The Rural Voice, 2019-06, Page 15Chinese artichoke, Caucasian
spinach, Hylotelephium telephium or
stone crop, Jerusalem artichoke,
hostas, udo, day lilies and Japanese
parsley.
There’s a couple others Caesar
might consider: black raspberries and
Egyptian walking onions.
Black raspberries which are
indigenous to North America and
grow wild along fence rows in
Ontario but the fruit is often less than
desirable. I chose a commercially-
adapted line from an area nursery. It
has performed well for the past 20-
odd years.
The canes produce fruit for close
to two weeks in late spring, early
summer. From our 20-by-five-foot
patch, which we routinely mulch
with leaves and add a bit of compost
to, we harvest up to a full colander
per day.
I haven’t needed netting. The
birds have left them alone except for
one particularly dry year.
The biggest headaches are
removing the fruiting canes after the
harvest is complete and keeping the
trellis system maintained.
Egyptian walking onions may
have even more potential. I’ve
written about them here before but
have learned a few more things over
the past couple years.
They can be started from one of
the little onions that grow at the top
of the plants or by transplanting the
underground portion which I do now
on a regular schedule.
I now have three patches. The
oldest has been in the ground for
three years; I’ll harvest the top
onions this year and the entire
underground portion early next
spring. A second patch was
established last year and should start
producing plenty of top onions in a
few weeks.
The third patch I just started this
spring.
The top onions can be consumed
summer and fall but leave the
underground section alone until
spring or, depending on your
location, during the winter. With
warmer temperatures, the
underground portion becomes
extremely hot to the point of being
inedible.◊
Jeff Carter
June 2019 11
75 Wellington Street, Clinton, ON
www.huron.com ~ info@huron.com
519-482-8400
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