Growing something a bit different

Im going to be growing roast dinners...

Chickens
Potatoes
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Parsnips
Turnips
Carrots (orange )

The only think i will be buying is Gravy

Now thats a good idea!

And Im also growing purple carrots as well as orange ones this year. I cant wait to see DSs face when he pulls them!

Any ideas of the darkest variety in this photo?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carrots_of_many_colors.jpg

there are 2 purple varieties shown. is the darker purple haze do you think or something else?  or photoshop?

I think that photo is from here: http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/today.html

Looks like the dark ones are 'black carrots' but it doesn't look like it lists the actual name.

I'm growing purple dragon

Tam

i wish i could have found a red gooseberry bush but have green instead.

We got three red gooseberry bushes for a tenner at B&Q jenny if you are still after some,they had plenty in the last time we went in.

im not too fond of any types of bushes lol...

Black cherry tomatoes and yellow beetroots for me. My duck is an amazing green colour, does that count?

When you cook coloured vegetables, does the colour fade when they are cooking ?  Mrs Bouquet

Depends.  In my experience... 

Most of the purple brassicas (apart from red cabbage!) will fade to a dark, dull green if you boil them, but stay more purple if you stir-fry, steam, microwave or otherwise cook fast with minimal water.  I've not tried the new orange cauliflowers that are appearing - has anyone here?  The romanesco sort stays pale green.

The purple french beans go an intense dark green with boiling or steaming, but the yellow wax-pod types often seem to brighten slightly with cooking (from a butter yellow to an intense paintbox shade).  As an aside, I really like the flavour of the dwarf waxpod Lidl sells seeds for, and it costs less than 50p a packet!

The purple carrots bleed when cooked, so you end up with paler purple and a mucky brown core (if they were orange cored).  They're very tasty raw, though, and I've encountered a few Indian recipes that take advantage of the bleeding to colour the rest of the dish. 

The stripy beetroot loses it's definition when you cook it and ends up a uniform dark pink; I have no idea if it bleeds less if you bake it whole.  Yellow types keep their colour, as do pale carrots.

Tomato colours seem very fast, although the flesh colour is not always the same as the skin (especially the darker sorts - the flesh is often green-tinged or puce rather than the black or wine-red of the skins).  This can look very pretty if you slice them into a salad or onto a bake or something.

I grew Black Cherry last year and they were the tastiest tomatoes I have ever grow.  They looked as if they might poison you but I will be planting loads of them this year too. 

It's your advice I'm taking