Sapphire is a main crop medium sized purple skinned oval shaped potato. It has a distinct looking complex purple flesh but with a variable white marble and fairly obvious white marginal ring around its outer edge […]

Sage – Salvia officinalis – has an unusual and distinct flavour. It is a ‘dry land’ plant that likes the sun, soil heat, lots of air flow around it and a fairly minimal but constant level of […]

Telephone – or in old heritage speak ‘Alderman’ – is a very old and excellent large podded green pea that is perfect for shelling. If you can hold off long enough and not eat them […]

Yakumo is a large crispy flavoursome purple flowered Snow Pea – (often referred to as ‘mange tout‘). It is probably the most reliable and best flavoured Snow Pea I have grown. The flavor is very ‘green’ and […]

Small white globe turnips are a thing of beauty. If cropped when small they are a fairly mild but still delicious root vegetable and the leaves have a fairly mild brassica flavour almost like a spinach. […]

Rakkyō – Japanese scallion or Chinese scallion is a lightly flavoured member of the onion family. They have small bulbs when fully developed and it is an excellent vegetable in itself, but also a great addition to […]

The needle like Chili De Arbol looks like it should be dangerous – and generally it is pretty hot to eat – up to about 30,000 scoville just below a cayenne pepper. You need to pick carefully […]

The Serrano chill pepper is one of the ‘classics’ that comes from Mexico and is a great ‘hot’ variety for fresh use. The heat ranges a lot but is usually the next step up from […]

Aji Chanca is a mid heat range cultivar of Capsicum baccatum var. Pendulum. It is very similar to Aji Amarillo but has a more shortened bulbous form and slightly less heat. The flavour of this cultivar, like […]

Shishito chill pepper is a mild bright emerald green and usually about 7-10cm long. It has a distinctly interesting wrinkled form and the end tip area is supposed to resemble a lions head that gives it the […]

Royal Blue is a main crop potato variety that would have to be near the top of anyones growing list. Strictly speaking the skin is a purple but looks blue when it has aged and […]

King Edward is a very versatile potato that has white flesh with an off white skin and big pink blushes around the growth points. It usually grows into a flattened oval that tends to have […]

Scarlet runner beans – Phaseolus coccineus – are a short lived perennial that are often grown for a single season of production. As the name implies they climb and ramble and have beautiful red flowers that […]

These tasty little micro cucumbers are really very entertaining. They are about the size of a grape but taste like a normal cucumber with a slightly pre pickled sour note. They make for an exciting […]

Balinese corn is a smaller paler open pollinated multi cob variety that produces a lot of green vegetative growth to about 2 metres and usually has about 2-3 cobs on each stem. They tend to […]

Ok so time for a small rambling rave about threatening wildlife… This photo is of a beautiful tiny Diamond Python lounging high up in my Balinese Corn crop in late summer. It’s a baby and […]

Plum & Peach crossed gives you a ‘pleach’. Tastes like plum and peach mixed – looks like a peach with purple plum colour inside. These are very tasty stone fruits and have a lot of […]

Rockmelons are a thing of beauty. The surface webbing on the skin is totally fascinating to watch developing as they grow and expand into full sized fruit. It disguises them well in amongst the vines. […]

Japanese Suika watermelon – this is just such a nice melon to grow and eat. Even though eating white melon flesh seems odd if you are used to the bright red watermelons – this melon is […]

Papalo is a quick growing long lived annual herb plant that is best eaten fresh and raw as a flavour in a salsa or pesto or just as a last minute addition to a dish […]

Aji is a word that can mean a few things – one of them is the common name for the group of chill that are of the Capsicum baccatum species group that grow from the […]

Garden Nasturtium – Tropaeolum magus – has a very spicy taste and is a lot like water cress with a siginificant amount of pepper added. Given that it is often a weed in temperate gardens […]

Land Cress is crisp, spicy and very similar to water cress. It forms large rosettes of leaves up to about 30cm in length that can be gradually harvested throughout the season. It seeds profusely and […]

Being native to both NZ and Australia (also native to Japan and other continents) Tetragonia tetragonioides is known locally as both NZ Spinach and Warrigal Greens. Either way its an excellent tasty alternative to the usual […]

Borago officinalis is an odd plant which is so friendly with it’s fresh and spicy cucumber tasting leaves and honey flavoured flowers while attracting excessive numbers of bees to your whole garden and yet simultaneously fighting […]

Chamomile is a name for a group of flowering herb plants that smell like apples – but is usually understood to refer to the herb Matricaria recutita used most often for brewing a herb tea. It […]

This current crop of purple Jalapeño are just really beautiful – almost pure black. They have the same pleasant chili flavour and ‘zing’ as the green & red jalapeños but they seem to stay unmarked […]

The asparagus bean is another tasty legume that is worth growing if you have the space and a bit of sun. They seem to like full sun and deep soil and can grow, climb and […]

Currently am growing two self developed varieties of cherry tomato for fresh use. They have been selected over about 15 years for taste, consistent size, colour and profusion of fruiting over a long growing period. […]

Elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum) is the name often used for this bulb. But it is not a garlic and is actually a leek and very closely related to both Kurrat or Egyptian Leek (Allium ampeloprasum var. kurrat) and […]

I love these mild but still tasty chili peppers. They are easy to grow with some sun, heat, water and a good deep soil. Like a lot of the peppers they seem to like having […]

Red Currants – Ribes rubrum – have a distinct flavour (that is hard to describe) and a luminous colour that is hard to match and the texture is pretty good too when ripe as they are […]

Royal Burgundy is an interesting and flavoursome glossy purple bean that changes to green when heat is applied – but is tasty fresh and uncooked, so ideal for salads with a great crunchy ‘snap’ and […]

Roc D’Or is a classic open pollenated golden butter French snap stringless bush bean. It is a fast strong growing smallish bush and has prolific harvests of small yellow or gold beans (that start off […]

Red Epicure is a classic variety of Broad Bean that produces well and is a plant that grows strong and tall. I have found that the plants are usually the biggest of the Broad Beans […]

Grano White is a spectacular variety of Broad Bean. It has a large long pod with usually about 5-6 luminous white beans in each pod. They have a very fresh silky pea like initial taste […]

Its Spring and the first flower head growths of Green Globe Artichokes are showing and some already able to be harvested. Green Globe is a nice thick fleshy very round all green Artichoke variety that tends […]

Triamble is an Australian heritage pumpkin or winter squash from the early years of settlement. It has a very distinct 3 lobed shape. It has  a very twisted internal shape but slices up and roasts well […]

Tagetes minuta is a South American herb that has had a very mixed reception and history. As an example of the conflicting views it has been called ‘Stinking Roger’ and ‘ Black Mint’ in various […]

Tagetes lucida is a very nice smooth anise/tarragon flavoured herb originating from Central America. It makes for a very nice addition to any savoury or sweet dish that needs a subtle touch of aniseed. I […]

I have just had the first flowering of a seed grown plant of Banksia coccinea. It is about 4 years old and 1.5 metres high now with several flowering stems branching from low down on […]

A pile of plant material sits waiting to be composted and broken down by heat and biological activity. This pile is primarily palms that have been removed from a local land site and chipped. If […]

White squash – scallopini or small white ‘patty pan’ are an attractive looking squash that can be harvested either tiny or when fully matured. They taste like a simple zucchini or courgette when small and can […]

Rose Geranium – Pelargonium graveolens is a useful plant to have for occasional flavoursome use in a wide range of foods. It has a strong rose petal or rose oil like scent and can be […]

Kamo Kamo or Kumi Kumi – A cultivar in the Cucurbita pepo group –  is a ‘traditional’ Maori heirloom squash. It’s another childhood vegetable I remember well. There are regional variations on it based on careful guarded […]

Maca – Lepidium meyenii – is a tasty little root vegetable that is very hard to come by. It grows natively in the high Andes on the altiplano. There is all sorts of info available out […]

Yacón – Smallanthus sonchifolius – is another Andes perennial plant that produces succulent tuberous storage roots that can be eaten raw and cooked. It’s common name of Earth/Ground Apple gives you an idea of it’s […]

Huauzontle – Chenopodium nuttalliae – is an interesting vegetable of Mexican origin that is closely related to Quinoa – but with this plant it’s the flower bud cluster that is eaten instead – basically like a […]

Calendula – Calendula officinalis – is a hardy and prolific short lived perennial flowering plant. You can eat both the flowers and the leaf – although the leaf can be very astringent. The flower petals […]