Few things are more adorable than miniature fruits and vegetables, and growing them yourself in your own garden means you can experience this cuteness for yourself. However, they aren’t just lovely to look at: miniature fruits and vegetables are likely to get your children interested in eating them, and will be perfect for their lunch boxes and growing them at home is much cheaper than buying them in the supermarket! Here are just a few that you could try yourself!
Miniature Carrots (‘Paris Market Atlas’)
These carrots will certainly be a talking point among the adults if you serve them up with your sunday roast, but may also encourage the children to eat them because of the novelty of their size. They are incredibly simple to grow, too: simply sow between March and July and Harvest from June to October.
Alpine Strawberries
Miniature strawberries make for the perfect garnish for your summer cocktail or fruity dessert. They can be grown in baskets, containers or straight from the ground, meaning they are extremely versatile plants. If you’re lucky, you may not even need to sow seeds for these strawberries: some wild gardens will already have them.
Mini Cauliflowers (‘Igloo’)
Cauliflower can be a difficult vegetable to encourage children to eat, but, in general, if the vegetables are smaller, the children will be more willing. These tiny cauliflowers mean you can get creative with your take on cauliflower cheese as a side dish, and can be harvested from July until August providing that you sow the seeds in March and April.
Mini Aubergines (‘Ophelia’)
Mini aubergines can add an interesting twist to your roasted mediterranean vegetables and generally look more appealing than when the larger vegetables are sliced. These can be grown in the smallest of spaces, so even if you only have a window box, you can still get involved! They are extremely tiny, growing to only 50 or 60 grams at most! Also, their seeds can be sown in January, so get stocked up!
Miniature Kiwi (‘Issai’)
These miniature kiwis are great for popping into your children's’ lunchboxes for their lunchtime snack, as they aren’t as much of an effort to eat as the larger variety. They are relatively self-sufficient when it comes to maintenance, even self-fertilising, but pruning is a vital step in order to guarantee a new crop each year.
Tiny Tomatoes (‘Orange Fizz’)
These tiny tomatoes are super bright and will add a burst of colour to any salad that you throw them into and are also an easy snack to grab on the go. Their size doesn’t mean they compromise on flavour either, these orange tomatoes are deliciously sweet. They are heavy feeders, though and do require a sunny growing spot.
The great thing about most of these foods is that they can either be grown in the ground or in regular plant containers meaning that you can grow them, regardless of the size of your garden space.
[Photo Credit: yuan2003]
