In today’s program, Cathy Isom tells you about growing your own baby vegetables. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Growing baby vegetables is a great strategy in a tough gardening year. Even when the weather is not bad, there are some important reasons why homesteaders should grow baby vegetables on purpose.
Baby vegetables are veggies harvested in an immature state or dwarf varieties of the plant. Not all vegetables can be grown as baby vegetables. But there is a lot that can. Generally, the taste of vegetables worth harvesting in their juvenile state is going to be similar to the mature plant. However, they might be a bit milder, with less bitterness. In some cases, such as baby vegetables that are grown in cool weather, they can even be sweeter than their older, more weathered versions would be.
Most annual root crops can be grown as baby veggies. Carrots, turnips, radish, beets, potatoes, kohlrabi, onions, and more are all great options to harvest before they grow to full size. Just about every kind of green will be tasty when harvested young. Even plants that are usually grown for their large heads like cabbage, radicchio, and heading lettuce make great baby vegetables.
I’m Cathy Isom…