10 vegetables to harvest quickly: the vegetable garden of children and impatient people
The gardener often says that the vegetable garden is a long time, it’s patience, it’s listening to the sound of growing plants. And, this is especially true. It is by giving vegetables the chance to grow at their own pace, to benefit from the sun’s rays and rainwater, that they give their best of themselves, that they best develop their flavors. And that’s good!
There is no need to antagonize nature or “boost” it to enjoy certain crops quickly. Indeed, there are varieties that show rapid growth, this is the case with radishes, in particular the 18-day-old radish which allows in 3 weeks’ time to benefit from a first harvest… And the radish is not alone, that’s the good news!
Vegetables that grow fast…
Quick-harvest vegetables are small, medium, or small vegetables, leafy vegetables, or vegetables that can be harvested early for their tops or even to be eaten young. There are many strains available for this quick, fast, but not accelerated growth. these are often vegetables that can often be grown in pots.
Quick-harvest vegetables for gardening with the kids…
For children, especially the little ones, waiting is synonymous with eternity. 1 day, for them, is sometimes still a concept that “the big ones” talk to them about but which they only see and even hear only words, not say sounds.
How to interest them?
In reality, it’s relatively simple, you have to arouse their curiosity. Easy to say, less easy to do? Yes and no. Initiate them, as soon as you go to the garden, as soon as you sow, maintain, observe or control, take them with you, talk to them about vegetables, flowers, insects, and nature, culture, cultures, that of gardens and that of museums… Explaining, interesting, that’s how curiosity appears when children discover possibilities and new playgrounds 😉!
Each time you sow, prepare the soil in the vegetable garden, prepare a box of seedlings, and involve them, it’s a simple way. And then call them as soon as a leaf appears, as soon as a milestone occurs, new leaves, growth, fruit developing…
The list of vegetables that are quick to harvest:
Cherry tomatoes
It still takes about 8 weeks between sowing and harvesting, so not that fast, but the advantage is that the fruits grow and ripen very quickly, moreover, a plant allows many harvests. Tomatoes have the advantage of allowing you to quickly taste good little cherries of different colors, red, black, and yellow… in the vegetable garden… and to wait while waiting for beautiful big varieties 😉!
the radishes
Radish, from the root vegetable family, is truly the ideal vegetable to grow with children. Some varieties allow, 3 weeks after sowing, to harvest them. You can observe growth and see changes in it almost every day.
Moreover, by sowing in a spread-out manner, the harvest is prolonged. Like most vegetables, there are a wide variety of radishes, different pink or red radishes, black radishes, and the famous Daikon white radish. Black and white radishes are larger in size than red radishes, the harvest is slower, but they are very interesting, sometimes with slightly spicy flavors in the kitchen as well.
All organic radish seeds in the shop I love gardening
Radish crop sheet
The Okra
As an increasingly cultivated vegetable, it is also more often found in markets. It is a rather special vegetable, with flavors similar to those of zucchini, with some seeds present.
It is a vegetable-fruit, that is to say, that the vegetable appears after a flower, such as tomatoes, aubergines, or squash… Depending on its variety, it can be green, red and of slightly different sizes and shapes, more or less curved, more or less long. Easy to grow, with a few feet, you can start harvesting from day to day from 10 weeks.
The Culture Sheet
Pak-Choi “tesai” cabbage
It is a cabbage of Asian origin as its name suggests. it is one of those original and particularly tasty cabbages in the kitchen. Pak Choi is a cabbage that can be harvested young, when it is still small, 12 to 20 cm, from the base to the top of the leaves. In fact, like radishes, cucumbers, lamb’s lettuce, and then leaves, you can easily sow beets, without going to the end of the crop, simply to use the leaves, the bird, the mescluns… Crops that , in a few days or weeks, produce leaves that can be used in the kitchen.
Buy Organic Pak Choï Tesaï Cabbage Seeds
Green mescluns, red mescluns
Mescluns are mixtures of leafy vegetables whose vocation is to be early, or to be harvested as young shoots. Generally the mixtures consist of at least 5 seeds. Cultivating these varieties in young shoots eliminates most of the difficulties of a traditional harvest, where you have to watch over the crops for a certain number of weeks with the risk of potential diseases, drought or cold snaps and other excessively rainy weather conditions… Interesting and easy to grow with children because the first leaves arrive very quickly, and the observation of shapes and possibly colors are the varieties to identify, this allows children to be interested in these questions in a playful way.
Sorrel
Sorrel is a perennial in the vegetable garden, a vegetable that is not permanent but grows back each season. The advantage is to have, from the spring, leaves to harvest to add to the kitchen. Sorrel can be prepared like spinach, in cream with a little garlic. Thanks to its tangy flavors, sorrel can be used to make a sauce that will go well with fish. Discovering flavors with children also makes sense.
Spinach
Organic potager spinach is easy to make. The growth is fast, the culture can start directly in the vegetable garden. The children can prepare with suitable tools the lines where the seeds will be deposited and where a few days later, it will be possible to provide first aid such as water if necessary, and also to check that the growth is going as planned. In short, time in the garden is in perspective!
In the kitchen, spinach still sometimes has a bad image, often because of bad canteen memories (less and less?), because they are often cooked there without flavor. Yet it is an easy-to-cook and really tasty vegetable, and if you take a look at this superb creamed spinach recipe and other spinach recipes?
Beets for their leaves:
The beet is still a somewhat divisive vegetable. Its earthy flavor is often criticized, yet it is a vegetable that can be very interesting in the kitchen. In the vegetable garden, it is one of the vegetables that keeps perfectly, for weeks after its harvest. But to go faster, it is also possible to grow beets for their young leaves which can be used in salads for example.
- Organic Chioggia beetroot
- Egyptian black beet
- Crapaudine Beet
Swiss chard
The plant has a biennial rhythm. The first year, it produces leaves, it is this year that the harvests are the most interesting. But if the gardener leaves it in the ground, the following year, the plant produces leaves again, in fewer numbers; on the other hand, it flowers and then the seeds appear.
To use it as a “perennial”, just don’t let it go to seed and cut the flower stalk.
The Gherkin
This is a fun plant to grow. The pickle can be a cucumber, it’s the same plant, harvested early for the pickle from 9 to 10 weeks of cultivation, more or less early depending on the size you want to see the fruits reach. Then by leaving them on the stalk, the pickle grows into a cucumber. It can therefore be harvested at many stages of cultivation.
The Basilic
Basil is a wonderful aromatic from around the Mediterranean, easy to grow, the best known variety must be Basil Genovese. The plant is one of the aromatic herbs very often used in cooking, particularly and first around the Mediterranean and everywhere. Basil, great basil or common basil is mainly used in southern cuisine and especially in Italian cuisine, where it can be found used simply raw, or in the famous pesto (or pistou in southern France). Perhaps you have already tasted a “Beef Carpaccio” again an Italian specialty, beef cut very finely, like a sheet of paper, olive oil, lemon, pine nuts? We let marinate a little and we can taste…
- Marseille Basil
- Red Osmin Basil
- Lemon Basil
- Basil Liquorice
- Thai Basil
A glance?
Want to order organic basil seeds?
The shiso
Easy to grow indoors early in the season, it acclimatizes everywhere like Basil when the good weather arrives. It will savor the sun with relish. Shizo is originality: specific, delicate, pleasant flavors, to be cultivated without restriction to be enjoyed in the kitchen. Still relatively unknown and used, shizo – or perilla – is an aromatic herb to discover, give it a little space in the vegetable garden to test, right? Know that it is possible, as with basil, to grow it in pots, just for the pleasure of having it nearby, at will on hand in order to take advantage of it at the slightest opportunity.
Check out this clever “shiso appetizer” recipe:
Egg Cocotte cream and shizo
This is an ideal recipe for a Sunday brunch or cooked as an appetizer. It’s an easy recipe, A quick recipe, and which will amaze more than one 😉! Agreed, we are not always in the “state of the art”, in the desire to impress… And you are right!