Thursday Thirteen...Colorful Vegetables

13 Colorful Vegetables I've Discovered

1. Blue Potatoes : are very much like Purple Potatoes with a striking color and wonderful flavor and moist texture. Like the Purple Potato, they hold their shape after cooking so are perfect for a purple or blue potato salad and also make a fun blue mashed potato. Steam or bake to preserve the color.


2, Cheddar Cauliflower: Let's face it, cauliflower is a bizarre looking vegetable to begin with. Why should we be so surprised to find an orange one? The breeders have been busy perfecting this oddity that popped up in a Canadian field back in 1970. 'Cheddar' just refers to the color, but the power of suggestion could fool the kids into trying it. They don't have to know 'Cheddar' contains about 25 times more beta carotene than white cauliflower. It also makes a fun fresh snack .

3. Ruby Queen: Corn holds a unique charm for kids. It towers over them with leaves that flop about like arms. 'Ruby Queen' shoots up 7' and produces ears of rich, ruby colored kernels that retain their color even after cooking. Imagine a plate of fresh grown 'Ruby Queen', 'All Blue' potatoes and 'Cheddar' cauliflower. What kid could resist?

4.Beet: Chioggia

Beets aren't usually on kids Top 10 list, but slices of Chioggia looks like peppermint swirls. No, they don't actually taste like peppermint, but they are extra sweet beets and they may be the ticket to getting your kids interested in eating beets.


5.Carrot: Kaleidoscope

With their natural sugar content, carrots often don't even seem like a vegetable. The fun in growing carrots is the expectation. Until you pull it out of the ground, you don't really know what you have.

You won't find a colorful array of carrots on the grocery shelf, but in the 'Kaleidoscope' blend, shown here, Burpee has combined seeds of 4 fanciful carrot colors: red, yellow, orange and purple. Make carrots fun and they could become your kids' favorite snack.

6.Bean: Italian Rose

Some kids (and some adults) have no idea where shell beans come from. These Italian Rose heirloom beans are stunning on the vine and the beautiful pods are packed with speckled beans. Rose speckled with white. White speckled with rose. Almost too beautiful to eat. They are also early and high-yielding.


7.Purple Bean 'Royal Burgundy'

'Royal Burgundy' beans are a fun way to engage your kids in the garden. It's a lot easier to pick purple beans than the green ones that blend in with the leaves. And 'Royal Burgundy' is an open pollinated variety that's easy to grow and matures even in cool summers.

One drawback is that purple beans tend to lose their color when you cook them. But that can be fun too. It's like a built in timer that they're done blanching.

8. Truly Sun Dried Tomatoes: 'Principe Borghese' is the perfect tomato for lazy gardeners. These little beauties aren't meant to be munched on in the garden. They're not bad fresh, but their fascination is that you can leave them right on the vine to dry. Quite the trick. Expose your kids to the finer tastes of life without the expense or the crowded upscale import market.



9. An Edible Bowl: Tomato: Yellow Magic

Kids pooh pooh peppers? Mess with their minds with these 'Yellow Magic' tomatoes. Yep, it's a tomato and on its own, it's delicious. But it looks like a pepper and makes a great little bowl for salads. Or stuff in your favorite filling and bake into a surprise entree. The magic is how easily kids who don't like stuffed peppers will enjoy growing and eating these illusions.

10.Squash 'Tromboncino'

Zucchini, in general, are great to grow with kids because they produce so quickly and so much. This old fashioned, Italian variety will be a huge hit, literally. The fruits can easily get 3' long and will wind around like corkscrews if they touch the ground. Grown straight on a vine, they look like clubs that could be used as a weapon. The flavor is similar to the zucchini you're familiar with, but the flesh retains its
firmness when cooked.

11. Egyptian Walking Onions aren't the big, round globes you think of as onions. Egyptian Walking Onions are much smaller bulbs that offer the double bonus of forming smaller bulblets on top of their stems in clusters, kind of like a freaky flower head. You can eat either end, but usually you eat the bulbs from the ground and plant the bulblets for more onions. They get the moniker Walking because if you don't harvest the bulbs, these perennial plants will walk their way across your garden.


12. Purple Tomatillo

Salsa is outselling catsup, yet most people don't even know what's in it. Tomatillos play a staring role in many salsas. You can guess by the papery husks, tomatillos are related to gooseberries and ground cherries. The green variety is fine for eating, but the purple tomatillos are a sight for sore eyes. The leaves are purple veined and the fruits are hidden in pale green husks until they pop open and begin flushing purple. They're an oddity and probably too tart for your kids to like as a fresh vegetable, but they'll enjoy collecting the
prolific fruits and using them to top their tacos.

13. Cucumber 'Armenian'

Cucumbers are so ubiquitous in salads we barely notice them. We've basically grown the one same slicing type of cucumbers for decades. New varieties have been sneaking into the produce aisle at specialty prices. One of the best tasting varieties is 'Armenian', a long, ribbed, pale green fruit that is so tender it doesn't need peeling.

OK, it looks a little prehistoric and funky. Trust me, it's a good vegetable for double daring your kid brother to eat.




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