Hello! What a wild and wacky week! And now we have the return of super-cold frigid temperatures and more of that white stuff. Sigh!

So again, let’s stay inside today – all warm and cozy – and think and/or dream more about our spring gardens. That should be sufficient to warm the cockles of our shivering hearts. Let’s get back to those mail order seed catalogs listing wild and wacky new seed varieties. Did you find all of the weird and wacky vegetable varieties that we talked about last week? You remember – Purple Peacock, the broccoli/kale – Baby Hansel, the baby eggplant – the Japanese/Black Russian black tomato.

Here are some others new inventions, new versions of vegetables.

Carrots – carrots are not weird or wacky. Long crunchy orange carrots full of beta carotene – nothing weird or wacky here. But what about carrots that aren’t orange? Atomic Red carrots are 9 inches long, with CORAL-RED skins, and a strong taste. Cosmic Purple carrots are PURPLE outside with orange inside. They have a sweet and spicy flavor. Purple Haze also has PURPLE outside with bright orange sweet insides.

What about YELLOW carrots or WHITE carrots? Well then there is White Satin that’s WHITE and Crème de Lite that’s a pale YELLOW. What – you can’t decide what color carrot to try? Well - then go for Rainbow carrots. Pop a Rainbow carrot out of the ground and it just may be WHITE, or YELLOW, or just regular old orange! A surprise in every (CrackerJack) box!

Gees, I wonder how much beta carotene is in those white or yellow carrots. You know, those phyto-nutrients – the darker the orange, the darker the green, the more vitamin A. So what’s with the beta carotene in those white and yellow carrots? Besides, I’d love to see a green carrot! Maybe they’ll invent one in the near future.

And if you are tired of eating plain old regular old long carrots, then you’ll just have to try ROUND carrots! Pick them ROUND marble-sized, pick them ROUND golf-ball sized, pick them ROUND any size in between. These ROUND babies have names like Parmex and Thumbelina. ROUND carrots are French gourmet carrots. So if you eat a ROUND carrot, you’ll end up speaking French!

And speaking about round things – what about ROUND zucchini? Yes, you heard me – ROUND zucchini! Just when you’re used to the regular-shaped green zucchini whether 6 inches long and young and tender or 3 feet long, slightly older, drier, and lethal weapon sized. But now ROUND zucchini! There are ROUND green zucchini varieties named 8-Ball, One Ball, and Geode. Or for something a bit more unusual (aka more weird and wacky) than ROUND green zucchini, then you simply have to try ROUND YELLOW zucchini! Yes, ROUND YELLOW zucchini with names like Floridor or One Ball.

What? You don’t want ROUND YELLOW zucchini? So then go for the regular shaped, regular size YELLOW zucchini! For these regular shaped, regular size YELLOW zucchini, there are suitable names like Gold Rush, Golden Dawn, Golden Delight, and Golden Zucchini.

Wow! YELLOW zucchini! YELLOW ROUND zucchini! GREEN ROUND zucchini! Sigh! Thank God, there are no GREEN or YELLOW ROUND radishes! Just regular ROUND red radishes – red on the outside, crispy white insides!

But wait! Now there are PINK radishes, WHITE radishes, BLACK radishes! And there’s a watermelon radish variety called Red Meat that is large, ROUND, RED on the outside and PINK on the inside. If you don’t like the color RED for Red Meat, then try a GREEN radish called Green Meat. And if you can’t decide which color of radish to grow, then try the Easter Egg Mix – RED, PINK, PURPLE, VIOLET, WHITE.

Tired of ROUND radishes? Then try Sparkler, a long RED radish with a WHITE tip. What about White Icicle? That one is a long WHITE-SKINNED radish that’s WHITE on the inside as well.

Cucumbers – they come in pickling and slicing varieties. Cucumbers are usually varying shades of green. Cucumbers are just cucumber-shaped, right?

Wrong! Miniature White is a miniature WHITE pickling cucumber. Poona Kheera is a russet-skinned cucumber. And then there is a striped snake-shaped cucumber called Striped Armenian or Painted Serpent. There is also a small YELLOW ROUND cucumber called Lemon that looks exactly like a lemon!

There are cucumbers with seeds; cucumbers without seeds. There are thick-skinned cucumbers that make you burp; there are sweet thin-skinned burp-less cucumbers. There are cucumbers that grow on long vines, or short vines, or medium vines. There are cucumbers that grow on a bush.

So, in your garden for 2008, are you going to plant your favorite same/old, same/old varieties? Or are you going with ROUND zucchini, or ROUND carrots, or ROUND cucumbers? What about WHITE cucumbers, WHITE carrots, WHITE radishes, or WHITE beets?

Do plant your same/old, same/olds, but be adventurous and try some different/new, different/new!

Hey – remember – Eat Smart New York!

And – Bye – Talk to you soon!
D