Baby Purple Broccoli
If you’ve been around for a while, you already know I like to plant purple veggies. I love the color anyway, and I find it unusual in the vegetable kingdom. We plant purple broccoli, radish, beans, cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes and even tomatoes.
Purple Basil, pretty; not as good as green
In the past we have planted eggplant and purple basil, but probably won’t this year. The eggplant still has a chance in the garden, some people like it and it’s a pretty plant with nice flowers; but the purple basil, although pretty, just doesn’t compare to the Genovese basil everyone likes.
Purple Haze Carrots
In my research of purple veggies, I found an interesting blog, Straight From the Farm, discussing the nutritional benefits of purple veggies. They say:
“What’s so interesting about PURPLE fruits and veggies is that they carry more anthocyanins and phenolics than any other color of produce. These two antioxidants (that are ultimately a result of a purple crop’s phytochemical signature) have been at the heart of much of the hype over berries, particularly blueberries, as cancer-fighting agents. Evidence from recent laboratory tests suggests that anthocyanins in particular can noticabely slow the growth of colon cancer cells. But it’s not just berries… any purple (or blue-ish) produce has a powerful punch of these antioxidants, which are also proven to help urinary tract health, memory loss, and the general effects of aging. “
Who could resist this beautiful salad with it's rainbow of colors?
And who could resist this salad? It was almost too pretty to eat. Everything in this salad was grown at the farm. We have sungold tomatoes, watermelon radish, orange and purple carrots, lemon cucumber, and yes, there’s lettuce in there somewhere, you can see it poking through the other veggies.
The colors always amaze me. This is nature painting in the garden, and we have the pleasure to bring that to our shareholders. Nothing could be better?
For more info on veggie colors and the nutrients they bring, click here for the Color Wheel of Fruits and Vegetables.
Zoey Farms 