a shop.

Also, sage, Lovage and something else I can't remember because shit my cat has just brought a mouse in! Bye!

You can't buy garden grown tomatoes in the shop. You can buy red round things masquerading as tomatoes, but they're a completely different foodstuff

Achocha - grow like cucumbers, eat like green beans or peppers.

Oca - grow and eat like potatoes. Don't get blight.

Physallis and tomatillos - like the same conditions as tomatoes.

Blueberries - sure, they're easy to find in shops, but far better fresh from the garden than wrapped in plastic and flown from Peru.

Some great suggestions here, some I had never heard of in @MereDintofPandiculation ’s list although I don’t fancy the home grown mouse @Circumferences !

I had forgotten that you can’t buy chard easily, it self seeds in my garden and survives the winter.

I watched gardener’s world last week and discovered dahlia tubers were edible, I have never seen those in the greengrocer’s.

My lovely red gooseberries are starting to ripen and make fabulous jam and I will having baby broad beans from the garden for dinner.

Blackberries grow like weeds yet cost a fortune in the shops.

we also grow orange and yellow beetroot ( great roasted whole)

Yellow courgettes

Great thread idea. This is my approach to veg growing - I don't want to go to all that effort for something I can just get in the supermarket.

Heritage varieties of everything - usually much better flavour and more fun shapes /colours. I get mine from Real Seeds.

Tomatilloes - easy, productive and zingy

Edible lupins - use the beans as appero snacks in the same way as olives or peanuts. The slugs are trying to eat mine before I do though.

Trombocino squash (very very long!)

Patty pan (flying saucer-shaped) courgettes

Adding achocha and oca to my list for next year!

Lemon crystal cucumbers

Chilean guava/ winterberry is delicious and very easy to grow. Different mints (I love ginger mint as a herb tea). Gooseberries -indeed all berries as they are so expensive in the shops but so easy to grow at home. Ditto both sorts of artichoke. Different varieties of plums/damsons and apples. Different sorts of tomatoes. Garlic chives (more substantial than chives and delicious in a stirfry). Physalis are delicious (try saying that three times quickly!) and very easy to grow.

James Wong's homegrown revolutionary is worth a read for more ideas. Don't bother with asparagus peas though, truly not worth it!

Oh sugar snap peas also. They grow gradually summer and a great addition to salads

What people don't realise is that when you buy fruit in a shop or market it has been picked under-ripe and will never develop its full flavour. One of my favourite varieties of apple is Spartan but if you buy it in a supermarket it tastes just like any other apple. When it has been left to ripen on the tree it has a wonderful flavour, as highly flavoured as a peach (I don't mean an under-ripe peach).

There are some wonderful grape flavours. The muscat flavour and the 'strawberry' flavour. If you grow your own apples and grapes then you will experience something you can't get in shops. I know M&S do different flavour grapes including muscat but it's not the same.

Marjoram
Pea shoots
Courgette flowers
Chive flowers
Radish stems (like sprouting broccoli but much faster to grow)
Ramsons (wild garlic)
Sloes
Filberts
Fresh sweetcorn cobs (by the time it's picked and wrapped it's past its best - you ideally need the pan of water boiling as you pick)
Nigella seeds

SIL grows sesame leaves, they’re a herb for Korean cookery.

I’ve got tayberries and they’re fab. We have clay soil but almost certainly won’t be their preference. Next year we should have gooseberries too. I have regular strawbs but also trying to encourage some wild alpine ones under a hedge too.

was thinking of a gojiberry bush next but not sure if I have space or if I actually like them!

Mooli, they grow very well in the UK

Seconded on sodding asparagus peas! No room or patience for asparagus here, thought I’d found an exciting genius alternative. Flavorless and very weirdly textured nothings.

tomatillos
chop suey greens (can get em in Asian supermarkets but as easy as lettuce at home)
pineberries
epazote (Mexican herb, amazing in beans or with cheese or eggs)