good lord! do you have produce stand out front? that's a fine collection of edibles!

great idea,
I'll post some pics of what I've got this weekend...

Thanks Ill. Lots of good information. I am clipping this so I can find it later.

Nice growin' Ill,

I've got no pictures right now cuz it's the middle of the night.
But I'll join in the delicious edible gardener thread.

Glad to see you're growing yuca/casava. I'm growing some this year too, started the same way. I like this root, and it's pretty to grow. It's my first time growing this.

Katuk is also a pretty bush with cute flowers blooming profusely underneath the branches. Tips and tender leaves taste like peanuts in Thai stir fries. Or just sauteed quickly.

Callaloo, aka red amaranth has been a wonderful green, much like spinach but better. It has reseeded so much around my gardens that I have to weed it out, so I've been eating a lot of it lately. Look up recipes for callaloo!

I made a wonderful dinner with Malabar spinach last night.
Browned a quarter pound of ground beef, drained it off. Sauteed a bit of onion and garlic. then threw in a big colander full of Malabar Spinach (chopped up). Salt, pepper, and a chopped hot chile. A bit of oregano (probably not necessary).
Mixed it with the beef and a half pound or so of shredded Mexican cheese (could have been Italian cheese for a different slant).
I steamed some tortilla wrappers, (6), put a couple of tablespoons of the malabar beef mixture on each. I also put a fresh basil leaf on top of the mixture.
Beat up an egg, with a splash of water. Brush the perimeter of the tortilla with the egg. Fold it in half over the filling, and mash the edge together with a fork. Let it all set for a few minutes to secure the edges.
Then I fried it in a hot skillet, turning once, til it was nicely golden all over.
We ate them wrapped in napkins to de-oil them. Kinda like "Hot Pockets". Delicious! No mucilage detected.
I think they would be wonderful baked with some enchilada sauce too. This would be a great calzone with a pizza dough and a tomato sauce.

Don't you love that Goose Creek tomato? You probably got the seeds from either Tony or me. I don't think anyone else in Florida has grown it yet, except maybe Bill. It's a keeper.
Sorry your Jetsetter didn't do well. It was my best tomato this year.

My eggplants and tomatoes have succumbed to spidermites now. I've given up and pulled them. Last year I had wonderful eggplants through the summer.

You know the young leaves and growing tips of sweet potatoes are often cooked with beans or things in Phillipine dishes.

My chaya is growing like crazy now. Moringa tree too. Haven't eaten either lately.

Pineapples are getting really big this year, thanks to Sumala's advice to keep 'em fertilized. Soon!

Bananas looking good too. but no fruit yet.

Sugar apples have set many fruits. Looking forward to them later this summer.

Tis the season for basil! Loving pesto with everything.

My sorrel finally died. I miss it.

Culantro is a neat herb that likes to grow here. Reseeds well too. Nice substitute for cilantro.

Pigeon peas are a good perennial bush/small tree here. Good protein bean. No aphid or pest problems.

Chayote squash do very well here too, given good organic soil and adequate moisture. One or two plants will overtake your garden though. Give them someplace to run. Long season to produce squash, but very productive.
Same for luffa, which taste like summer squash when young. After that you've got a lot of sponges!

Y'all need to grow some cachucha peppers. A wonderful mild chile. Loves our climate. It has the most delicious flavor of any pepper I've ever tasted. Nuff said. Save seeds, replant.

I'm still eating as much of my garden as I can.

Treefrog

i need to try this callaloo, if for no other reason than i like the idea of eating something called callaloo.

here's a tromboncino squash from castorp's garden:

notice that it's basically seedless. apparently fairly resistant to pickleworms and diseases. it took a long time to get going in my garden, but it's now set three or four fruits and has tons of flowers. they get huge, but you can eat them smaller, too.
they keep well, too.

Treefrog, I've been meaning to make thank you post for both you and Tony. I'm growing all the tomatoes you both gave me (I can't always remember who gave me what), and I've been enjoying them a lot. I'm growing Goose Creek, Polish Dwarf, Black Trifele, Burbank, Lucky Leprechaun and others. I have to say my favorites is Goose Creek. It is one incredible tomato. (And because I'm from Georgia the idea of growing a Gullah heirloom is an extra bonus). I wish I had a camera now to take some pictures of the plants but wife has it. She's away visiting her folks.

Other than the tromobicini Ill mentioned, I'm eating a lot of Piminento de Padron (an heirloom Spanish "roulette" pepper: some hot, some not), ancho (from a plant Ill gave me), and lots of jalapenos. I'm still harvesting onions and carrots. I'm still eating sea foam chard (also from Ill). My "Burgundy" okra is just about to bloom, and i'm also growing a red amaranth. I haven't eaten any yet though. Ill also gave me some cassavas the other day and I can't wait for the things to grow. I love fried Yuca and it is SO difficult to find good fresh roots around here. They cover them with wax and when you cut into them you find they're bad.

Other than that, I'm still eating lots of herbs. My parsely patch is dying out, but I still have oregano, sage, thyme, and others.

Looks like this will be neat thread.

Bill

A guy I work with wanted to try some of my tabasco peppers. He bit off the very end. Last I saw he was crying and sweating and not ever gonna do that again.
The birds love them tho.

Thanks Treefrog, for all the great info and interesting things to try. The Moringa tree seeds I ordered on ebay came today so I am curious to see how they work out.

I left the pepper seeds in. Kinda hot but yummy :)

Been picking blueberries, tomatoes, peppers. All onions have been harvested. Garlic was a failure (wrong type for here I think. I'll try again in the fall). lots of cucumbars. My summer squash did poorly too. Pull them out. I'm prep'ing my beds for fall and planting cover crops. I hope to plant some sweet potatoes very soon. The slips are about 4inches or so.

i wanted to add to this list -- the peanuts that i bought from publix finally sprouted up around my peach trees and among my (failing) collards... wow, who'da thought? i got the idea from someone on gw. even if it doesn't produce much in the way of peanuts, it's a pretty and low maintenance ground cover. i'm delighted!

I'm back from visiting probably the most beautiful place on earth- Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Florida looks awful in comparison....

But, thanks to capable friends, my garden is still alive and growing like mad! I picked Jamaican Strawberries, Blackberries, Barbados Cherries, Tomatos, Persian Limes and Peaches this morning.

Lots of Bananas on the trees, none ripe right now. Looks like a very good Fig crop later this summer, and the Pomegranates are HUGE and heavy. Apples look really nice and are reaching a respectable size. Should be able to start picking them in June/July.

My Chaya is so big that I must cut it back hard, or it will be shattered by the first storm to come along.
I think I'll make a Chaya dish similar to Treefrog's Malabar Spinach/Beef enchiladas.

To my sorrow, most of the Black Sapote blooms fell off, as did the fruits on the Mamey Sapote. My largest, oldest Kampong Mauve Sugar Apple tree was split in half, so I had to remove 6' sections. That hurt! There are a few nice-looking Mango fruits left, that "Teeger" hasn't picked and eaten, yet.

The Dragonfruit vines on the old turkey pen are blooming nearly non-stop. So far, no fruits have formed. It may need another variety for pollination, or might even be a non-fruiting one? I have other varieties, but none of them are in bloom.

My Malanga looks very nice, I wonder how to tell when the tubers are ready to harvest?

The Pitomba shrub bloomed and set fruit while I was away. I'm looking forward to the fruits- they taste like juicy Apricots!

Lisa

lisa,
what are jamaican strawberries?

Ache, it is a fast-growing, beautiful tree that fruits nearly all year. The blooms look like strawberry flowers, the fruits taste to me like a Fig/Strawberry combination. The fruits are small, but plentiful. It is an easy care plant with a lovely spiral placement of the branches. I've had no problems with fruit flies bothering the fruits.

Also called Muntingia, or just Strawberry Tree.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/jamaica_cherry.html

Children and chickens are especially fond of the fruits(G).

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Muntingia images

lisa,
from what i've read... you can harvest malanga bulbs without pulling up the plant. where it's grown as a dooryard crop, people just reach into the soil, find a cormelle, pull it out, and leave the plant to grow.

this is the first year i'm growing it. it's about ready to be transplanted into the garden. i'm eager to hear about your experience with it. it's an interesting crop, no?

I just transplanted a malanga into the garden (store bought root that I grew in a pot). Looks the same as a big elephant ear I've been growing. I'll check out both roots. Wish me luck!

Lisa, your strawberry tree is gorgeous. I ate a few the other day and threw some to your chooks. Pretty tree.
And your tamarind is shooting out nicely. Another beautiful tree.
And you, who claims you can't grow an avacado. Look at your tree! You have one fruited. Grumpph. Mine hasn't fruited yet.

OMG so sorry about your red sugar apple. Are they really that storm susceptible? Mine look pretty weak stemmed. Quess I should stake them up. I'd be devastated if it broke now.
I'll share mine if I get some.

To continue this thread, I've also been munching on my cocoplum and surinam cherries as I walk by them lately. As well as the occasional mulberry. "Haven't got sick once. Probly keep us both alive."