I actually planted a horseradish root from the grocery store and it grew into a small bush :) Very yummy leaves! Will leave the root alone this year...
I had NO IDEA you could take cuttings from some of the plants you mention, like KALE! Would love a video on many of the "lesser known" plants we can propegate from cuttings. What a great way to save money, which is so needed for many of us at this time. Thank you so much for your video!! ❤️
Charles Dowding did a video on taking tomato cuttings and keep them growing over the winter in a greenhouse and planting them out late Spring. I'm trying it this year and if I get a few to survive, I could get some tomatoes even earlier next year.
@@ellingtonlover7319 I'm doing that this year as well and already took suckers off my favorite plants and put in water to root. I'm bringing the plants inside the house however .. my greenhouse isnt warm enough. I'm a first year gardener and excited to learn all of this!
1.) Ostrich Fern taste like asparagus & green beans, 2. Nine-Star Broccoli 3.) HorseRadish Armoracia Rusticana Zone 5, 4.) Wild Garlic illium Ursinum Zone 4, 5.) Good King Henry Blitum Bonus - Henricus (Wild Spinach) Zone 5, 6.) Sorrel Rumex Acetosa Zone 5, 7.) Chicory Chicorium Intybus Zone 3 with one type being Radicchio,
I always kind of wanted to grow horseradish - but I don't eat that much of it so I never did. But now I know the leaves can be eaten too! Add that top sweet potatoes as an "eat everything" plant.
Fiddleheads are wild here in New England/ USA. We go and gather them and they literally are a treat, and free. They taste very close to asparagus. They are delicious sauteed. I also make a creamed soup with them. Literally use them the same a you would asparagus. I have never heard of buying them to grow. I would look into how to multiply them. As I said, they grow wild here all over in the forest. Very interesting on the wild garlic. It would be hardy for my zone. I would love to see how people cook with them. My favorite perennial I grow is Sunchokes. Absolutely need nothing and I have an abundance of a potato like crop.
Thank you for some new ideas to try, Good King Henry, sorrell, the garlicky thing (I'll have to watch again for the name). I tried growing chicory this year but it didn't come up so I'll try again. One of the best ways to discover perennial veggies is to leave things growing through the winter even when you think they might be dead. I save most of my garden clean up until spring when I start seeing sprouts. I have had a regular standard broccoli grow for 5 years before it died. It would flower and that stem would die back and then another stem or three would sprout from the stem towards the bottom and produce small heads, even in the winter and in snow. It never produced viable seeds so I was sad about that especially once it died. After the second year I had to tie it to a stake because it was so top heavy with branches, it kept falling over and uprooting itself. I just stuck it back in the soil and it kept growing. A surprise I had this year was finding several leeks that had flowered, suddenly have new baby growths at the base. A little closer examination and they are bunching! Also a purple cauliflower that we ate in the spring, we left it to straggle through the summer and now it's fall and it's regrowing another nice big head.
I've got 2 great books on this subject. 1 is Perennial Vegetables by Eric Toensmeier- basically a short encyclopaedia of perennial veg, including aquatics! Thanks to that one, this year I've tried Sagittaria latifolia (broad leaf arrowhead or duck potato) in my pond, and Nelumbo nucifera (lotus) in a half barrel in my greenhouse. Can't wait to try these aquatic tubers! The second book is a field guide to 山菜 (lit. Mountain vegetables) I bought in Japan. It's a foraging handbook covering edible wild plants found in Japan, but many like mugwort are found here too. Mugwort can be used to flavour mochi sweets! I love this book because the cooking suggestion for nearly all of them is to tempura fry them :D BTW, while I was out there I tried salt pickled Japanese knotweed... it was delicious, but of course I don't recommend introducing THAT perennial into your garden!
I’m an agronomist and I must say that I didn’t know at all about some of these perennial; as always there is always something new to learn. Great video!
Fun fact! Chicory was used in New Orleans in the USA as a way to keep coffee from rotting. Due to the swampy area, coffee couldn’t keep without it. It has a robust flavor so if you like a mild coffee, you may want to lessen the quantity.
BEN..!!!!!!.I love see the falling apple behind you. I can not imagine your country has beautiful home garden. I watch several channel from your country and every has an apple tree. So briliyant. In our country, apple is expensive and we do not have habit to grow our fruit even in our country side. Only a little of us understand about home gardening. Thank you for sharing with us here 💐
Round leaf purslane is a good perennial too. You see it growing wild in cracks in sidewalks and parking lots. Use in salads. Good source of omerga 3's. There is also a wild needle leaf version.
Ostrich fern (Strutbräken) is a woodland plant here in Sweden. You see it now and then growing thickly on the forest floor. I had no idea you could eat the shoots though. I'm definitly going to try some next spring!
Great video Ben… All edible perennials are worderful, some plants can self sow thier seeds, which is the next best thing… I know this isn’t either but I sow spinach seeds in the fall , just as the tree leaves are falling… Let them get covered in leaves and ignore… If you live in a place with snow, they will usually pop up through the last of the snow (as it’s melts away)… It’s one of the first things to pop up in late winter/early spring… Another one I almost consider perennial is miners lettuce because it always seeds itself. I have a patch of miners lettuce that has regrown itself for well over a decade, and it is still going strong (and I don’t do anything but pick it, and I never have to water it , weed it, or anything). I plant a lot of garden crops in the fall (just like the spinach I mentioned)… You would be surprised how many different plants will just pop up, earlier than anything you would have considered transplanting from the greenhouse… Sometimes I add row covers during spring frosts. But talk about early salads, most of my garden turns green before the snow has fully melted and that green is all veggies. Fall planting is well worth experimenting with, wherever you might be growing… It is mimicking nature, and can yield spectacular results… And don’t forget brassicas all winter long… Btw, all broccoli types will keep growing if you just clip the heads, and will overwinter just fine, as long as bugs and water are controlled. (Bug netting, not pesticides… Pesticides poison plants and soil, avoid them at all costs). Winter produces my favorite veggies of the entire year, fall is my favorite time to sow spring seeds, and row covers and tunnels can mitigate anything nature throws at you that isn’t a full on natural disaster. Shade cloth in the summer, light bug netting for the rest of the time (unless flowering and pollination are taking place)… Add in a few cold frames and a decent greenhouse and you are set for year round harvesting.
Thank you for this video. I live in a tropical environment and the ferns, tree collard, some of the broccoli’s, would do great here. I will be planting some out in the garden in December.
I believe everyone should have a wide variety of perennial plants growing. I rent and have a few dozen perennial vegetables in containers. Love my perrinals.
Have you ever tried the common Day Lilly. The whole plant is eatable . The white part of the spring time shoots are delicate in taste. The flower buds have a sharp tang and the open flower make great garnish in salads.
We have wild fiddleheads all over the place in Maine and fiddlehead season is a favorite. There are a lot of "secret" places that people go to pick and they sell really great and go fast! "Ramps," are also wild here, but don't get oticed as much as fiddleheads. This was an excellent video, thanks much!
New subscriber here, just watched some of your videos as we recently returned to the UK after 8 years in New Zealand and we are on our own sustainability/ growing journey which we vlog. All fun in the learning, so thank-you for sharing.
I have many of these wonderful plants already, some do better than others for me in North Wales (with a view of Snowdon's Peak) but they are always interesting and useful, especially in the hungry gap. Perennial purple tree collards and kales do very well here, I have the variegated form of daubentons and Taunton Dean but prefer the former for taste. I would like to grow ostrich fern but would need to take care not to confuse with the bracken fronds which pop up from time to time. I have not yet tried good king Henry but might give it go. For a perennial spinach I grow Hablitzia tamnoides (3 varieties) also called Caucasian spinach. It is a somewhat incongruous shade loving climber once established with useful early shoots which can be steamed like asparagus, but leave a few to climb several metres up sticks into trees or a trellace. They gave mild spinach Like leaves, which don't get bitter. Check out Steven Barstow's posts for more information.
You should try strawberry spinach (Blitum capitatum) as well, it gets these very red, spinachy flavored berries on it and it even survives the cold winters here in Canada. I've picked wild fiddleheads here in the spring when they come up, but I've never tried growing them at home.
@@ginbotho6073 if you're asking about fiddle heads, they do best in bright shade. I have some that have taken over a shade garden. I give them well composted manure in late spring and then just ignore them except to water about once a week. They are next to a rhododendron so they get some of that fertilizer as well.
I'm not keen on eating/drinking in front of the camera - the chicory coffee was, hand on heart, a very close alternative to coffee! I genuinely loved it! For chicory root you can try getting seeds from www.chilternseeds.co.uk/item_334n_cichorium_intybus_seeds The roots I dug up were dug up with permission from someone else's garden.
Another awesome upload Ben! I read about fiddlehead fern but never was brave enough to give it a shot. I may do just that next spring. Thanks for sharing!
Ben, you're such a breath of fresh air...I, myself, am a forager and love picking Fiddleheads in the spring out here in the woods where my husband and I live. Also, since I make Fire Cider every autumn season for the winter months, I decided to try putting down my own Horseradish plant. We had an old fire ring that we placed in the soil at ground level and planted the horseradish inside of it to keep it from proliferating too far into the yard. I am hopeful to be able to harvest from it in a year. Something I would like to add to your wild edible list are lilies. I have the common orange day lily (Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus) along the front of my home that were here when we first moved in 30 years ago. I have since found that they were first introduced to the United States in the late 19th Century as an ornamental. But have also eaten the young leaves in the spring. They are very refreshing...tender and mild of flavor...very agreeable. Now I have a request: teach us how to make a cold frame and WHY I would want one in zone 3. Thanks!!
Thanks for your kind comments. I knew day lilies were edible but have never tried them - will have to give it a go. Thanks for the video suggestion. In the meantime you may find this one on cold frames helpful, though it's a few years old, so do excuse the more wooden presentation! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m2PJP5OJO0E.html
Good-day Ben!👋 I've heard of all the plants you served up; however, I haven't tried planting many of them in our edible landscape. Your video has given me the itch to try a few. Thanks!😃💕
THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH!!!! I found your channel yesterday while at the office on my break and am most grateful! I love how you talk and your personality. Plus, the information you share is precisely what I need for starting my future permaculture farm! I've so many allergies to fruits and vegetables that I can't eat most conventional foods.... The alternative foods you offer and talk about are a real life saver and nutrition booster for me~ THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! Love and hugs from an expat in Japan!
I’ve just done cuttings of my Taunton Deane and daubington kales they all took 100% and I’ve ordered some 9 star broccoli plants Love these perennial plants and going to make a perennial area at the Smallholding
Fiddleheads-heard of but didn't realise it was a fern. Brassicas-yes, grow them in my garden (catapillars love them too much too) Horseradish-yes, but noone in household likes the taste of horseradish. Wild garlic- harvest it from my local woodland area Lincoln spinach- grow in my garden Radicchio- grow in my garden It's handy having a place near me that sells seeds dirt cheap
Ostrich ferns grow wild around here on the flood plains next to brooks and rivers. It's possible to pick enough fiddleheads to fill a 5 gallon pail in under an hour. They can be blanched and frozen, canned or pickled. We don't have the wild garlic that you mention but we do have ramps (Allium tricoccum), commonly known as wild leeks. They look very similar to the wild garlic. Years ago I found a patch of horseradish on an abandoned farm. I've been going back every year to harvest both the greens and roots. Those are three perrennial vegetables I won't be growing because I have access to all I want. I will look into 9 star broccoli.
Omg, I’m called Henry and in lincolnshire, definitely getting some seeds for that! Also as a disabled person who can’t garden anymore, and can’t spare many carer hours for gardening, this video is so helpful, thankyou ❤
Hello, I'm wondering if you are able to have large pots near your sunny window to be able to grow some greens plus herbs. Alternatively perhaps you could get some shelves across your window for greens/herbs or some self watering pots on a stand for same. If able then that green thumb of yours will be busy indoors. Greetings from Australia.
@@honeybee3317 yeah that’s it. I grow basil on my window ledges and you can grow ginger inside too. I’m going to try the ginger inside next winter as I live in a cooler climate so it doesn’t grow well here. Only grows in the summer here.
I live on the edge of a forest on the West coast of Canada (don't be jealous, there's a bear been roaming around since spring so we've had to keep inside a lot) and I walk past those ferns to get to our car. Just make sure if you're harvesting them from the wild that the water they're consuming is clean as they do well in wet, disturbed areas, and are often found around effluent pipes. No Bueno. Great ideas here, thank you for sharing them.
wow what an informative movie. Ive got some good king henry plants in my garden that i grew from seed - dont harvest them the first year they go out - give them a year to establish. All the rest are new to me but I really like the idea of perennials so Im gonna try them out.
Here's a recipe to enjoy your King Henry Spinach with (also works well with asparagus, young spinach, and tonight I'm using young rocket and sorrel): Salmon Wellington. Thaw out puff pastry and roll it out into two rectangles slightly larger than your filet of salmon. brush with beaten egg and lay down half of your greens to form a bed; ladle on a light drizzle of lemon-dill sauce, then layer on your filet, a grind of pepper, then a second drizzle of the sauce, followed with the rest of your greens. Cover with the upper crust (also brushed on the inside with a bit of the egg wash) and seal by crimping the sides. Finally, give the outer crust a brush with the egg and cut a few slits before popping into a 400 degree F oven for 25-30 min. Serve with a salad or other veg.
Fiddle heads are eaten in Bhutan. Had them there with onion, chili, cheese sauce... steam a hot chili or pepper, an onion and a tomato in a bit of water, add fiddleheads till tender, make sure there is a bit of water, add mozerella or cheese of choice...ready...serve with white or red rice _super delicious
My dad had an allotment when I was younger and when he got given it, it was infested with horse radish, took over most of the allotments in the area, pain in the bun
Amazing video thanks! If you have more plants like this please share. I enjoy eating mallow in my salad. I love the taste. Also salad burnet, pansies, self heal, Silene taste good also, claytonia and my favorite cheek weeds! Thanks so much again
There are just so many perennial edibles. I hope to do more videos on them over the coming months. Do check out our last video on perennial vegetables though for a few more ideas
I have a good ostrich fern garden already, the sorrel is showing up wild but I'm not so good at eating it. Still haven't gotten around to the others but I built a primitive plastic greenhouse (to save the tomatoes) and look forward to using it. [
I love horseradish, got some out of the ground, and learned VERY quickly to grind or cut it OUTDOORS. Factory workers wear hazmat suits and gas masks 😂
I so so so want to grow ferns, but didn't know you could eat them! Wonder of wonders! We have a certain damp shaded corner that would be perfect. But I am still on the search for ferns (here in France) to buy. And in our bottom wooded garden - perfect for wild garlic 🙂
I was wondering how to make chicory powder - Thank you so much, I also like that it is one of the few plants with a truly blue flower. It took me by surprise the first time it flowered.
Great ideas there, Ben. I already have 2 tomato plants from cuttings that I am overwintering and I will be overwintering some pepper plants next week. We still have 90F temps here in Sacramento, so I can put off some overwintering and my tomato plants are still producing and generally produce until into December.
I have a pepper plant (habanero) that I've grown for years. I grow it in a pot and bring it inside in the winter, then just add a little fertilizer in the spring and it makes more peppers than I can eat. I still have dried peppers from last year and this year's final crop is coming in now.
A little farther north than you (Redding), we used to watch carefully for the 1st frost, then just before the frost hit pulled our tomato plants up, roots & all. Then we hung the plants upside-down in the attached, but uninsulated, garage. The fruits would continue to ripen, a few at a time, for _MONTHS & MONTHS!_ *The **_VERY_** last "day of a fruiting year" that we harvested and ate one of those "hanging tomatoes" was JULY FOURTH - OF THE FOLLOWING YEAR!* TIP: if you happen to forget to harvest these "hanging tomatoes" in time, they're quite liable to drop onto the floor - _OR_ onto your head!
@@dixietenbroeck8717 Thats cool, I usually cut my tomatoes ,eventually, at grade and leave the roots in the soil. I still have 6 tomatoes, 8 feet high, still producing some tomatoes. I already saved seeds from my favourite 2 tomatoes for next season and have 2 plants overwintering inside in a south facing window.
Fantastic video! I'll definitely be looking into a few of these this year - especially the broccoli! We're lucky to have a kilometer long bank of wild garlic a short walk from the house which always makes its way into a myriad of dishes.
I love this video. I'm 64 and in zone 7b Charlotte, NC USA and as I age, I find less time to work in my garden (especially in hot summer) so perennial veggies are a perfect answer. Can you please speak more about the taste when you show them?
Thanks for the suggestion Ann, I'll bear that in mind for the next video on this topic. I hope you're tempted to give some of these perennial veggies a try. :-)
As always Ben, great information. I had no idea that any of these plants could be perennials. I already found the wild spinach and broccoli for order. As mention by HC, I too would love a video on the lesser known plants that can be propagated. Thanks for the great video.
Thanks Ben, great video! I am following the Zoe health programme, already eat 30 different plants a week and was thinking we have already tried all edible plants. No so, so glad you have brought these to my attention. I did try growing Sorrel but seed was old by the time I sowed it so nothing. I have heard of Good King Henry but not tried it. As for the rest, I can't wait to try them. Maybe not the wild garlic though as allotment has white rot fungus!
Nice one Ben,I’ve been thinking about growing horseradish for sometime,I know it grows wild in the U.K. as have been watching a few foraging videos from a guy called Marlow,think the channel is “wild food in the U.K. Ltd”,anyway,not meant to dig it up apparently,so will have to source some root from a supplier…that perennial Broccoli looked impressive too.keep up the good work Ben it’s very much appreciated 👍
Hey Ben I learned something new! If you find ostrich ferns in the Spring, ones that hadn't been harvested they are tall and brown and do indeed look like ostrich's feathers. 😀
Wonderful! I didnt know perennial broccoli existed, and I never heard of Good King Henry. Hoping for a small harvest from the ostrich ferns I planted last year however! Thanks for this
Ostrich fern are named not only for the feather plummage but if you look at the small leaves on each strand they are rounded smooth like the bill of an ostrich whereas all other ferns are jagged and have frilly edges which is important to identify them because they can be poisonous if eaten unlike the Ostrich Fern.. which is delicious... best salad ingredient or burgers.. They can be found in dense woodland near rivers & flood plains, which would make them an ideal crop for flood plains as we adapt to climate change..
Fiddle-head ferns grow in abundance here in western WA state in the US! You'll find them all over in our neighborhood. Between these, the rampant blackberries, miner's lettuce, cleavers, etc you're almost always within arms reach of a snack for most of the year here.
Wait, wait, wait... there are leafy greens we can use in salads, other than spinach, lettuce, and kale?!?! Someone needs to let the grocery store know!!
I would have recommended totally different plants but I live in California. The only one I have not heard of is your heard of is "Good King Henry" but I love growing plants that are edible and delicious and not well known.
I have lots of horseradish to make my homemade cough syrup and I didn’t know that the leaves were edible. I have some garlic ramp seeds but I haven’t planted them yet.
I had a sauté of ostrich fern fiddleheads at the café for the botanical garden in Hamilton, Ontario. It was delicious! Yes, a little like asparagus. I love to grow them for the leaves so I am always torn! I do love a chicory coffee blend as well.
