Old Reliables

There is a group of edible plants that thrive almost without any care from the gardener

- Jennifer Stackhouse

Let’s call them ‘poverty plants’. These are the plants gardeners can rely on in times of need to get a good feed from their backyards. Their produce is not exactly popular, particularly with the kids. Plus, they’re often time-consuming to harvest or prepare, but they are nutritious and prolific.

I am talking about the likes of choko, Jerusalem artichoke, silverbeet and even rhubarb. Recent additions to the poverty list (but long known to hungry people) are Warrigal greens and Ceylon spinach.

Poverty plants are the botanical equivalent of rabbits. In The Depression, pest rabbits were relied on for meat, but today few of us would eat a wild rabbit despite the fact that rabbits are probably eating our vegetables.

Although widely different botanically, poverty plants have much in common. They are highly productive, usually producing far more crop than can be eaten. They also grow in a wide range of soils and climates and have few major pests or diseases. And, generally, a large percentage of people say they don’t like them. Indeed most poverty plants polarise the taste buds.

Every country has its own poverty plants. Asparagus, for example, which is a delicacy here in Australia and a prized addition to most backyard veggie plots, is a poverty plant in parts of Italy where it is gathered in early spring as a weedy green. Closer to home, it is also weedy around the irrigation channels in the Griffith area of NSW.

POOR FRUIT

 There are fruit trees that tick the poverty box, too. They are trees, shrubs or vines that produce abundant fruit that isn’t much liked or is so hard to eat it’s often left ungathered. Loquats, persimmons, blackberries, crabapples and even grapefruit fall into the poverty category. All fruit prolifically, but little of the crop is ever harvested.