New garden varieties

[prairiemom]

I'm trying a few new varieties this year and am ready to report on a couple. The first is an heirloom zucchini called Ron de Nice (yes, it's from France.) Here are a couple specimens:


I don't notice any difference in flavor when cooked. But it is extraordinarily tender, the skin was like slicing through butter. The small one (with almost no seeds inside) is a little smaller than my fist, the larger one is a little bigger than a softball. Very pretty and unusual shape.

I'm growing purple beans ("Romano Purpiat")--a bush variety that produces 4-5" long, wide flat beans. The plants are pretty with their purple flowers and the pods are a deep purple, VERY pretty and VERY prolific. They turn a jade green when cooked and a deep, almost black green when I put them in brine/lactic acid. Here is a picture that shows them (along with yellow and green beans) both before canning and after canning so you can see the color differences:


I tried Umpqua broccoli because it was an heirloom and "for its beautiful uniform heads and ability to produce over a long harvest window. Generous side shoot production." So far I'm not that impressed. We've had as ideal a growing season as a broccoli could ask for--very cool weather, esp at night. But the heads are not near as big as Waltham (my favorite) nor as compact and there are lots of stems instead of one big stalk. I prefer a big, thick stock because that can be used, it's not so stringy or woody.

My Wonderberry trial is going well. They look like weeds (I'll post a picture later) but are producing a LOT of sweet berries. They have an unusual flavor, almost like a buffaloberry. I think they will make a nice jam.

[signseeker]

That's awesome!

Too bad the purple beans don't stay purple - that would be great.

What do you do with all the zucchini, by the way? (I'm getting way more than I thought I would.)

[Highlandsunrise]

Thank you for the review, prairie! The round zuchinni might be better for my garden boxes. The long ones get stuck under the edge of the box sometimes.
I planted Kentucky Wonder pole beans this year. They taste good but haven't produced very well. I would like a purple bean because they show up on the plant. I miss a green one here and there and they get too big to eat and slow down the plant's production.

[prairiemom]

There's no such thing as too much zucchini. I freeze a dozen or so bags, then dehydrate a ton of it. It's nice because it dehydrates quickly and needs no prep other than to seed and slice it. And we eat it almost everyday once it starts ripening--stir fried with herbs and melted cheese, bake in a casserole, battered and fried, grated into salads, you name it.

Here are the Wonderberries:


Each little branch has 8-12 berries. This is what I picked today, about 6 of the 12 bushes, about 30-40% of the ripe:

[signseeker]

Do you blanch your zucchini before freezing? Doesn't it kinda' turn to mush?

(So glad the chickens love zucchini. )

[prairiemom]

More updates:

I'm not too crazy about the Russian Purple. It's a nice big roma-type, very similar to Amish Paste, but without any of the flavor.

I was looking forward to white cherries to add to my pallet of cherry tomatoes. But Italian Ice was more a very pale yellow. And it was very sweet, almost sugary. The German Pink is doing well and as always, Amish Paste is a dependable producer even with the crazy weather we've been having.

Again, I really don't like the Umpqua broccoli. The side shoots it produces are very small and they whole plant quickly goes from ripe to flower--you have about a 1-2 day window.

Cylindra Beets (what few I got, most of my beets this year failed to grow.) were a nice shape and flavor. Definitely a repeat for next year.

For freezing zucchini, I just grate it, measure it for the recipes I'll use it in and put it into baggies. No blanching.

[Dolcezza]

My step-mother grows lots of them and then she prepares jars with olive oil and cans them all for winter use, along with onions and eggplants. Very Italian, I know...

[signseeker]

My Brandywine tomatoes would definitely be in the running for the "weirdest-looking" category at the Fair. Some of them are like 4 tomatoes stuck together... Anyhoo- the Homesteads are just perfect. No weird stripes or marks or spots - just perfect medium-sized red tomatoes. The Eva Purple Balls are just like them except more of a pinky-red instead of an orangy-red. I thought I'd have tomatoes coming out of my ears by now, but they seem to be a little slow... not enough to can yet.