perennial vegetables

Many vegetables start from seed each year. A few are perennial: planted once and they return year after year.

Asparagus returns each year. Once planted it can be picked every spring for..20 years or more! There is a term used, getting them "established"..and that can be the challenge. Many times we have heard that asparagus is planted and then no sign of it the next year.

We have been waiting and watching in hopes that our bed produces shoots this year. It is a delicate balance between harvesting the shoots and leaving enough behind to fern out and feed the roots again for next year. We want to take every single shoot and eat it! Instead we will add more compost, take small amounts, and allow the plants to gain strength for decades to come!

Jerusalem artichokes, aka sunchokes, are native to the United States. These produce flowers similar to sunflowers, while the roots..not quite a potato, are eaten. They also return every year.

And the thing we love to see..strawberries plants with flowers on them..every flower means a strawberry. Not a vegetable..but it does produce every year once established.