Reading the climate record for this place…
Reading the climate record for this place…
Year-round planting assistant
Wednesday, 19 August 2026
Unique and lesser-known vegetables, fruit, and herbs with serious flavor — especially Asian winter greens and kitchen crops from India, Africa, and Italy — ranked by how ideal they are to sow in your climate right now, outdoors and under an unheated greenhouse.
Using climate forColumbus, OH, US39.96, -83.00
last frost 22 Apr · first frost 2 Nov
54 varieties are in a plantable window today, sorted from most ideal to least.
Mizuna · Vegetable
Feathery leaves with a peppery, almost arugula brightness and a clean finish — the salad green chefs reach for when lettuce tastes like water.
Outdoor
ideal this week
3 Aug – 26 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
3 Aug – 16 Nov · fall
Sarson · Vegetable
The mustard of sarson da saag: broad, succulent leaves with a round heat that cooks down to sweetness with makki and ghee. Not an ornamental purple mustard.
Outdoor
ideal this week
3 Aug – 2 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
3 Aug – 23 Nov · fall
Borragine · Herb
Cucumber-bright leaves and flowers: the Ligurian herb of pansoti and ravioli di borragine, and a cool, honeyed edible flower. More kitchen than cottage garden.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 26 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 16 Nov · fall
Hon Tsai Tai · Vegetable
Purple flower stems with a sweet, asparagus-broccoli taste. The buds are the prize — delicate, nutty, and completely unlike heading brassicas.
Outdoor
ideal this week
3 Aug – 12 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
3 Aug – 2 Nov · fall
Mâche · Vegetable
Nutty, buttery rosettes. The French winter salad that makes greenhouse lettuce look like a compromise.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 30 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 21 Dec · fall
Mitsuba · Herb
A wild, aromatic parsley-celery-chervil hybrid. Fresh, slightly bitter, and unmistakably Japanese in soups and chawanmushi.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 19 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 9 Nov · fall
Salad Burnet · Herb
Young leaves taste exactly like cucumber water — cooling, green, and clean. A medieval salad herb that still earns a bed.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 16 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 7 Dec · fall
Mustard · Vegetable
Burgundy-blushed leaves with a wasabi-like heat that cools into grape-mustard sweetness after frost.
Outdoor
ideal this week
3 Aug – 2 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
3 Aug – 23 Nov · fall
Turnip · Vegetable
A slender Kyoto turnip, white with a magenta shoulder. Tender, sweet, and the traditional pickle for senmaizuke.
Outdoor
ideal this week
3 Aug – 12 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
3 Aug – 2 Nov · fall
Claytonia · Vegetable
Succulent, mild, and slightly sweet discs — the winter salad green that does not sulk in cold the way lettuce does.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 23 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 14 Dec · fall
Rucola · Herb
Wild rocket: thinner leaves, longer heat, a peppery, nutty, almost sesame bitterness that supermarket salad rocket never reaches. The rucola of a Roman pizzeria.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 23 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 14 Dec · fall
Alpine Strawberry · Fruit
Tiny berries that taste like wild woodland strawberries — intense perfume, rose, and honey. Flavor density supermarket berries forgot.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 19 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 9 Nov · fall
Cima di Rapa · Vegetable
Classic Pugliese rapini: bitter-sweet shoots and buds with a mustard edge that olive oil and garlic were made to tame.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 19 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 9 Nov · fall
Mibuna · Vegetable
Narrow strap leaves, milder than mizuna, with a juicy green-cabbage sweetness that stands up to soup and pickling.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 26 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 16 Nov · fall
Tatsoi · Vegetable
Spoon-shaped leaves with a sweet mustard snap and a lingering mineral finish — richer than bok choy, never bitter when grown in cold.
Outdoor
ideal this week
27 Jul – 26 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
27 Jul – 16 Nov · fall
Ethiopian Kale · Vegetable
Gomenzer in a heat-proof suit: kale-mustard leaves with a clean, cabbage-sweet bite and none of the sulfur funk of tired collards. Ethiopia’s brassica, selected in Texas for greens.
Outdoor
ideal this week
27 Jul – 2 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
27 Jul – 23 Nov · fall
Napa Cabbage · Vegetable
Crisp, juicy midribs with a clean sweetness that kimchi was invented to celebrate. 'Bilko' heads are dense and resist bursting.
Outdoor
not now
19 Aug – 19 Aug · cool-season
Greenhouse
ideal this week
3 Aug – 2 Nov · fall
Senposai · Vegetable
A cabbage–komatsuna cross: large, tender leaves with sweet cabbage depth and none of the sulfur bite of collards.
Outdoor
ideal this week
27 Jul – 19 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
27 Jul – 9 Nov · fall
Shungiku · Vegetable
Aromatic greens with a resinous, herbal bitterness — like chrysanthemum tea crossed with spinach. The flavor of sukiyaki.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 23 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 13 Nov · fall
Wasabi Arugula · Vegetable
A mustard green that hits the sinuses like real wasabi — green, volatile heat that fades to sweetness. Not arugula, despite the nickname.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 2 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 23 Nov · fall
Yukina Savoy · Vegetable
Deeply blistered, dark leaves with a buttery texture and a mild, sweet brassica flavor — like tatsoi crossed with savoy cabbage.
Outdoor
ideal this week
27 Jul – 2 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
27 Jul – 23 Nov · fall
Bok Choy · Vegetable
Violet leaves over green stems; milder than red mustards, with a sweet pak-choi crunch and a faint berry-brassica aroma.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 19 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 9 Nov · fall
Komatsuna · Vegetable
Glossy spinach-mustard hybrid flavor: sweet, spinachy, with a quiet mustard undertone. One of the most versatile cooking greens in Japan.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 26 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 16 Nov · fall
Methi · Herb
Young fenugreek greens: maple-bitter, celery-fresh, and the backbone of aloo methi. The dried leaf is kasuri; this is the garden version, loud and green.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 26 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 16 Nov · fall
Tokyo Bekana · Vegetable
Lime-green ruffled leaves that eat like a tender lettuce with a hint of napa sweetness. The rare green that satisfies salad and stir-fry people.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 23 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 13 Nov · fall
Yu Choy Sum · Vegetable
Tender stems and buds with a sweet, green-pea brassica flavor — the Cantonese standard for high-heat wok cooking.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 19 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 9 Nov · fall
Bok Choy · Vegetable
Baby heads with celadon stems and a sweet, almost corn-like juice. More refined than full-size white-stem pak choi.
Outdoor
ideal this week
10 Aug – 19 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
ideal this week
10 Aug – 9 Nov · fall
Gai Choy · Vegetable
A wrapped mustard head with serious heat that mellows to a round, pickled-cabbage richness when cooked. Essential for suan cai.
Outdoor
good now
27 Jul – 12 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
good now
27 Jul – 2 Nov · fall
Radicchio · Vegetable
The variegated radicchio that looks like a cream-and-wine rose: milder than Chioggia, with a nutty bitterness that takes olive oil and something sweet. A Veneto winter luxury.
Outdoor
not now
19 Aug – 19 Aug · cool-season
Greenhouse
good now
3 Aug – 16 Nov · fall
Romanesco · Vegetable
The fractal Roman cauliflower: nuttier and sweeter than white cauliflower, with a precise, almost hazelnut crunch. A Lazio and Roman-campagna classic, not a novelty print.
Outdoor
not now
19 Aug – 19 Aug · cool-season
Greenhouse
good now
3 Aug – 9 Nov · fall
Chaulai · Vegetable
Red amaranth saag: earthy, mineral, and slightly sweet, with a spinach body that does not collapse into water. The summer green when palak has bolted.
Outdoor
good now
18 Jun – 16 Sept · summer
Greenhouse
ideal this week
28 May – 7 Oct · summer
Cavolo Nero · Vegetable
Tuscan kale: blistered, blue-black leaves with a deep, almost nutty cabbage sweetness and none of the ruffly wateriness of supermarket curly kale. The green of ribollita.
Outdoor
3 weeks late
20 Jul – 16 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
3 weeks late
20 Jul – 7 Dec · fall
Collard · Vegetable
East Africa’s weekly green: broad, sweet collard leaves that stay tender in soup with tomato and onion. The name means ‘to stretch the week’ — flavor that feeds.
Outdoor
3 weeks late
20 Jul – 16 Nov · fall
Greenhouse
3 weeks late
20 Jul – 7 Dec · fall
Watermelon Radish · Vegetable
Pale green skin, shocking magenta heart. Sweet, crisp, and only mildly peppery — the radish that converts radish skeptics.
Outdoor
good now
27 Jul – 5 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
good now
27 Jul – 26 Oct · fall
Soko · Vegetable
Lagos spinach: tender celosia leaves with a mild beet-green mineral taste and no bitterness. The everyday pot herb of southern Nigeria, not the cockscomb in the flower bed.
Outdoor
good now
18 Jun – 11 Sept · summer
Greenhouse
good now
28 May – 2 Oct · summer
Celtuce · Vegetable
Grown for the thick stem: crisp as jicama, with a mild lettuce-cucumber taste and a toasted-nut aftertaste when sliced thin.
Outdoor
not now
19 Aug – 19 Aug · cool-season
Greenhouse
good now
27 Jul – 26 Oct · fall
Finocchio · Vegetable
Florence fennel: crisp anise-sweet bulbs that taste like licorice and celery had a well-dressed child. Shaved raw or braised, it is a proper secondo, not a garnish.
Outdoor
good now
27 Jul – 5 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
good now
27 Jul – 26 Oct · fall
Spigarello · Vegetable
Leaf broccoli from southern Italy: sweet, mineral, and more interesting than calabrese, with tender stems like rapini without the bitterness.
Outdoor
good now
20 Jul – 12 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
good now
20 Jul – 2 Nov · fall
Daikon · Vegetable
Long white roots that are juicy, mildly sweet, and only gently pungent — the daikon you grate over soba and pickle into takuan.
Outdoor
good now
20 Jul – 5 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
good now
20 Jul – 26 Oct · fall
African Cabbage · Vegetable
Spider plant, the African cabbage of the Sahel and East Africa: mustard-bright leaves with a peppery, slightly bitter snap that mellows in a tomato stew.
Outdoor
good now
18 Jun – 6 Sept · summer
Greenhouse
good now
28 May – 27 Sept · summer
Green Meat Radish · Vegetable
Jade flesh that is sweeter and juicier than red radishes, with a fresh-apple quality and almost no bite.
Outdoor
good now
20 Jul – 5 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
good now
20 Jul – 26 Oct · fall
Puntarelle · Vegetable
Roman chicory grown for the hollow, crunchy shoots: bitter, juicy, and the reason puntarelle alla romana with anchovy dressing exists. Not a leaf chicory in disguise.
Outdoor
4 weeks late
20 Jul – 19 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
4 weeks late
20 Jul – 9 Nov · fall
Winter Radish · Vegetable
Magenta-and-white flesh with a sweet, juicy bite and a tamed heat. Beautiful raw; keeps its color in quick pickles.
Outdoor
good now
20 Jul – 5 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
good now
20 Jul – 26 Oct · fall
Gai Lan · Vegetable
Thick succulent stems with a sweet, faintly bitter broccoli intensity. Oyster sauce exists for this vegetable.
Outdoor
good now
20 Jul – 28 Sept · fall
Greenhouse
good now
20 Jul – 19 Oct · fall
African Nightshade · Vegetable
Mnavu / managu: tender nightshade greens with a deep, spinach-bitter richness that milk or cream tames. The everyday pot herb of Kenya and Uganda.
Outdoor
good now
11 Jun – 6 Sept · summer
Greenhouse
good now
21 May – 27 Sept · summer
Bunching Onion · Vegetable
Long scarlet shanks with a sweet, round onion flavor and none of the harshness of storage onions. Stunning sliced raw.
Outdoor
4 weeks late
20 Jul – 5 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
4 weeks late
20 Jul – 26 Oct · fall
Negi · Vegetable
A fat, leek-like Japanese onion with a melting sweetness when braised. Famous from Shimonita, Gunma — one of Japan’s great vegetables.
Outdoor
not now
19 Aug – 19 Aug · cool-season
Greenhouse
4 weeks late
20 Jul – 26 Oct · fall
Bhindi · Vegetable
Classic Indian okra: long tender pods with a green-bean sweetness and only a little slime if you keep them small. The bhindi of bharwan and sukhi sabzi.
Outdoor
4 weeks late
11 Jun – 29 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
3 weeks late
21 May – 19 Sept · summer
Epazote · Herb
Resinous, medicinal, and a little wild — the herb that makes black beans taste Mexican. Not a background note; a signature.
Outdoor
4 weeks late
11 Jun – 27 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
4 weeks late
21 May – 17 Sept · summer
Gongura · Herb
Andhra’s sour leaf: lemon, sorrel, and a green tang that makes gongura pachadi and mutton the dishes they are. Small-leaf chitti is the sharper one.
Outdoor
4 weeks late
11 Jun – 27 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
4 weeks late
21 May – 17 Sept · summer
Molokhia · Vegetable
Jute mallow, the ewedu of Yoruba cooking and Egypt’s national green: mucilaginous, deep, and spinach-like with a toasted-okra richness. The soup thickens itself.
Outdoor
4 weeks late
11 Jun – 27 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
4 weeks late
21 May – 17 Sept · summer
Okra · Vegetable
Ridged North African / Middle Eastern okra: star-shaped in cross-section, meaty walls, and a deep green-bean sweetness. The ancestor crop, not a slimy afterthought.
Outdoor
4 weeks late
11 Jun – 24 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
4 weeks late
21 May – 14 Sept · summer
Shiso · Herb
Cinnamon, basil, mint, and cumin in one ruffled leaf. The herb that makes sashimi, umeboshi, and summer noodles taste like themselves.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
18 Jun – 17 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
4 weeks late
28 May – 7 Sept · summer
Shiso · Herb
Dark purple leaves with the same spice-basil perfume as green shiso, plus a berry-ink tannin used to color umeboshi.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
18 Jun – 17 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
4 weeks late
28 May – 7 Sept · summer
Agretti · Vegetable
Monk’s beard: saline, mineral, and snappy, like samphire crossed with young spinach. The Ligurian and Lazio spring green you eat with lemon and oil, not a background salad leaf.
Outdoor
too early · opens in 1 week
24 Aug – 19 Oct · fall
Greenhouse
too early · opens in 1 week
24 Aug – 9 Nov · fall
Barbati · Vegetable
Yardlong bean, the bora of Bengal and barbati of the North: snap-bean crunch with a deeper, pea-like sweetness and burgundy pods that stay pretty in a stir-fry.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
11 Jun – 17 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
21 May – 17 Aug · summer
Culantro · Herb
Sawtooth leaves with a louder, longer cilantro flavor that does not vanish in soup. Central to sofrito, larb, and many Vietnamese broths.
Outdoor
too late · closed 3 weeks ago
18 Jun – 28 Jul · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
28 May – 18 Aug · summer
Kabocha · Vegetable
Red-orange kabocha with dry, chestnut-sweet flesh. Denser and more candied than butternut, with a roasted-squash perfume.
Outdoor
too late · closed 3 weeks ago
4 Jun – 28 Jul · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
14 May – 18 Aug · summer
Scent Leaf · Herb
West African clove basil: pepper, clove, and thyme in one leaf. The scent leaf of pepper soup and jollof, louder and more medicinal than Thai or holy basil.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
11 Jun – 17 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
21 May – 17 Aug · summer
Tromboncino · Vegetable
A climbing moschata eaten young like zucchini — nutty, never watery, with a seed cavity in the bell so the neck is all flesh.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
4 Jun – 17 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
14 May – 17 Aug · summer
Tulsi · Herb
Holy basil with clove, pepper, and a medicinal sweetness Thai basil does not have. Purple Krishna is the intense one — tea, tadka, and the plant many households keep by the door.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
11 Jun – 17 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
21 May – 17 Aug · summer
Cranberry Hibiscus · Herb
False roselle: maple-shaped maroon leaves that taste like cranberry, sorrel, and lemon. A sour salad and tea leaf from African hibiscus, not the gongura grown for stew.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
11 Jun – 14 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
21 May – 14 Aug · summer
Poi · Vegetable
Malabar spinach: thick, mucilaginous leaves with a beet-green mineral taste. The poi saag of Bengal and the South — summer vine greens that laugh at heat.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
11 Jun – 14 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
21 May – 14 Aug · summer
Red Kuri · Vegetable
Teardrop squash with dry, nutty, almost chestnut flesh and edible skin. The French potimarron — a flavor benchmark for winter squash.
Outdoor
too late · closed 4 weeks ago
4 Jun – 23 Jul · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
14 May – 13 Aug · summer
Ugu · Vegetable
The fluted pumpkin of Igbo kitchens: grown first for the leaves — rich, slightly bitter, and meaty — and later for huge, oil-seeded fruit. This is ugu soup, not pie pumpkin.
Outdoor
too late · closed 4 weeks ago
4 Jun – 23 Jul · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
14 May – 13 Aug · summer
Brinjal · Vegetable
Small clustered eggplants with thin skin and a creamy, barely bitter flesh — the size for bharwan, sabzi, and a quick baingan fry. Not a watery globe.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
4 Jun – 9 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
14 May – 9 Aug · summer
Chili · Vegetable
The classic Indian green chili: wrinkled, thin-walled, bright heat, and a fresh pepper snap. This is the chili in the crisper, not a cayenne for drying.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
11 Jun – 9 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
21 May – 9 Aug · summer
Ground Cherry · Fruit
Husked golden berries that taste like pineapple, vanilla, and cherry tomato. A fruit people eat standing in the garden.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
4 Jun – 9 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
14 May – 9 Aug · summer
Mexican Sour Gherkin · Vegetable
Thumbnail watermelons that pop with lime-cucumber juice. A pickle and snack crop people grow once and then never skip.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
4 Jun – 9 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
14 May – 9 Aug · summer
Peperone · Vegetable
Bull’s horn pepper: long, curved, thick enough to roast, sweet enough to eat like fruit when red. The peperone of an Italian grill, distinct from skinny Jimmy Nardello.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
11 Jun – 9 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
21 May – 9 Aug · summer
Vietnamese Coriander · Herb
Cilantro’s heat-proof cousin: lemon, cilantro, and a peppery tickle. The herb of gỏi gà and many southern Vietnamese tables.
Outdoor
too late · closed 1 week ago
18 Jun – 12 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 1 week ago
28 May – 12 Aug · summer
Borlotti · Vegetable
Fire-tongue beans: streaked cranberry pods with a rich, chestnut-beany flavor that pasta e fagioli and minestrone were built on. Fresh shelly or dried.
Outdoor
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
4 Jun – 7 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
14 May – 7 Aug · summer
Fish Pepper · Vegetable
Variegated Chesapeake heirloom with clean heat and a bright, seafood-friendly pepper flavor. Historically used in crab and fish houses.
Outdoor
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
11 Jun – 7 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
21 May – 7 Aug · summer
Garlic Chives · Herb
Flat leaves with a true garlic perfume and a green-onion juiciness. The flavor of dumplings, jiaozi, and Korean buchimgae.
Outdoor
not now
19 Aug – 19 Aug · cool-season
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
30 Apr – 8 Aug · summer
Melanzana · Vegetable
Sicilian-style round eggplant, lavender and cream: creamy, almost seedless flesh with a mild, sweet flavor and none of the bitterness people blame on eggplant.
Outdoor
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
4 Jun – 8 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
14 May – 8 Aug · summer
Sem · Vegetable
Hyacinth bean: flat purple pods with a rich, beany, slightly tannic bite that is the sem of undhiyu and many Gujarati and South Indian kitchens. Cook thoroughly; do not eat raw.
Outdoor
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
4 Jun – 7 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
14 May – 7 Aug · summer
Snake Gourd · Vegetable
Chichinda / padwal: long pale fruits with a mild, slightly sweet squash flavor and a spongy bite that holds coconut and mustard-seed tadka.
Outdoor
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
4 Jun – 7 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
14 May – 7 Aug · summer
Winter Squash · Vegetable
The warty sea pumpkin of the Venetian lagoon: dry, sweet, chestnut-dense flesh that gnocchi di zucca was invented for. A Slow Food squash, not a carving pumpkin.
Outdoor
not now
19 Aug – 19 Aug · cool-season
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
16 Apr – 5 Aug · summer
Egusi · Vegetable
Grown for the fat, nutty white seeds that thicken egusi soup — toasted, almost pistachio-pumpkin. The fruit flesh is bland; the seed is the crop.
Outdoor
not now
19 Aug – 19 Aug · cool-season
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
23 Apr – 3 Aug · summer
Frying Pepper · Vegetable
Thin-walled Italian frying pepper that ripens to candy-sweet, fruity, and almost jammy. Slow Food’s Ark of Taste for a reason.
Outdoor
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
11 Jun – 2 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
21 May – 2 Aug · summer
Garden Egg · Vegetable
Scarlet eggplant, the garden egg of West Africa and Ethiopia: small orange globes with a tomato-bitter snap when raw and a sweet, firm flesh when cooked. Not a watery globe eggplant.
Outdoor
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
4 Jun – 4 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
14 May – 4 Aug · summer
Kiwano · Fruit
African horned cucumber: jelly flesh that tastes like banana, lime, and cucumber in one spoon. The fruit people cut as a showpiece and then actually finish.
Outdoor
not now
19 Aug – 19 Aug · cool-season
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
23 Apr – 3 Aug · summer
Pomodoro · Fruit
Vesuvian hanging tomato: thick skin, intense sweet-acid pulp, and a volcanic minerality. Stored in bunches through winter — the tomato of a Neapolitan pantry, not a beefsteak.
Outdoor
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
4 Jun – 4 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
14 May – 4 Aug · summer
Tomato · Fruit
Beefsteak that ripens green-amber with a spicy, sweet, almost tropical flesh. One of the loudest-flavored heirlooms, not just a novelty color.
Outdoor
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
4 Jun – 2 Aug · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 2 weeks ago
14 May – 2 Aug · summer
Chili · Vegetable
African bird’s eye: small, clean, searing heat with a bright, almost citrus pepper flavor. The chili of piri-piri sauce, not a thick-walled habanero.
Outdoor
too late · closed 3 weeks ago
11 Jun – 30 Jul · summer
Greenhouse
too late · closed 3 weeks ago
21 May – 30 Jul · summer