Anyone who has ever eaten corn salad, or mache as it is known in Europe, knows just how wonderful a winter salad green it is. A cool season vegetable I pick enough for a salad several times a week from the end of May until spring.
Max is a really good doer which grows well in cooler parts of Australia. It has an excellent disease resistance package and produces good flavoured, sweet tasting yellow cobs, often two per plant.
Polaris cobs grow to 20cm long and are sweet and juicy. The plant can make 180-200cm tall and provides good disease resistance to ensure a bumper crop. A terrific 'honey and cream' variety to use instead of Samurai.
Productive Gherkin 55 days from transplant A beautifully shaped pickling cucumber which brines well and has excellent flavour if eaten fresh. It has very uniform, cylindrical fruit which set 1or 2 fruits per node. Replaces ‘Harmonie’
‘Caman’ was the best slicer in our cucumber trials. It is very productive with good fruit length. The fruit has smooth dak green skin and crisp flesh. A market leader amongst commercial growers a couple of plants will keep a house supplied for months.
The best Lebanese cucumber in our trials for non-trellis production. Very quick to produce and incredibly productive this variety has uniform crops of dark green crisp fleshed fruits for all of the warmer months. A couple of plants will keep a household going.
55 days from transplant ‘Panama’ is a superb variety with excellent disease resistance which produces delicious, crisp Lebanese cucumbers with a thin dark green skin. It makes a compact but vigorous plant and is highly productive. 'Panama' is best grown on a trellis.
A vigorous slow bolting variety with an upright growth habit which can be planted the year round. It’s one of our favourite herbs. My wife uses it in her spinach and fetta cheese pie, for stuffing whole fish, broad bean salads, and many other dishes.
‘Gold Fields’ is a selection of Genovese basil, the one used for pesto, that is more tolerant of cold weather than traditional varieties. A strong plant with dark green leaves it has all the flavour of older types but can be sown a month or two earlier.
Vertissimo is a slow bolting deliciously flavoured chervil. It can be used in salads, as a micro green or a garnish. Plant seed in drills in the garden in spring and again in autumn.
Garlic chives are a perennial onion relative with a flavour closer to garlic than chives. The leaves are used in stir fries, pancakes and dumplings as well as a garlic substitute in stews etc.
I always have a patch of chives in the garden. This is an excellent flavoured variety with delicate fine leaves good for both cooking and as a garnish.
As I grow coriander for its leaves rather than for its seeds I grow this new relatively slow bolting variety. This is a new improved replacement for Calypso.
As I grow coriander for its leaves rather than for its seeds I grow this new relatively slow bolting variety. This is a new improved replacement for Calypso.
A new improved slow bolting variety with an upright growth habit which can be planted the year round. Dilligence replaces Hera. It’s one of our favourite herbs.
A new improved variety boasting a high yield from a uniform plant with sturdy stems.I plant seed on bottom heat early in the spring and outside in the garden after mid-November. Parsley will sometime bolt if seed is planted in soil which is too cold.
A real giant but with wonderful Italian parsley flavour has an amazing size and productivity. Sow seed on bottom heat during early spring and in situ during late spring, summer and early autumn. Parsley can bolt if seed is planted in soil which is too cold.
Fantastic is a new, large round eggplant which can be grown successfully in the open garden in cooler parts of the country. I plant 2 seeds in a 7.5cm pots on bottom heat during early to mid-September thinning to one plant after germination.
Mini Lebanese eggplant 65 days from transplant This outstanding variety produces straight elongated fruit with glossy purple-black skin. A strong upright habit which is super productive even
Stria is both beautiful to look at and terrific to eat. The medium sized round fruit have white striped purple skin. Early to crop and prolific this variety topped our eggplant trials last season. It holds well after picking too.
A beautiful frisee endive with fine green leaves which are soft yellow in the centre. I plant seed from September until February and get a crop for much of the year as it is very slow to bolt.
Best performing escarole This vegetable isn’t used much by Australians but in France and Italy it is very popular sautéed in garlic and olive oil. Bitter vegetables are very good for our health Cooking does soften the bitterness and brings out sweet flavours in escarole.
Winterbor is the most productive Kale currently available growing up to 90cm tall. The vigorous plants will continue producing fresh leaves as lower ones are harvested. Sow seeds from early November (best) to early January for harvesting during autumn and winter.
