Purple, Orange and Green Cauliflower

Created on 5/19/2009

I have been in California for the last week taking a break from Ohio spring and enjoying the varied climate and topography of the state where gardeners don’t just talk about plant hardiness zones 9 or 10 but adopt the Sunset climate zones where there are twenty four. Most of the twenty four are in California alone. Every slight change in elevation and distance from the ocean changes the growing conditions. Moisture, lack of moisture, the mountains, proximity to the city, latitude etc. all combine to provide tiny fluctuations in microclimates that dictate what grows well and what won’t survive.

This trip I was north of San Francisco in Sebastopol signing books at Copperfield’s Books and in Santa Barbara signing books at Chaucer’s Bookstore. I then spent some time in Camarillo, just north of LA talking to gardeners and food lovers about what grows well.

Gardeners are very interested in creating edible landscapes that are beautiful and useful. Land and water resources are precious; it makes sense to grow what you love to eat in the residential landscape you have. Even a tiny courtyard is sufficient to set up some containers to grow herbs, greens, lemons, oranges, edible flowers and vegetables.

In the community of Camarillo there is a grass roots movement to set up community garden plots. Gardeners have gathered hundreds of signatures to petition the city to provide some land so neighbors can gather together and grow their own food.

A trip to the Camarillo farmer’s market on Saturday morning reminded me of just how varied that food can be. Of course, when you have your own kitchen garden and grow things from seed the variety is immense no matter where you live, but in Coastal California with its long growing season and mild weather, variety is plentiful. I saw a few avocados that looked different from the Hass variety I see at my Ohio supermarket. Who knew there are actually thousands of varieties of avocados that can grow here?

One local farmer was displaying her greens, some of which I had never seen before. Pea shoots were tied in bundles. The bundles contained the stems, tendrils, flowers and forming pods of the peas. She told me all parts were used for stir fries. She also had bundles of dark green spiky leaves that reminded me of flat leaved Italian parsley. Not exactly, though, these leaves were larger and more jagged. It was mizuna. In traditional Asian dishes it is used in soups or stir fries. Americans have a fondness for it raw in salads. Another bundle of green elongated leaves she called water spinach which is also chopped and used in Asian cooking. I was surprised to see the leaves of bitter melon tied in a bundle. The leaves, like the prickly fruit, are bitter and added to soup or used in tea.

The spring market was filled with what I will see later on- cut flowers, tomatoes, squash and eggplant- produce I won’t see for a while in Ohio markets. It was fun to see three colors of spring cauliflower, purple, orange and green. Maybe I’ll try some orange cauliflower- but not till later in the summer. Cauliflower does better in Ohio as a fall crop so I’ll plant it midsummer.