The bean is an annual plant of the family Fabaceae. This is a huge plant family, with over 19,000 species. Only orchids and asters outnumber the members of this botanical group. Among the bean plant’s many close relatives are peas, runner beans, broad beans, soya beans, peanuts, alfalfa, clover, lupins, and sweet peas. All these plants are grouped botanically based on the common structure of their flowers and other characteristics. All of them can be considered “Legumes,” although most of them are inedible and many are even poisonous.

 

The particular species we grow for bush, pole, and dry beans is Phaseolus vulgaris, (vulgaris, in Latin, always means “common”) and just this one species has a wide range of growing forms, sizes, and colours. Read More...

Collards (Brassica oleracea Acephala group)

Kale (Brassica oleracea Acephala group)

Russian or Napa Kale (Brassica rapus ssp. pabularia syn. B. napus)

 

As the name suggests, Brassicas in the Acephala group do not form central heads, as cabbages do, or they form central heads that are relatively loose and open. Sometimes called Spring Greens, collards and kale are extremely similar, genetically speaking. Both form upright, open plants with large leaves that are often veined with distinctive colours. Collards typically have smoother, broader, more rounded leaves compared to those of kale, which can be extremely curled.

 

Because the leaves of these plants are open to the sunlight (unlike the tightly packed interior leaves of cabbage), they are darker. They are also thicker, tougher, and have a stronger, bitter “cabbagey” flavour. Both plants grow as biennials i
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As a vegetable crop (as opposed to a grain crop), the potato is the world’s most important foodstuff. The starchy tubers of the potato plant are exceptionally nutritious and so rich in carbohydrates that potato fields can yield 2- 4 times as many calories per acre than can grains. Potatoes can be grown, with little effort, in a variety of soils, and under tremendously diverse growing conditions. As we shall see, it is no wonder that potatoes have come to represent such a large proportion of the world’s food crops.

 

The first potatoes appear to have been harvested as long as 10,000 years ago on a chain of islands off the coast of Peru. According to the DNA record, the plant we know today (technically it is S. tuberosum ssp. tuberosum) was domesticated somewhere between 3000 and 2000 BC, again, in Peru. Since that time as many as 5,000 varieties of potatoes have been grown for food, the bulk of which occur only
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No one can say for certain, but the ancestor of all modern tomato varieties appears to have been a scrambling vine that was native to the highlands of Peru. Archaeological evidence suggests that these wild plants were harvested for their small green berries. The first domestication of the tomato was by the Aztec people of central Mexico who grew it for its small, cherry-sized yellow fruits. They gave it the name Xitomatl (swelling fruit), from which we get the modern English word, “tomato.”

 

Both of the explorers Cortes and Columbus are credited with bringing the first tomato plants back to Spain some time near the dawn of the 16th century. By mid-century the fruit had been described by Italian botanists, and given the name pomo d’oro — the “golden apple.” Whatever the exact history of the plant is, one thing is for cer
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The culinary versatility of carrots, combined with their nutrition, ease of growth, and centuries of cultivation, has resulted in a spectrum of shapes, sizes, and colours. Discovering a favourite variety requires some experimentation, but each has its own distinctive qualities. Among the vegetables we consider modern Western carrots, there are four primary groups: Imperator, Chantenay, Danvers, and Nantes.

 

Imperator types are the commonest ones you might see in a super
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