Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Rampion | Rapunzel: is there no one else that believes in fairytales anymore?

Forget about the young lady with the long braids stuck at the top of a tower. I can hardly imagine how she managed to wash all that hair! The reason why I even considered growing this is because I have never seen rampion in anybody's produce section, and if Franchi goes through all that effort to put these out then there must be something to them, right? Search for rapunzel roots on Flickr and you get an eyeful of hair. Query rampion and it turns up a mass of purple flowers. I scattered the very, VERY fine seeds in a large bucket of dirt today. We shall see next spring if the fairytale vegetable will come true.

Garden update: the non-cherry tomatoes are much bigger, but still green. Really, all that manure in the soil did a lot of good even if I don't think we'll see any ripe ones before the end of this month. I am already planning on what I'd like to stick back there on the slope in the fall - gooseberries. Picked up this little container for just under 1€. Again, these were never available in Hawaii and while they do have a tart flavor, I like their unique appearance. If you have any growing tips, please share!

Average daytime temperature: 27C / 81°F

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've never grown either of these, but will be interested to see how they do in your garden. :)

Julie said...

Oh wow, Rapunzel! Haven't ever even heard of it let alone grown it. Interesting.

Looks like our temperature averages are pretty similiar right now.

K and S said...

you are finding some interesting things to grow :) hope they do well.

Gail - Fort Rock Glimpses said...

So funny! I never even thought about Rapunzel washing that hair!!! What a chore that would be. Sounds like your tomatoes are at the same stage as ours. We are waiting for them to ripen. At least I see a ton of them on the vines. Last year though we had our first ripe one by the 4th of July.

Rowena said...

perennialgardener - if I can get at least a few (rampions) to sprout and grow, it'll satisfy my curiosity on how they really look before being "photoshopped" on a seed packet!

Julie - so far, so good on the weather front. Just no more strong gusts of wind. Uprighting young corn that has fallen over one time already is plenty enough.

Kat - I still have my heart set on gobo root one day. Oh yeah, and rice too since that news on the rice bread machine came out.

Gail - strange isn't it? Mother Nature will always have the last say on when she's ready or not!

Anonymous said...

I dont know anything about gooseberries. If you use them in a pie or something, keep us updated on how it turns out.
Stellina

Rowena said...

Stellina - their season must be brief or something because I no longer see them in the stores. I know that you can use them in jam, so I really would love to grow them and have my own to experiment with.

Anonymous said...

I never tasted gooseberries but Im going to stick with raspberries. My new pet project, cross your fingers for me and wish me luck!
Stellina

Rowena said...

Stellina - I'm wishing you as much luck as I'll be wishing for myself! We picked up an uva spina rossa bush over the weekend and it's been transplanted into the garden. Here's to lots of berries next year from the both of us!

I love your use of the phrase "pet project"...the next for me will be mushrooms. I've never grown any before and got my eye on funghi dell'amore and shiitake.