Part 1
Vines, Part I
Earlier this year I built up a trellised raised bed for trying to grow different vine vegetables.
So far, I have grown two types of luffa (regular luffa and thai luffa (ridged)), yard long beans, bitter melon, winged beans, and hyacinth beans. All of the seeds came from Baker Creek Seeds, at rareseeds.com.
Luffa, mixed results as a food, excellent scrubbers!
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Angled-Gourd
I grew two types of luffa, the Thai Angled Luffas, and the "Dishcloth" luffa. Both grew really well, and lasted for about six months, producing quite a bit of "fruit" along the way.
I tried eating both types. The dishcloth version never really impressed me when it came to eating, however the Thai version was pretty decent, though a bit bitter. I tried stirfrying both.
As scrubbers, the dishcloth version was really good, providing nice shaped, long lasting scrubbers that were easy to process. I use them as a shower scrubber, to wash eggs, and to wash cast iron pans (we're weirdos, we pretty much only use cast iron pans, we only have one very small non-stick pan for cooking single eggs quickly).
The Thai version, angled, made a terrible scrubber. The mesh part was only on the outside, and was nearly impossible to get the skin off of.
Both produced tons of seed, so are easy to propagate.
Yard Long Beans, a definite winner!
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Long-Beans
I grew a variety of yard long beans that I no longer see listed on the rareseeds.com website, but it was essentially a Chinese yard long bean. These are definite winners for me. I personally HATE green beans, but these were really excellent in flavor and texture, quite different from your standard green bean. They produce a lot of beans, keep producing for a long time, and seem really easy to grow.
The beans need to be picked when they're young and tender, as they aren't very good once they're past a certain stage. If you let them grow out, they produce a lot of seed, and are pretty easy to propagate. In fact, if you just let a few hang on, eventually they'll fall apart and reseed.
I'm trying to find out if the dried beans are edible, and how they need to be handled for eating.
A few things of note:
Like regular green beans, if you don't pick them, they'll quit producing. Eventually they'll make a come back though.
Definitely need trelissing, they grow crazy.
All the beans I've had that were touching the ground got eaten by something, so if they're touching the ground, pick em and eat em, even if they're really little.
Bitter Melon, very bitter, but very healthy!
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Bitter-Melon
These were a little hard to grow, but came out fine. IIRC, I grew the Thai Long, though since they weren't actually very long, they may have just been the regular old green ones. They are very bitter, but I have read that they are very healthy, particularly for diabetics.
According to Joy Larkcom, in her book "Oriental Vegetables," they should be picked "while firm to the touch, and before developing any orange tints." So that's what I do. Also in this book, Mrs. Larkcom notes that the shoots and leaves are edible as well. Bonus!
I had some really excellent bitter melon a few weeks ago, they were stuffed with pork and steamed. Very good.
I had a hard time getting the seed to germinate. The fruit produce a decent amount of seeds, but these are from the ripe fruit, which are then not edible (I guess). I germinating some second generation seeds now, I'll update this as they work out.
If you google bitter melon, you'll find lots of research about how healthy they are.
Winged Beans, tasty, neat looking, high in protein!
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Asian-Beans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_bean
These are the hardest seeds I've ever tried to germinate. The seeds are little brown balls. I've had them take a couple of weeks to germinate, and seem to have better luck if I score the outside of the seed, or even slice through the outer skin a little.
Winged beans are awesome: you can eat the beans, the leaves, the flowers, the shoots, and they poduce a small, edible tuber. Talk about a Buddha plant! The beans are high in protein, like thirty something percent (the beans, not the pod), and are very tasty. I remember reading somewhere that it is a very under valued crop, with a lot of potential to feed people in times of need.
I think winged beans are uniquely suited for Hawai'i. They tend to produce beans only when the daylight is near 12 hours per day or less, so they wouldn't work so well on the mainland, in places where it's freezing during that part of the year.
If you're interested in learning more about the winged bean, read this: http://www.appropedia.org/The_Winged_Bean_High_Protein_Crop_for_the_Humid_Tropics
From that article:
"The pods are green, pink, purple, or red-20 cm long on average, and in some varieties as long as a man's forearm. They can occur in such abundance that they often enshroud the whole vine. Each pod has four sides and a square or oblong cross section. A distinctive flange or "wing" projects from each corner. When picked young, these pods lack noticeable fiber and make a succulent green vegetable that is eaten raw, steamed, boiled, stir-fried, or pickled to make a crisp, chewy delicacy.
But pods are only one of six different foods supplied by this plant, which has been described as "a supermarket on a stalk." With the winged bean, almost everything goes into the pot. Its leaves are cooked and eaten like spinach (they are rich in vitamin A, a deficiency of which blinds many tens of thousands of children each year in tropical countries); its succulent shoots resemble lacy thin asparagus; and its flowers, when steamed or fried, make a sweet garnish with the appearance and texture of mushrooms. "
Here's another link with nutritional information and recipes: http://www.echotech.org/network/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=559
Hyacinth Bean, beautiful, tasty.
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Asian-Beans/Moonshadow-Hyacinth-Bean
I got interested in this plant while reading Echotech's "Amaranth to Zai Holes: Ideas for growing Food Under Difficult Conditions," where they had a section about selecting crops, and this section:
"WHAT SEED WOULD YOU TAKE TO AN UNINHABITED TROPICAL ISLAND?
Dr. Frank Martin is the author of several books and articles on tropical subsistence farming and a frequent consultant to ECHO. We received from him the following interesting note:
"If I were to go to an uninhabited island in the hot, humid tropics, taking with me the seeds with which I think I could best provide myself food, I think I would take the following:
* Roots and Tubers
(1) sweet potatoes--the variety 'Gem' (orange-fleshed) and some white-fleshed types,
(2) yams--Dioscorea alata and D. esculenta, selected varieties,
(3) cassava--some true seed to start my own,
(4) Queensland arrowroot (Canna edulis), very easy to grow and productive.
* Grains
(1) corn,
(2) okra, for edible seed and well as green fruit,
(3) wax gourd (Benincasa hispida) for edible seed as well as squash-like fruit.
* Legumes
(1) Catjang cowpeas (climbing, disease resistant forms),
(2) winged bean,
(3) Dolichos lablab beans,
(4) asparagus beans.
* Leafy Vegetables
(1) chaya,
(2) sunset hibiscus,
(3) Tahitian taro (Xanthosoma brasiliensis),
(4) Tropical or Indian lettuce (Lactuca indica).
* Fruit Vegetables
(1) tropical pumpkin,
(2) okra,
(3) small-fruited, indeterminate tomatoes,
(4) hot pepper,
(5) ensalada pepper, selected for its edible leaves.
* Trees
(1) bananas,
(2) breadfruit,
(3) limes (West Indian, from seed),
(4) tamarind,
(5) papaya,
(6) mangoes (from seed, turpentine type but selected)."
Hyacinth beans, aka dolichos lablab, are number 3 in the legumes section (after the catjang cowpeas, a relative of the yard long beans, and winged beans ;o).
The hyacinth beans are a bit of a weird plant. For one, they're poisonous. You gotta cook then to eat them. The fresh young pods can be stir fried. The older, dry beans have to be boiled, with the water changed a couple times to make them edible. That's pretty weird to me.
For more info, check out this: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11763&page=191