Aren't you the exotic gardener? (Rhetorical question) Growing veggies and fruits found all over the world, and choosing as many unknown bred varieties as possible.
Glad to see your production is boosting.
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I guess it is part of my personality: ‘normal’ is boring, lol.
I love garden experiments. I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t have the chance to get more out of the ordinary plants. Last year, half of what was in my garden was unknown to me.
The biggest problem is the climate here in Belgium. There are so many more interesting veggies and fruits to grow, but most of them need a tropical climate. And Belgium may be a lot of things, but being tropical is not one of them.
It’s also hard to get your hands on things that are unknown here. I’ve searched for the cherimoya for months, lol.
Plants like Yacon, Chinese artichokes, tootache plants, chayote, lychee tomatoes etc are hard to come by here. The edible parts are not even sold here.
I was lucky: I discovered a farm nearby that specializes in uncommon and forgotten veggies and fruits. For as far as I know, there’s one other place that does the same. I’m lucky to have them, but still there are things I need to buy abroad.
It’s so exiting to try to grow new stuff that nobody else is growing. The only downside there is is that you don’t have a clue whether you will like it or not. Since you don’t see these special variaties here, there’s no way to know how they taste like.
Last year I tried tomatillos. Beautiful plants, but we both thought they tasted awful. So no tomatillos again this year. NO Kiwano anymore either, lol. The taste of the fruit was not exceptional enough to make up for the millions of tiny thorns. Such a beautiful plant, but it was just plain mean, lol
On the other hand, the Yacon roots -another gamble, because I didn’t know what to expect - were one of the most delicious things I ever tasted. Same goes for the melon pears. So incredibly delicious...
You never win if you don’t gamble...
;0)
The curiousity is exciting. I guess I got a little addicted, lol