Mauka. Mirabilis expansa. I managed to grow two mauka varieties. Mauka blanca and mauka roja. I gave leaves to a friend of mine to try and eat them as spinach. He said they were moderately good and knowing him, if he says that, it means they are rather bad. I am trying to grow them through winter. The idea is to protect them from the frost so they might flower in january/february in order to get seeds. Mauka blanca Mauka roja.
Medlar. Mespilus germanica. I was lucky to get two very rare types of medlar. One kind was sent to me by a swiss collector who said it is the best tasting variety he knows. The second one is a seedless one that makes larger fruit than the ordinary seedless one, so also very special. There still is a huge potential in improving medlars through breeding simply by crossing them or even by trying to cross them with other fruit species. Medlars give fruit in my climate every year. No other fruit tree is as reliable for me as the medlar. superior tasting swiss type. large fruited, seedless type from bulgaria.
Brussels sprouts. Seven different varieties of brussels sprouts are now growing at my place. Next year i will let them run to seed in order to cross them and try to select ancient brussel sprouts. The idea is to reestablish an open pollinated landrace of brussels sprouts that slowly ripens over a long period of time from the bottom of the plant upwards like the old varieties used to do before modern farming needs modified them to all ripen at the same time. Some heirloom varieties still ripen over an extended period of time but the goal of this project is to see whether an improved brussel sprout plant for the private gardener can be created.
Cool. Very, very, very cool.
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