Top 5 surprise foods she's found growing in her garden

[zeborah]

When I bought my house almost thirteen years ago it was largely on the strength of its rimu wood panelling, proximity to a bunch of bus routes, and established peach and plum trees. I soon transplanted a seedling born of a grapevine at my parents' house, and have slowly and surprisingly developed something of a vegetable garden, but through the years I've also discovered a number of food plants that have been happily growing for years without me ever having noticed.

(Note I don't count the rose hips. Partly because I always knew I had rose bushes, and partly because it's so much effort to turn them into food that I've only kindasorta bothered twice in my tenure.)

5. Button mushrooms (7 years after moving in)
These are super sporadic. Maybe they were just a fluke. I got two once (which, by the time I'd determined they were definitely button mushrooms and not highly toxic, weren't really that edible any more) and one more another time which I left hoping it would generate more. It hasn't yet. The latest mushrooms I found in that area had suspiciously pointy caps; I didn't touch them.
Grade: C-, needs to try harder

4. Fennel (13 years after moving in)
I think I've noticed the plant for a fair amount of time, I just always assumed it was a weed or something. But today I was on the verge of digging it out when I thought, Haha wouldn't it be funny if it was fennel? So I nibbled a frond and lo, it tasted of licorice. So now I need a whole bunch of recipes for fennel. Idk it seems more like flavouring than food but otoh it's there, so...
Grade: C+ I guess?

3. Lemons (5 years after moving in)
How do you just not notice a lemon tree? When some fool planted it between a silver birch and a plum tree and behind a climbing rose. I cut down the silver birch early on (I can't remember if there was any precipitating factor or just general recognition of the evils of silver birch) and after several years of trying to keep the climbing rose in check I just cut that back to the roots (several times, but after a few years it got the message) and behold, surprise lemon tree! Admittedly it's kind of a dwarf lemon tree since the plum tree's still overshadowing it. It suffers from black sooty mould and very reliably produces 2 (two) small lemons every year. This year I thought it was just one but then I found another, even smaller, one hiding behind a leaf.
Grade: B but it's a pity grade

2. Asparagus (8 years after moving in)
I'd never eaten fresh asparagus before, only from a can in asparagus rolls. And then one year I suddenly noticed asparagus popping its head out of the ground! When in season I get a few stalks every few days; I'd definitely eat more if there were more! Some years I snap it off and eat it then and there, raw; this year the compost heap is closer by and it's growing particularly thick so I'm enjoying it very-lightly boiled. It's so sweet!
Grade: A for quality

1. Elderberries (10 years after moving in)
I think I was reading an article in the newspaper about elderflower/elderberries when it occurred to me that the photo looked really familiar! It was in fact the same as that spindly tree with the ugly composite flowers! Part of the reason for the spindliness was it was close-abutting an equally large pittosporum; I got a company to remove that and they commented most people would remove the elder tree instead. Fools! Now I harvest large containers full of berries every year, keep them in my deep freeze, and use them in muffins or just as a fruit crumble year-round.
Grade: A++ for quality and quantity

Bets are now open for what I'll discover next!

Comments

[hrj]

I love surprise edible landscape. When I bought my current house, I didn't look very closely at the yard during my walk-through because it was raining. (And the house layout itself was what sold me.) So it wasn't until after I moved in that I realized I had multiple plum trees, an apple tree, and a non-descript lemon/lime/thingie. Most of the edible plants have been my own addition, but those solidly established ones have been real producers in the years when we get enough rain at the right times. This year I put away 5 gallons of pureed plums and maybe 10 bushels of dried or otherwise processed apples. I have a solid mini crop of rose hips that I have my eye on (though as you note, they're more work than they're worth). The rest have been eat-as-I-go without any surplus to put away. I've been thinking about establishing some asparagus beds but I worry about my carry-through, since neglecting them might result in having to start from scratch.

[zeborah]

When I discovered the asparagus I read up a bit on them and discovered they're finicky about their roots - so I've just left them in situ, occasionally watering or covering with a bit of richer soil, I don't dare do anything else.

I love preserving things when I can. The peaches I take to Mum's place and bottle in a giant session during the 15 minute window between when they're green and when they've started to rot (they're sensitive things). The plums I quarter and dehydrate, and also freeze containers full of (and also get friends to come and pick bags full...). The deep freeze has changed my life. :-)

[graydon]

Fennel is supposed to go well with fish.

I don't know if this is useful information or not -- I am not myself much fond of fish -- but it's widely attested.

[legionseagle]

I am well known for not being able to stand aniseed or licorice flavours, but I toelrate and even deliberately use them in fish dishes; the Hairy Bikers Mediterranean Journey includes several (though the smooth fish soup isn't worth the effort.)

[zeborah]

I should eat more fish. I quite like it, I'm just terrible at cooking it, partly due to not really knowing much about different types so if I try to fry something it ends up flaking apart, for example. I should probably head to a proper fish monger sometime when they're quiet and get them to tell me all about them.

[choirwoman]

Buy a smallish fish (or fish fillet) so you expect to be able to eat it in one go; put it in a dish that it just fits in (but is deep enough); cover it with white wine with fennel and a dollop of cream mixed in. Put in oven for 10-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish, until it's no longer translucent and flakes apart easily. (Also scales nicely; I've made this for 7 people with individual-sized red mullets)

(ETA: red mullet is a very easy fish; manageable size, falls off the bone without effort when done, no niggling little bones all over. And tastes good, too.)

[zeborah]

I'll find out if we have red mullet! (The most common fish here are hoki and tarakihi which are probably less common your way if you've even heard of them!)

I always feel weird cooking in wine (or juice) because that's for drinking! And at the same time I don't actually drink it a lot. So if I use half a bottle for cooking then the rest sits around turning to vinegar. (Same problem with cream actually though at least there I know plenty of desserts I can spoil myself with!)

[zeborah]

To clarify, this is a general problem with cooking for one. I rarely even have salad dressing anymore because it's going to go off long before I finish the bottle. I don't buy different kinds of oil for different dishes; it's all I can do to get through one kind while it's still good. I've managed to grow mould on tomato sauce, sweet soy sauce, margarine, and a jar of jam (all except the sweet soy sauce were kept in the fridge). It puts limits on practical recipes.

[choirwoman]

Oh yes. It's already harder with two than with five (as we found out when our daughters all left home within one year).

[cyphomandra]

I’m impressed with the asparagus! I always thought that was super fussy to grow.

My mum used to make elderflower champagne when we were kids (it’s not really alcoholic) and I love that and elderflower cordial.

(icon: I have two tamarillo trees in my garden, which fruited this year, but it’s technically cheating as I put them there. The cape gooseberry I thought I’d killed and just hadn’t got around to yanking out of its pot has come back to life though, which I will take as a win!)

[zeborah]

Yay cape gooseberries! I had one one year, but my next one went straggly and never fruited, and after that my seeds have never germinated.

I've been pondering whether to get feijoas or kiwifruit or tamarillo (in short, something that fruits later in the year). I'm leaning towards feijoas. Only at the moment I'm still holding out hope that my persimmon trees grown from seed from a supermarket persimmon might sometime bear fruit, which would be even better....

The elderflower cordial does look surprisingly easy to make! Though it also looks like a lot of sugar. (Granted I use a lot less sugar since I switched to fair trade so almost anything looks like a lot of sugar to me!) OTOH it calls for two lemons and as mentioned that's the number I usually get in a year! :-)

[china_shop]

There was a tiny wizened mossy old lemon tree in my garden when I bought my house, and it barely grew at all for the first 10 or 12 years, and maybe produced one or two hard green nuggets a year, and then all of a sudden had a growth spurt and now makes more lemons that I know what to do with! It's great!

[zeborah]

Yay!

Maybe when I've picked the latest lemonette off mine I'll give it some fertiliser and one last chance....