You know there really aren't all that many vegetables...

[longwinters]

That a person can plant in a northern garden.  Lets see, I have tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, cukes, winter and summer squash, carrots, green beans, asparagus, onions, chives (onion and garlic), lettus, spinach plus blueberries, red and black raspberries and strawberries.
 
I'm not a great fan of the types of lettus that we can grow up here (black seed simpson etc) and how much fresh spinach can a person eat?  So I need something else.  Not interested in peas (I like the frozen kind just fine), brussel sprouts are good about once a year, okra......well not my cup of tea.  I'd rather buy dried beans than grow them.
 
So what is left?  I need an adventure. Something intriguing to grow in a small area.
 
Long

[hillbill]

will eggplant grow in your zone?im growing some for the first time here in MO. you forgot radishes, if you like them? i love them sliced in a salad.i like fall turnips diced with some oinions and green beans.  swiss chard is good in a salad and also cooked. tons of diff kinds of peppers. i grow cayenne and a few other hot ones and then dry them and grind them and use them in my jerky recipes and for cooking.

[Empty Quiver]

Swiss Chard? Cauliflower? Brocolli? I love Mustard and Turnip greens as well, rather have those than the turnip itself. Parsnips? I do like parsnips as well as carrots in a pot roast. How about an Herb Garden? Thyme, Basil, Parsley, Cylantro, I would throw in some Chile and Cayenne Pepper to dry too.

[keith44]

I don't know how many days you have on average, but 120 days will let you grow sweet corn (minimum soil temp 68 degrees F) cool moist shady conditions will grow mushrooms.  Beets are not much of a challenge, so it really depends on what you like.

[briarpatch]

cabbage, collard greens and rhubarb.

[longwinters]

Thanks for all the good ideas.  I forgot that I have done cauliflower and brocolli.  I tend to plant stuff that I can get quite a bit in small areas and corn takes up lots of space for little harvest (plus all our area sweet corn comes from Wisconsin as we are too far north for good crops.  I was thinking parsnips this year but read that they can be kinda nasty, when I was looking at recipes, so I wasn't sure about them and passed.  I have also thought about egg plant, having only ate it once in my life, and it was good.  But I need to rotate my "crops" for soil health so worry about too much in tomato, pepper, egg plant etc.  Now swiss chard sounds interesting...what do you do with it? Collard greens....do you eat them like cooked spinach? 
 
Long

[Empty Quiver]

Swiss chard, cook like any greens. I like to fill a BIG soup pot. Add a few inches of water, easy to have too much though. I'll slice an onion in there and add something like a half pound of bacon. Grandpa swore by side meat, but I like the smoky taste. It will wilt down to about nothing, at that point adjust water. Cook them till they are done enough to suit you. I'll cook them around 45 minutes I suppose. I salt and pepper to taste and hve some pepper sauce at the table.

[briarpatch]

Empty quiver described how to cook collard greens also.

[charles p]

I eat lots of collards.  I usually wait until after a good frost to cut mine.  Put them in a large pot with salt pork or cured ham hock and boil until tender (usually 30 minutes or more).  Drain and chop.  My wife likes to remove the largest stems before cooking but inlike stems and all.


The best collards to us are yellow or cabbage collards and not the Georgia collard variety.

[geezerbiker]

One thing about Swiss chard, the stems are as good as the leaves.  Not so with most other greens.

Tony

[Dixie Dude]

Have you ever had fried okra.  The only real way to eat it.  Otherwise it is used in gumbos.  Just batter it with about half corn meal and half flour after dipping in egg.  Cut it up into about half inch long pieces.  Okra must be cut off the stalk at about 4", otherwise it becommes "woody".  4" lengths, cut up dipped in egg, battered and deep fried.  MMMM good. 

[AtlLaw]

Have you ever had fried okra.  The only real way to eat it.

Boy, what you talkin 'bout!!!      I eat fried okra like popcorn!   

[Dixie Dude]

Yep, people up north don't realise we eat everything fried or mushy down here.  Fried okra, fried green tomatoes, fried summer squash, fried catfish, fried chicken, country fried cubed steak.  Or collard greens, trunip greens, creamed corn.  Good food.  Okra does better in hot climate.  Even in Alabama I do not plant it until mid May.  Needs hot soil to start from seeds.  Plants look somewhat like majurana.  Back in the 70's someone thought this old lady was growing pot in her back yard.  Sherrif came and dug it all up.  He knew the old lady, but thought she was growing pot or one of her grandkids.  She asked him why he dug up her okra.  He had to appologise.  Must have been a northerner and didn't know what okra looked like.  Paul Harvey told about it on the radio. 

[keith44]

shush, ya'll makin' me hungry