Plant Portrait - Strawberry Spinach

I am growing this vegetable for the first time this year.  It is supposed to be an heirloom vegetable that has been grown for centuries . Although it is called spinach, it is, in fact, a chard (Chenopodium capitatum).

Strawberry Spinach

Achocha or Caigua?

Had you presented me with these two names a couple of years ago, I would not have had a clue what you were talking about.  In fact these are two names used for a single South American vegetable, Cyclanthera pedata, which is supposed to have been grown by the Incas. I am growing it for the first time this year, having got seeds from my friend Glen.

Cyclanthera pedata

Unusual plants in Millbrook

We are on the road again and have just visited Nate, his garden and his humans, in the village of Millbrook, near Peterborough, east of Toronto in Ontario. Millbrook has numerous attractive Victorian  houses and public buildings all around a mill pond. The garden we visited, boasts of interesting, unusual plants.

Nate patrolling his garden