Pretty in Purple Purple Plants for a Change of Pace in Your Organic Vegetable Garden

Producing vivid, brilliant color is something that plants do amazingly well. Why not take advantage of their abilities and add some visual spice to your vegetable garden? Many vegetables have purple varieties and luckily, they are just as easy to grow organically as their more conventionally-colored
cousins.

There are some vegetables, including eggplant and cabbage, that people expect to be purple. These will be less of a shock to the picky eaters in your family than purple cauliflower or potatoes! No matter what their reaction, it will be worth your while to convince them to eat their organic purple veggies.

According to the Texas A&M University department of horticulture, "purple onions and cabbage have all the benefits of white onions and green cabbage but also a little added benefit of another phytochemical that acts as an antioxidant and can also improve memory. This phytochemical is what gives the purple color!" For the curious, these phytochemicals include anthocyanins and phenolics.

Some varieties of these normally purple vegetables that are suited to organic growing are Pingtung Long Eggplant (a long, narrow slicing type eggplant), Purplette Summer Onions and Super Red 80 Cabbage, a variety that is great for planting at close spacing to make single serving sized cabbages.

If you are looking for some beautiful surprises in your garden, there is a long list of purple vegetable varieties. These include basil, carrots, garlic, leafy vegetables (usually referred to as greens ), potatoes, turnips, radishes, string beans, beets and cauliflower.

PURPLE VEGETABLE VARIETIES FOR YOUR ORGANIC GARDEN

• Basil-Red Ruben

• Cauliflower-Graffiti

• Bush Bean-Royal Burgundy

• Onion-Purplette

Summer

• Beet-Bull's Blood

• Mustard Green-Red Giant

• Carrot-Cosmic Purple

• Potato-All Blue

• Eggplant-Pingtung Long

• Tomato-Pruden's Purple

• Garlic-Russian Red

• Turnip-Purple Top

• Radish-Plum Purple

Purple vegetables are delicious as well as healthful. Although many of them fade when cooked (the purple snap beans fade to a more conventional green) others, such as the beets and their tops, add a beautiful, bright red color to your recipes. Purple vegetables taste the same as their more normally colored counterparts--for instance, a purple carrot still tastes like an orange carrot and can be used the same way for cooking. By growing purple vegetables, you are adding pizzazz to your garden and your dinner plate. You also stand to gain some nutritional benefits without sacrificing flavor or yield and without having to make changes to your tried and true gardening techniques. All you have to do is keep an open mind and possibly explain to some folks that yes, green beans can be purple!

See Also:
There's a Goosefoot in my Garden
It's Easy to Grow Great Garlic
How Does Your Garden Grow Part One: Getting to Know Your Soil
Bountiful Basil