As promised in my Monday‘s post, I brought my camera to Locust Grove and took photos of the “not your typical” crops we grow in the Heritage Vegetable Garden.
These are crops you would not expect to be growing in a Hudson Valley, NY garden. But they are growing and are flourishing under the tender loving care of all the volunteers (could use more volunteers) who show up every Thursday morning to plant, water, prune, stake, harvest, weed ……
And speaking of weeds, they are flourishing also. I often joke that the weeds would not do as well if we actually planted them.
(NOTE: Not sure why, but you may need to click on some of the photos to enlarge.)
Sweet potatoes patch
Four (4) varieties – Laceleaf, Purple, Frasier White & Georgia Jet
When the sweet potatoes are ready for harvest, I bring in my portable stove, we will cook (in the garden) the 4 varieties and do a flavor and texture comparison.
Peanuts patch
Two (2) varieties – Valencia & Tennessee Red Valencia
When the peanuts are ready, again I bring in my portable stove and we will have a peanut boil party in the garden. Oh yes, we have fun too, it is not all work and no play. NOTE: The 2 photos above are from previous year’s harvest.
Artichoke – Imperial Star
Fennel – Florence
Okra – Cow Horn
Okra Flower
Celeriac – Large Smooth Prague
Parsnips
Two (2) varieties – Hollow Crown & Half Long Guernsey
Parsnips will be ready for harvest in the fall, because they overwinter well, we will be leaving some in the ground and mulch the area with leaves. Harvest in early spring the following year, they are delicious.
Grapes
Four (4)) varieties – Beta, Delaware, Concord & Niagara
Hops – Kent Golding
Heirloom Tomatoes
Heirloom Tomato – Goldie
We also grow tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, peppers, eggplants, beans, peas, onions, kale, cabbage, potatoes, cucumbers, squash, asparagus, small fruits, herbs …… Nearly all the crops in the Heritage Vegetable Garden are heirlooms.
Hope you enjoyed this brief garden tour.
The garden and grounds are open to the public free of charge
Daily, 8:00 a.m. to dusk
Locust Grove
2683 South Road (Route 9)
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
845.454.4500
www.lgny.org
If you are in the area do stop by and visit. Use the Garden Map (hanging in the garden kiosk) as a reference for your self-guided tour. Please return the map to the kiosk for the next visitor.
Also please close the garden gates properly when you leave the garden. The woodchucks are hiding in the shrubs facing the garden gates and are watching for any opportunity to enter the garden (even if there is only a crack in the gate) to feast.
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …
Copyright © by Norma Chang. All Rights Reserved. Do not use/repost any photos and/or articles without permission.
Garden to Wok 
How nice it is to do outdoor cooking with the fresh produce… the garden looks really pretty and trimmed…
Hello Lrong,
We try our best to keep the garden looking good, but the weeds always seem to be one step ahead of us.
Thanks for the tour. I find it interesting that the “not your typical crops” have a lot of typical southern crops in there. I would never have thought of growing peanuts up north. Do you find that you get decent yields of peanuts?
Hello Daphne,
I meant “not your typical crops” to grow in the Northeast. We get decent peanuts yields though not the last couple of years because of the woodchucks and other critters. We are growing Valencia for the first time this year and are hoping for good yield.
Norma, I so enjoyed your “virtual tour” of the gardens – and seeing the results of the amazing work that the volunteers do there. This reminds me that I always enjoy visiting the Heritage Vegetable Gardens in person – will have to plan to get over there soon and then walk the woodland trails afterwards.
Hello Ginny,
Do visit on a Thursday morning so we can spent some time together.
Great job! LG is always fun whether working in the flowers or veggies. Always samples to take home!
Hello Phyllis,
Thanks. Yes, we do get to take home goodies.
Great work to all volunteers and you!!!
Hello Marta,
Thanks.
You have a great garden, Norma. Thank you for the tour.
Hello Angie,
Thanks and you are welcome, glad you enjoyed the tour.
I love that you bring a portable stove and give everyone a taste test and a bit of fun. That is a great idea!
Hello Kristy,
One has a better comparison with side by side taste test. The 4 sweet potatoes each has a different profile, very interesting and fun discovery.
Wow, that huge fennel is gorgeous. Such a bountiful garden. I love that you bring in a portable stove Norma – boiling and sharing fresh peanuts with friends seems so much nicer than scoffing the ready-cooked salted variety.
Hello Saskia,
Many people have never eaten boiled peanuts and was surprised at the texture.
I definitely need to try growing celeriac again! And peanuts, I’ve never known anyone to grow peanuts! They must be amazing just picked and boiled, right there in the garden! Thanks for sharing these wonderful photos with us, Norma! 🙂
Hello Celia,
You are welcome. Oh yes, the freshly harvested and boiled peanuts are delicious, so creamy. Celeriac is very easy to grow, I find easier to grown than celery.
I think I need to find a better variety. The ones we grew made tiny bulbs gnarled with roots – very little usable flesh!
Hello Celia,
Garden catalogs and/or garden centers would be a good place to start or the farmers at your local farmers’ market would be happy to offer suggestions.
Hi Norma, we’ve been away getting into trouble in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois! But don’t worry, we weren’t that bad!
The photos are fantastic, love the variety if vegetables and fruits they grow! I’d totally help you weed, I find it therapeutic too, lost in your own thoughts.
Why do you need to boil the peanuts?
Hello Eva,
Welcome back. You getting into trouble????? I can’t imagine that. You covered a lot of grounds in such a short period of time. Looking forward to reading all about your trip and the bloggers you met.
Our growing season is short so the peanuts never reached the mature stage for roasting that’s why we boil. Actually boiled peanuts are delicious. You can purchase raw peanuts for boiling at the Asian markets in Toronto.
Very interesting about the peanuts, thank you. Many of our tobacco fields were converted to growing peanuts but I’ve never tried boiled peanuts; I wonder if they are in a micro climate to have a longer season.
Hello Eva,
From what I read, the peanuts farmers in Ontario grow Valencia peanuts, a shorter season variety and they also probably have special setup to get a head start. We use to grow Virginia jumbo but this year is growing Valencia, will see if there is a difference.
What a lovely tour. I hadn’t seen an okra flower before. There is a lot of good variety in this garden. xx
Hello Charlie,
Glad you enjoyed the tour. We do have a great many variety of crops growing in the garden.
What a wonderful post! Can’t quite believe it but we Down Under seem to in the last official month of our winter since the spring gales are a’blowin’, at least where I live!! So it is time to take out the latest heritage seed catalogues, try to remember what I meant to grow this year, go and have a gander around the closest nursery and learn from people like you 🙂 ! Heirloom tomatoes are of course on the menu: the rest yet to be decided 😀 !! Thanks for the preview tour!!!!
Hello Eha,
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the tour. You don’t seem to have much in the way of winter, how long is your growing season?
Australia is a big, big country 🙂 ! I live about a 100km S of Sydney: one begins planting late August-early September [stuff like basil a month later] . . . a lot of herbs etc usable late Sept, hope for the first tomatoes Christmas , cukes & zucchini earlier, end of season about March-April . . . some herbs overwinter: am still picking thyme, oregano, onion greens, rosemary [of course], some of the mints . . . . certainly a longer season than what I am reading N of the equator 🙂 !
Sweet potatoes and peanuts are not what I expected from a New York garden. 🙂 Cooking in the garden is a brilliant idea.
Hello Maureen,
To assure a harvest, we start the sweet potato slips and the peanuts in the greenhouse weeks before we can plant outdoors.
Everything here looks amazing!! I love love love boiled peanuts! They must taste even better right after harvesting 🙂 Great job, Norma!
Hello Tokyohamster,
Oh yes, the boiled peanuts definitely taste much, much better boiled immediately after harvesting than those from the food store.
Thanks so much for the chef’s tour! It looks fabulous. Everything looks so healthy. I’ve never seen peanuts growing, so that was a very fun picture for me. Not at all what I imagined! If I had a garden like this, I would never make it to the store!
Hello Susan,
Glad you enjoyed the tour. Check out my 9/29/11 Peanut Boil post for more about peanuts. I tried to post a direct link but it is not working.
Welcome back! And, I love the taste of boiled peanuts.
Hello YC,
The boiled peanuts taste even better freshly dug from the ground, cleaned and into the pot.
Thanks for the tour, Norma. What a great garden with so many beds to maintain! That okra flower sure was a pretty blossom. I wasn’t expecting that. Loved your warning about the woodchucks, hiding in the bushes, waiting for a loose gate so that they could raid the garden.They’re getting smarter!
Hello John,
You are welcome, glad you enjoyed the tour. Yes, the okra flower, a member of the mallow family, is very beautiful.
We do have very smart woodchucks, they learnt from the 4 very smart families, one of which was Samuel Morse, that lived at Locust Grove.
P.S. Wrote 2 vintage cars posts the weekend you started your vacation, 7/19 and 7/20.
It looks like your garden and the locust grove garden are both doing well. I wish I could say the same thing for mine. They just aren’t going to catch up from all the rain and sunless days. Oh well that is gardening for you, there is always next year. 🙂
Hello Karen,
I would love to have some of your rain. It’s been pretty dry, with a shower here and there that does nothing for the gardens, still need to water daily.
Would you believe that I haven’t watered once. Strange year weather wise.
Lovely garden and look at those artichokes!! My husband marinades, then grills them. Sooo good!
Hello Sandra,
Yes, it is a lovely garden, we receive lots of compliments from the visiting public. Will your husband share his artichoke recipe?
Pingback: Harvest Monday, November 3, 2014 – Locust Grove Heritage Vegetable Garden | Garden to Wok