In this column we hope to bring to the AVG gardeners the opinions of gardening professionals and amateur gardeners from around the country on the consensus ratings of various vegetables based on their taste, texture, intensity of flavor, and plant productivity. Obviously, what one gardener considers wonderful about a tomato or carrot may not be as highly regarded by another planter. Moreover, variations in the quality and composition of the soil, seasonality of weather patterns, and the types of fertilizers used, can result in enormous variations in vegetable quality.
Our sampling is therefore based on finding those specific varieties of vegetables that rank at or near the top of most of the reviews from individuals and gardening groups around the country. Over the course of a year, our listings of the ‘best of the best’ varieties of specific vegetables may be too late for the current planting season since, as an example, most summer vegetables here in Irvine have already been planted. Hopefully, we will be able to come up with recommendations for fall and winter vegetables before their planting seasons. In any case, if we are too late for any given planting season, keep the recommendations handy for the next year.
A young Japanese lady named Marie Kondo last year published a transformative best-seller entitled ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.” Her thesis, which made a lot of sense to many people, was that in the process of tidying up and getting rid of things, discard anything of non-current use that ‘did not spark joy.’ The search for the ‘best of the best’ in vegetables is a logical offshoot of Ms. Kondo’s thesis. Rather than planting and growing vegetables that don’t ‘spark joy, wouldn’t it be nicer to plant and grow those things that really do pack a taste and flavor wallop?
Larry hopes to cover the following veggies in upcoming blog posts, (in no particular order):