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.

Salsify and scorzonera are really easy to grow.

Bit fiddly to prepare, though - best way is to boil first and then peel after cooking, to avoid the sticky sap problem.

dandelion
wild garlic

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. I wonder if you didn’t pick them young enough? Or maybe too young? They have quite a good flavour, but only like asparagus in the way Aztec broccoli is like asparagus, ie general green flavour with a hint of bitterness. Far too much faff to harvest, but lovely flowers.

Bittercress
Garlic mustard.

Staple of our salads during the first Covid lockdown when we were self isolating and couldn’t get a home delivery slot.

I'd like to have wild garlic in my garden but instead I have the three-cornered leek. It grows very much like bluebells but with a white flower. I often nibble the long leaves but I've often thought they would be good to have in a stir-fry. Haven't got round to using it for that though. Bit like chives.

It is edible but not a native of this country. It grows wild in my garden. You wouldn't want to plant it because it's invasive. I've also got garlic mustard and fat hen. The foragers love these too but I'm not a big fan.

😂 Your cat has had an idea for another food item not available in the shops!!

Aztec broccoli, Magentaspreen, Good King Henry and other similar plants,sold by places like Chiltern and Real Seeds as a vegetable, are all close relatives of Fat Hen

I recommend Jerusalem artichokes, cottagers kale, pea shoots, elephant garlic and Chinese Red Giant leaf mustard.

Over the years in addition to som elf what's mentioned earlier, 8ve successfully grown the following:

Green shiso - (aka Perilla) grow from seed. Seed for the red is easier to find but apparently it's not as tasty. It tastes like parsley mixed with cumin.

Mustard greens - pep up salads and you can cook them

Lambs lettuce- salad in the winter

Radicchio/ chicory, again to eat over winter - Franchi do lot of different types.

Winter purslane goes well with lambs lettuce for winter/early spring salads.

turnip greens- grew these last year and they were fab, very easy and prolific
also, unusual potatoes- pink fir apples :)

Pinkberries. Both kinds of artichoke. Different varieties of asparagus. I've planted a morello cherry tree.

Unusual potatoes are good - we've got some dark purple and bright pink on the go at the moment (colour in the flesh as well as skin).

Is that pinkberries as in pink blueberries, or something else?

Victoria plums. I think local grocers might sell them but never seen them in supermarkets

Sorry, I meant pink currants. Halfway between white currants and red currants.

Golden beetroot.

Following

We have loganberries and boysenberries. They are very low maintenance.

A more long-term project if you believe the old saying about planting plums for your sons and damsons for your grandsons, but we do have a damson tree in our garden and that’s a fruit I’ve never seen in the shops!

I have loganberries growing in my garden, they make the best jam ever. Never seen them in the shops. I pick a handful a day and add them to a tupperware in the freezer until I have enough for jam. Also rhubarb which is obviously available in the shops but it's the easiest plant in the world to grow. I ignore mine and it comes back every year without fail. Love it.

Agree that berries of all kinds are great to grow yourself. We have a blackberry hybrid (no idea which!), blueberries, strawberries, wild strawberries, raspberries, black currants, cherry, & gooseberries. Also recently got a plum & apricot.
We grow potatoes, but that's more for the novelty factor for the kids being able to dig them up.
Don't bother with asparagus pea or cucumelon - tasteless & waste of time & effort.

I was just coming on post to say exactly this. Lovely in dad's and so pretty.

no one's mentioned it and not all shops carry it but rhubarb.
freezes well.

Lambs lettuce- salad in the winter As much taste as an iceberg lettuce, and without the crunch.

What about, Yellow Egg, Purple Pershore, Czar, etc, etc. I’m forgetting all the names, I used to know a dozen or more and which order they came into the shops.

Also damsons, gages, cherry plums.

We’ve lost so many varieties, both fruit and vegetable. Vilmorin’s vegetable book, from Victorian times but widely reprinted, is a revelation.