What are people growing for the summer

[Zasso Nouka]

After a recommendation from @baragua we tried growing Amaranth (ヒユナ) this summer to fill a gap in leafy vegetables when it's so hot and I'm really glad we gave it a go so thank you very much for suggesting it.

We grew 3 varieties this summer.

Red


Green


And a red/green mix


It grows really quickly, new young leaves are soft enough to eat raw in salad so it makes a good replacement for lettuce in salads and doesn't have a strong flavour so won't overwhelm a salad mix. Older leaves have a firmer texture and as @baragua said can be used as a spinach replacement, you literally cook it the same way you would spinach. Blanche, plunge into ice water and season with salt, olive oil and lemon juice or ponzu and top with katsuobushi flakes, chopped peanuts or chopped cashews. The leaves have surprising levels of vitamin A, C and K and respectable amounts of minerals as well.

As the plants are so vigorous we're also using it as chicken food and the birds seem to love eating it, presumably the red leaves will contribute to the colour of the yolks. You can probably start harvesting at around 3 - 4 weeks after planting so there's still time to get some planted for this summer.

They also produce prodigious amounts of seed which can be made into a porridge or can be made into Amaranth popcorn

[Insane]

The usual fare of tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and a few other things. The only problem is that our new plot of farmland isn't getting enough sun for tomatoes because of all the trees. Fortunately, we have lots of neighbors who are only more than happy to get rid of their various vegetables that they can't eat.

if anybody wants some firewood, I've got quite a few trees that I'm more than willing to part with.

[UeNSaVOr]

I just grow in pots for now until we decide where to move in the future.

A variety of peppers and the couple of cucumber and eggplant plants that are hanging on. I think the eggplant are done for, however. I was growing cherry tomatoes but they are all gone at this point.

Looking at my seed packs, next month will be za tsai, red onion, and spinach. I've never really grown any of them before, so that will be interesting.