Design, grow and harvest from your Italian vegetable garden. Guides to plant selection, design layout and traditional Italian recipes using the harvest.
If you love Italian cooking, you know that the tomato makes or breaks the dish. A good pasta pomodoro or caprese salad depends entirely on tomato quality. The problem is that the best Italian varieties rarely appear in American grocery stores. The solution is to grow your own. At HeathGlen Organic Farm, I’ve grown dozens …
Quick Summary: Italian sweet peppers like Jimmy Nardello, Marconi, and Corno di Toro are sweeter and thinner-walled than standard bells. Start seeds indoors 8 weeks before last frost, transplant when soil reaches 60°F. Most Italian peppers grow well in containers. Harvest green or wait for full color for maximum sweetness. Read time: 7 min | …
Chicory is one of the most underrated vegetables for home gardeners. It’s cold-hardy, easy to grow, and includes varieties most people have never tried, like radicchio, catalogna, puntarelle, and sugarloaf. I grow several chicory varieties at HeathGlen Organic Farm in Minnesota for both fall salads and winter cooking. The bitter, complex flavor pairs well with …
I only grow squash for our family and not for my farmers’ markets, so I have the luxury of only growing my favorites, rather than what will sell best. I favor the heirloom winter squash varieties due to their unique beauty and flavors, and the fact that they are difficult to find commercially. This guide …
Quick Summary: Design a kitchen garden by starting with what you want to cook, then selecting 5-12 vegetables that match your space. Plan paths and structures before placing plants. Use succession planting for continuous harvests. This guide covers plant selection, design styles, blueprints, spacing, and equipment. Read time: 15 min | Experience level: Beginner to …
After years of growing row crops for the farmers’ markets, I decided to designate small plots on the farm for themed kitchen gardens to add a more aesthetic appeal and more specialty produce for our family. The Italian kitchen garden is the first themed garden I started, followed by the Mexican kitchen garden. If you …
Eggplant is one of the most beautiful vegetables you can grow. It has broad leaves, lavender flowers, and glossy fruit in colors from deep purple to white to striped. I grow several heirloom varieties at HeathGlen Organic Farm in Minnesota, including Rosa Bianca and Japanese White Egg. If you want anything beyond the standard Black …
Not all tomatoes are interchangeable. A meaty paste tomato makes terrible BLTs, and a juicy slicer turns into watery sauce. I’ve trialed hundreds of heirloom varieties at HeathGlen Organic Farm over 20+ years, and the variety you choose matters as much as how you grow it. This guide organizes heirloom tomatoes by use: slicers for …