LONDON, Ohio — Corn, soybeans and wheat: They’re the big names in crops and help pay the bills of most farmers. But what about the marketing potential of such goodies as tara root, ginger, shallots, parsnip, black radish and other specialties?
Jacqueline Kowalski, an agriculture and natural resources educator for The Ohio State University in Cuyahoga County, works specifically with urban farmers in and around there. This master gardener says there’s a profitable market for specialty vegetables if the grower does careful research and planning, and doesn’t mind attention to detail.
"The key is to grow the market first," she said. "Find that need and then start growing just a few of those plants, not an entire lot. You wouldn’t want to put in a full acre of green Kermit eggplant and then get stuck with that acre of eggplant.
"Some specialty vegetables are coveted more than others. Restaurants are demanding ginger these days and you will have no trouble selling it. It’s a difficult plant to grow, as it’s tropical and doesn’t like cold weather."
Specialty vegetables being introduced or reintroduced by immigrants from the Pacific Basin, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and even Europe include amaranth, arrowroot (Chinese potato), cipolines, daikon, donqua, elephant garlic, fava bean, fiddlehead green, gil choy, Japanese eggplant, jicama, manzano banana, moqua, napa, tomatillo and yucca, to name a few.
"Bok choy is a real seller and it does well in heat and cold," Kowalski said. "Restaurants always look to buy bok choy."
Gherkin cucumbers are another item growers may want to consider, as they fetch a high price these days; however, one needs a lot of them to make a pound and there must be a market. "They’re a lot of work. They’re fun and worth the effort," Kowalski said.
"What’s up and coming are the Asian-style basils. The market for basils of all types is great. Only bad thing is, they’re fragile and you have to harvest them at the right time. You don’t want to store basil in the refrigerator, nor do you want to keep them in plastic bags. Store them in paper bags or it will wilt quickly.
"There’s so much to learn."
In deciding what to produce, entrepreneurs may pinpoint demand, Kowalski said. In some markets and gourmet restaurants, demand is often high for miniature or "baby" sizes of conventional vegetables, such as squash.
Growing and marketing mini vegetables is tricky, she added. Besides being produced from appropriate varieties, they must be harvested precisely when they are at a sweet rather than bitter stage.
"Lemon basil is great to grow, but you have to watch out for downy mildew," she warned. "Bitter melon is another easy one to grow, but it is very bitter and the seed coat contains compounds that are poisonous if not harvested at the correct time. This fruit is found in many Asian markets."
As a closing note Kowalski urges growers to get involved with specialty vegetables. "In the urban setting the food production is much different," she said. "We have smaller spaces and less mechanization, so we have to look at crops that are higher in value.
"One needs to look at the population base and observe if it has a number of ethnic population in the area. If so, farmers dealing with these specialty crops have a lot of outlets for their produce."
