Thursday, September 25, 2008

Perennial Vegetables

Yesterday, I started reading Eric Toensmeier's Perennial Vegetables. I am not very far along with it, but so far would recommend it highly. I'm so glad this book was written. Some of the plants featured in this book are things I've been curious about, but not yet tried (oca). Others are utterly new to me (air potato!). And some are familiar plants that I had no idea could be edible, like (pokeweed, when young).



The idea of perennial vegetables makes so much sense to me. I don't know why this hasn't been explored more in North America, although Toensmeier does offer a few possibilities. I don't think I would ever give up my annual vegetables in favor of perennials. But a mix of the two would be nice. And in times of great turmoil, having at least some vegetables already established would be a great comfort.



So, added to my garden goals for the coming year is to include at least a couple perennial vegetables. This will be a fun experiment! Which ones are in your garden?

2 comments:

Meg said...

Hi!
My daughter sent me to your blog--you left a nice comment on her article at Global Human--because she thought we might be simpatico. I'm living in the country, trying to garden and all that. I've got plenty of perennial vegetables, I'm sure, growing all over. Now to identify them!
I really appreciate your reasonable voice on political issues. I don't usually "go there" as I stumble over what I really want to say. Now I can point people to your blog with a "yeah, what she said," nod.
Thanks and happy blogging!
-Meg

Maggie said...

Hi Meg!
Thanks so much- my father is always telling me not to discuss politics publicly. But the way I see it, if we can't discuss it openly we can't learn from each other (or make progress!). There will always be those on the fringe who make it difficult to carry on the conversation. Sometimes they have me pulling out my hair. But... if those of us of more moderate persuasions just keep quiet, well, we don't have a lot of room to complain when we don't like how things go. Over time I have come to believe that for our form of goverment to really work properly, the citizenry must believe/participate in a participatory governance all the time rather than waiting until things become really uncomfortable. In other words, I believe in an active rather than reactive system. I don't think we currently have that. But I think we could. ~steps down off soapbox~

I also have to say I checked out your blog and am completely jealous: 40 acres and an awesome house in the works! I will have to add you to my list of blogs to follow so I can see how your progress goes. I would have a hard time moving somewhere that I would have to store that much water- but for 40 acres that beautiful, I might be willing... :)