Thinking outside the box, some cool perennial vegetables.

[Colin_M]

Just to concur with Westi, I've grown Chick Peas a couple of times now. Mainly for fun and also as green manure or cover till my next plants were ready to go in.

You don't need to plant right at the beginning of the year. I started sprouting some supermarket chickpeas in May, planted them in June and they thrived. I now have a second crop in.

Indians love to pick the green chickpeas and roast them (in their pods). A wok works well for this with some salt & the spices of your choice. They taste great and you pick up a lot of the spice flavour whilst licking your fingers between pods

[ken]

Very interesting, the news that chick peas don't take as long to mature as the RHS suggests...It might well be worth giving them a go.

[Nature's Babe]

That sounds tasty Colin, like Ken, I will give them a try.

[Colin_M]

the news that chick peas don't take as long to mature as the RHS suggests

I may have oversimplified

According to Wikipedia, there are two types:

• Desi, which has small, darker seeds and a rough coat, cultivated mostly in the Indian subcontinent, Ethiopia, Mexico, and Iran.
  
• Kabuli, which has lighter coloured, larger seeds and a smoother coat, mainly grown in Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Chile
  
• Full article here

In the past I tried soaking & growing the lighter coloured one that's commonly available in supermarkets (presumably Kabuli). These germinated quickly, but were slower to grow when planted out.

This year I used the darker Indian variety (presumably Desi). Personally I find that when soaked and cooked, these never feel as soft & nice to eat as the traditional varierty. However they germinated and grew quickly and are superb when eaten fresh as described above!

You can buy these from "Indian shops" if you have one near you, though obviously it's now getting late for trying either variety this year.

[Nature's Babe]

Thank you for that useful info Colin, they will probably adapt more to our climate if you save seed from year to year, many of the immigrants who tried their home exotics over here on allotments found the plants adapted gradually to our climate anyway.