Essential “new” crops

[alan refail]

Looking back over my cropping lists for the past three decades I can’t help but notice that so many of the things I now see as essential crops were not widely available (in the UK at least) twenty of thirty years ago. I couldn’t now do without the following:

Endive
Chicory
Miners’ Lettuce (Claytonia)
Salad Rocket
Wild Rocket
Flat-leafed parsley
Coriander
Pak Choi
Japanese Mustards (Mizuna, Mibuna etc.)
Japanese bunching onions
Cavolo nero
Borlotti

I know that not one of these crops is in any sense new, but it is a sign of developing tastes that have brought them to popularity and made them so much more readily available.

What would be your list of essential “new” crops?

[WestHamRon]

Chilies and sweet peppers, for me. You don't mention garlic. Was that grown here 30 years ago ? i ask through pure ignorance. My family were Greengrocers and I don't remember Garlic in the shops.

[sally wright]

Dear Alan,
celeriac, basil, red onions, long shallots and aubergines. Don't forget the fruity things such as yellow raspberries, blueberries and cranberries etc.

It is interesting to look at veg growing books from the post war period and seeing how not only the things we grow have changed but also the production methods, especially what we try to control the pests with.

Regards Sally Wright.

[Geoff]

"The Vegetable Garden Displayed" First published 1941, completely revised 1961, my reprint 1972. Published by the RHS.
Chapter headings : Asparagus, Beetroots, Broad Beans, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbages, Carrots, Cauliflowers, Celeriac, Celery, Dwarf Beans, Endive, Garden Swedes, Globe Artichoke, Herbs (part of a page mentions Mint, Parsley, Chives, Sage and Thyme), Jerusalem Artichokes, Kales, Leeks, Lettuces, Onion, Parsnips, Peas, Potatoes, Radishes, Rhubarb, Ridge Cucumbers, Runner Beans, Savoys, Seakale Beet, Shallots, Spinach, Spinach Beet, Sweet Corn, Tomatoes, Turnips and Vegetable Marrows (talks about cutting them small as Courgettes).
So as well as those already mentioned we are missing Pumpkins and Squashes, climbing French Beans and probably a few more but Endive is there.

[oldherbaceous]

I think the list of vegetables that would have been grown in a walled garden and under glass, and went up to the big house would have included most things we class as "new" to us now.
The common folk just grew ordinary, easy to grow vegetables.

I still don't grow any fancy stuff, i know my place.

[alan refail]

I still don't grow any fancy stuff, i know my place.

Oh, go on, give it a go

[oldherbaceous]

Would Broad Bean stereo count, if they where picked and cooked like mangetout.

I can feel myself climbing the social ladder already, can't i!

[Monika]

Perhaps we should add kohlrabi to the list? I certainly remember hunting for garlic to plant some years ago. Now they are offered by every garden centre.

Not a vegetable, but can anyone remember when the only olive oil available was in teeny-weeny bottles at chemists? Just look at the range of them in supermarkets now!

[jane E]

I only started growing sweetcorn about 5 years ago and now I have an 'extended' season of it by growing different types. I couldn't go back to the starchy taste of supermarket sweetcorn! The other thing I would miss is Crown Prince squash which a forum member introduced me to about 4 years ago.

[Nature's Babe]

Oooh Tomatillo's, delicious grilled, and cape gooseberries keep well and make a change in salads, and mooli and romanesco cauliflower. The olive tree and kiwi vine have been planted, waiting for a good summer and fresh olives, and a late crop of fresh kiwi.

[FelixLeiter]

Courgettes. There was only marrows thirty years ago. I remember growing these as a boy. My family thought I was trying to poison them.
I can't find endive or chicory indespensible, though: it looks nice, but it's bitter and coarse to eat.

[Primrose]

I'd pick frilly endive, peppers, chillis, aubergines, celeriac and cavalo nero. When I first started growing vegetables about forty years ago, I don't think I'd heard of any of these. But really that was the post war period and few people had enjoyed the benefit of foreign travel and the chance to try more "exotic" foods. At that stage of my life I was still a real innocent. I didn't even know the difference between a clove of garlic and a garlic bulb! Even mushrooms were only eaten on High Days and Holidays. How the world has changed!