October

Chinatown's produce stands offer many items that make only fleeting seasonal appearances, often so brief that many chefs scarcely have time to figure out how to cook them properly before they disappear for another year. One example is water spinach, a common vegetable in Asian cuisine.

Thymus pulegoides has large, fleshy dark green, round leaves, known as Broad Leaf Thyme it is regarded by many as the ultimate culinary thyme. The aromatic leaves have a stronger flavour and are much easier to use than narrow leaved varieties. Very ornamental, it can be also be useful as a groundcover.

Thymus mastichina is a very special thyme with an intense flavour. Used in Andalucía to season and preserve olives, the leaves have eucalyptus like overtones and are prized for their essential oils. Distinct and intoxicating, the flowers are like fluffy snowballs and are attractive both fresh and dry.

Orange Scented Thyme is a useful and versatile plant. The grey-green leaves are extremely fragrant with a with a delicious scent of balsam and oranges. An excellent herb and ideal added to a bouquet garni, they blend their essence with both savory and sweet dishes to create some memorable flavours.

Aromatic French Summer Thyme has more narrow, pointed leaves with a bit of a grey tint. The famed culinary thyme from France, it is higher in essential oil content than other varieties and reputedly the most flavoursome Thyme you can grow with a stronger and sweeter taste.

Thymus vulgaris 'Winter Thyme' is one of the savory herbs, which are main course herbs used to flavour hardy meals, bone warming soups, and piquant sauces. They blend their essence with other savory herbs like Tarragon and Savory to create some memorable flavours.

Texsel Greens is an unusual vegetable that provides an incredibly tender, smooth-textured salads and sauté greens, this fast growing variety has become a popular choice for use as a cut and come again salad crop. Also known as Garlic Kale, the small delicious leaves have an excellent flavour, a mild combination of spinach and cabbage.

Tatsoi or Rosette Pak Choi is among the most popular of oriental greens and one of the best vegetables to grow in a cool climate. The spoon-shaped, evenly spaced leaves form a plant worthy to be grown for its decorative value alone. Given enough room the plants will form beautiful wide rosettes of regular, concentric circles.

The European woodland strawberry is the old fashioned wild strawberry once widely grown in gardens. Called 'Fraises des Bois' meaning literally Strawberries of the Forest, the compact plants give a good yield of small, intensely sweet little berries. A burst of true, scrumptious Strawberry that puts the taste of many bigger berries to shame.

This wonderful heritage variety of alpine Strawberry produces loads of little red strawberries that are bursting with flavour. Much sweeter than their traditional commercial cousins they possess a fine, old fashioned flavour. Plants have compact growth with few runners. An alpine Strawberry that is very hard to find, excellent for high altitude climates!

Anyone who has had the pleasure of traveling to countries such as Japan or China will appreciate the bewildering but totally delicious array of vegetables on offer there. No wonder the Japanese have no problem reaching their official recommended intake of not merely five, but 17 portions of fruit and veg per day!

Sanguisorba officinalis is a native of Europe and an old-world herb that is currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity thanks to the revival of interest in perennial gardens and naturalised form of planting. Perfect for natural style planting schemes, it looks right at home in a swaying sea of grasses.

Salsola komarovii, popularly known as Okahijiki is considered to be one of Japan’s oldest vegetables. A gourmet specialty, it is found in the wild growing in salt laden coastal marshes. A first tentative taste of a sprig reveals a surprising texture, the tubular leaves and branched stems are juicy with a crisp texture and salty flavour.

Salsify may be a chic new vegetable with the foodie crowd but it just happens to be an old-fashioned heritage root crop. This unprepossessing Mediterranean winter vegetable has a delicate taste, ever so slightly sweet, some say slightly reminiscent of oysters, so much so that it is also known as the 'oyster plant'.

Rosemary can be used for ornamental, culinary and medicinal purposes. The aromatic, evergreen shrub, native to the dry hills of southern Europe and North Africa, can be grown as a clipped hedge, along the edge of a retaining wall, pruned and shaped as topiaries and as a container patio plant.

Root Parsley Hamburg is an off-beat, dual purpose vegetable that deserves to be better known. The root can be left in the ground all winter and dug up as and when your Sunday roast requires and the luxury of having plenty of leaves to snip from the garden in winter can’t be overstated.

Relatively unknown to our shores, Rocket ‘Olive Leaf’ is an excellent selection of the traditional Italian olive leaf wild rocket. With a beautiful light green colour and smooth shape similar to an olive leaf, this perennial form has a distinctive aroma and flavour that is more subtle than the usual wild rockets.