VEGETABLES LESS COMMONLY GROWN
There is a considerable number of vegetables that are seldom
encountered in the general garden, many of which are well worthy of
acquaintance. Many of them are familiar to the city housekeper through
the medium of the fruit stores and the delicatessen stores; more of
them appear in the gardens of the foreign residents and might be
adopted for general cultivation with good results.
ARTICHOKES
Which appear as an especial delicacy on the menus of the big hotels
and restaurants on special occasions only, are not difficult to grow
in sections of the country where the winters are not too severe. They
will not stand the winters of the northern states, however, and in any
longitude north of the Ohio, are better for winter protection. Given a
mild winter climate they are as easily raised as a cabbage or an ear of
corn and are far more ornamental, indeed so striking and handsome are
the plants that they may be grown for their effectiveness alone.
The plants are grown from seed started in a hotbed in March or earlier
and planted out in rich mellow soil when the weather is suitable. Set
the plants three feet apart each way. The plants do not bear until the
second year, but they may be had in cold sections by purchasing the
plants of the florist at any time after the middle of April. As many
undesirable sorts are often obtained from seed it is a more certain way
of getting good varieties to purchase the plants. They are, however,
more expensive than other vegetable plants and where they can not be
carried over the winter are somewhat expensive, costing one dollar and
fifty cents a dozen. However, a dozen will be ample for a small family.
The unopened flower head is the part eaten and it is served raw as a
salad or cooked in various ways as an entrée.
They should receive the same culture as okra or corn, thorough
cultivation and water if the season is unduly dry. At the approach of
severe weather the tops should be cut off close to the crown and the
plants banked up with coal ashes, which should be removed in the spring
before growth begins.
ARTICHOKE, JERUSALEM
Though sometimes used as a vegetable and for pickling is especially
valuable for feeding stock, especially swine which are allowed to
harvest it by rooting it out of the ground. It is claimed that an acre
of ground planted to artichoke will keep from twenty to thirty hogs
from October to April. They have a special value as a means of clearing
a piece of land of undesirable weed growths—like Canada Thistle, quack
grass or locust sprouts, as the hogs in rooting for the tubers will
destroy the weed roots, thus redeeming a piece of land that may be
utilized for garden crops or fruit.
In planting the tubers are cut and planted the same as potatoes and
cultivated in the same way until the crop is matured sufficiently to
turn the hogs on it or they may be harvested to feed during winter to
any stock which needs a succulent winter food.
BROCCOLI
A vegetable similar to cauliflower, but of somewhat coarser flavor.
It is hardier than cauliflower and will do well in sections where
cauliflower is not successfully grown. For rapid growth it should
receive frequent cultivation and be grown in rich soil. Sow seed very
early in greenhouse, hotbed or warm window and set out as soon as the
ground can be prepared in spring, setting the plants the same distance
apart as cabbage and drawing the earth up about the roots when hoeing.
White Cap is about the best variety, making fine, large, compact heads
of a creamy-white color, of good flavor.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
These little miniature cabbages, growing closely together on a stalk,
are delicious boiled like cabbage or used as a salad. The culture is
the same as that accorded cabbage. The seed should be sown in the
hotbed in spring and set out in the open ground in May in rows three
feet apart and about twenty inches apart in the rows. Cultivate to keep
down weeds and maintain a dust-mulch. By fall the little heads will be
fully developed. The delicate flavor is improved by a touch of frost.
For late use sow seed in June.
CHICORY
Sow seed in the open ground early in spring as for parsnips, thinning
to stand three inches apart in the rows and making the rows fifteen
inches apart. Dig the roots in the fall and store in a dark cellar
where the temperature can be controlled. Cut the leaves off a little
above the root crown and place them in horizontal layers with the
crowns outward covering each layer, excepting the tip of the crown,
with earth. Each layer should be a little narrower than the one
beneath so that they form a sloping bank. It is the tender white leaves
produced in the dark that are used for salad. Another form of Chicory,
the Large Rooted, is used to mix with or substitute for coffee, being
sliced, dried, roasted and ground.
Witloof Chicory, or French Endive as it is sold by dealers in fancy
fruits and vegetables, is sown in June in drills a foot apart and
cultivated until frost, when the plants should be taken up and trimmed
to an inch and a half from the neck and replaced upright in trenches
about sixteen inches deep, setting the plants about an inch and a half
apart. The trench is then filled in with soil and covered with manure
to hasten growth. The tender, white tops will be ready for use in about
a month and are eaten raw, like celery, used as a salad or cooked.
CELERIAC
Or turnip-rooted celery is grown for its bulbous root, which has a
distinct celery flavor and in gardens where celery will not succeed it
makes a very good substitute. It is used, cooked, either as a salad or
as a vegetable. It is cultivated much as celery is, only it does not
require the banking so necessary with that plant. It may, however, be
blanched and is said to be very fine that way. Delicatesse is a fine
sort with perfectly smooth root, free from side rootlets, pure white,
tender and excellent in quality. Giant Prague is another fine sort.
Earliest of All is ready for use in June and is a good sort.
CHERVILLE
Resembles parsley and is used for garnishing and for seasoning.
Cultivate like parsley, making the rows a foot apart and thin to six
inches.
COLLARDS
Grown at the south as greens and as a substitute for cabbage. Plant
seed in rows, thinning or transplanting to a foot apart in the row. It
is improved by a touch of frost.
CORN SALAD
Sow in spring in drills a foot apart. For winter and spring use sow
in drills in August and September and cultivate like lettuce or other
salad stuff.
CRESS
Upland Cress, which has the flavor of water-cress, can be grown in any
good garden soil without the presence of water. The seed should be
sown very freely in rows one foot apart, making repeated sowings for
succession as the plant soon runs to seed. Water-cress can be grown
about a water hydrant if the soil is clayey, or can be underlaid with
a few inches of clay. Water-cress sown at intervals in such a position
will give a supply of the pungent green that will be a very welcome
addition to lettuce, corn or other salad. Remove a foot or eighteen
inches of the soil for a square yard of space and in the excavation
thus formed lay a few inches of clay, tamping and puddling it down
until it makes a continuous layer, then apply a few inches of earth
rich in humus or marsh earth, leaving the surface slightly lower than
the surrounding soil and scatter the seed broadcast and keep free from
weeds until up and growing. Allow the hydrant to drip sufficiently to
maintain sufficient moisture. Continue to scatter seeds at intervals
for a succession of cress.
DANDELION
For those who love the bitter tang of the dandelion as a green, the
cultivated affords a much finer dish than the wild as the leaves are
double the size of the wild dandelion. The seed should be sown in
drills, covering very lightly and shading with newspapers or brush
until up. Thin to stand a foot apart and blanch, if desired, by
inverting a box or flower-pot over each plant, or a cone of stiff paper
can be used. For greens, only the top may be removed but for salad the
plant may be cut down to the root, the part beneath the surface of the
ground being very white and tender. There is no danger of dandelion
grown in the garden becoming a troublesome weed as it is easily kept
from seeding, which is its only way of spreading.
FENNEL OR FINOCCHIO
Is extensively used in Italy as a salad. The part used is the
enlargement of the leaf stalk at the base of the stem. When this is
about the size of an egg, the earth should be drawn up about the plant
to cover the enlargement partly and in a week or ten days the eggs
maybe used, removing as many as required, a succession being produced.
The flavor is delicate, resembling celery, and it may be used either as
a salad or boiled.
GARLIC
So beloved of the Italians is quite worth cultivating in our American
gardens. It is used in minute quantities as a seasoning in almost all
forms of savory cooking, in omelets, salads, soups, dressings and
wherever a piquant flavor, suggestive of onion, but distinctive, is
desired. The garlic comes in a bunch of cloves which are separated
and planted like onion sets an inch apart, but it requires warmer
weather than the onion, succeeding especially well in the climate of
California. It is, however, indigenous in a wild state in many parts
of the country and cattle browsing in garlic-infested pastures have a
distinctive garlicky flavor to their milk. So agreeable is the taste of
garlic or leeks in butter to some people that it was once quite common
in the Philadelphia markets to hear "leeky butter" inquired for.
KALE OR BORECOLE
Are grown for greens and as a substitute for cabbage, being more hardy
than that vegetable. For summer use sow the seed in the open ground in
May or June and cultivate the same as cabbage. For early spring use,
sow seed in September and protect during winter. Some of the varieties,
like Imperial Long-standing Kale, are so hardy that they may be dug out
from under the snow in the winter. Dwarf Curled Scotch is an excellent
sort, very tender and fine flavored and with beautiful curled foliage.
Dwarf Green Curled Kale and Excelsior Moss Curled Kale are other good
sorts, very mossy, attractive and delicious.
Sea Kale, less well known than the annual kale, is a hardy perennial
that is cultivated somewhat like asparagus, the seed being sown in the
spring in rows three to four feet apart. The seedlings give a crop
the third year but quicker results come from planting root cuttings
or offsets. The Sea Kale has a very long tap-root and should be grown
in rich mellow soil that has been ploughed or dug very deep. As soon
as shoots show above the ground blanch with boards, earth, sand or
anything that will exclude light until ready for use. When blanched the
leaf-stalk is cooked like asparagus or the leaves are used as greens.
KOHL-RABI
(Turnip-rooted cabbage)
The bulb which grows on the stalk a few inches above the ground is
the edible part of this vegetable. This is stripped and cooked like
turnips, but is much more sweet and delicate. Sow seed in the open
ground in June, making the rows sixteen inches apart and thin to six
inches in the rows. Sow for succession from early spring until July.
Cultivate like cabbage.
LEEKS
Sow seed in April in drills one foot apart and one inch deep.
Transplant when large enough to handle or thin to stand six inches
apart in the rows, setting the plants as deep as possible so that
the earth will come up well about the neck to blanch and insure its
whiteness and tenderness. In cultivating draw the earth up about the
plants. Seed may also be sown in August or September, the same as
onions, and the plants transplanted the following spring.
Prizetaker Leek is a fine exhibition sort. Large Musselburg has
enormous broad leaves and a pleasant flavor. Long Mezieres also has
broad, erect leaves, fine flavor and a long, snow-white stem and is
very hardy. Leeks are a valuable addition to the onion family of the
garden.
MARTYNIA
The curious pods of this vine vegetable are used for pickling and
produce a very fancy article. They should be gathered when only half
grown. Sow the seed in the hotbed in spring and transplant into hills
three feet apart each way and cultivate the same as cucumbers. The
plants will self-sow and voluntary plants will appear each year so that
once established one is quite sure of a supply. Seed may also be sown
in the open ground, if preferred, in May.