Over the weekend, I read a post on one of the gardening blogs I follow (The Veggie Patch Re-Imagined) about another blog all about growing uncommon root vegetables. I was familiar with some of the roots/tubers mentioned (oca, mashua, mauka, etc) from attempting to grow them at a previous job. (I left them when the plants were still babies.) So I emailed myself to check out that blog this morning when I didn’t have to use my phone to browse.

From there, it was a quick trip down the garden blog rabbit hole. I found about a dozen new blogs and websites to follow, and because I have no sympathy for your needs to not spend time browsing the internet, I’m going to share them with you. So as a word of warning, if you don’t have at least an hour to spend browsing garden sites, please stop reading now and go do something else.

Radix4Roots: http://radix4roots.blogspot.ca/ This is the blog that started it. All about growing uncommon root crops. I’ve tried growing some of the “Lost Crops of the Incas” and I would love to try them again. I just don’t think they like heat…which Kansas has in abundance.

Emma the Gardener: http://emmacooper.org/blog A blog by an ethnobotanist. She also has a couple books.

The Botanist in the Kitchen: http://botanistinthekitchen.wordpress.com/ It is exactly as it sounds. Food and cooking with a healthy dose of botany. Not just fluffy botany either. The kind with plant anatomy, Latin names, botanical history, recipes, fun! There’s an article about the various evolutionary origins of lemon flavor. Crazy.

Growing Oca: http://oca-testbed.blogspot.com/ As it says, all about growing Oca.

New World Seeds & Tubers: http://www.newworldcrops.com/zen/ Don’t go to this website. They sell stuff. Although the shop is down right now. I repeat, don’t visit.

Real Seeds: http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ You can visit this one. They sell seeds too, but they don’t ship to the U.S. They do have some good resources on seed saving, and you might enjoy looking at vegetable varieties you’ve never heard of and can’t buy either.

Wetting the Beds: http://wettingthebeds.cultivariable.com/ A blogger in Washington state that is growing Oca and other weird things.

Kitchen Butterfly: http://www.kitchenbutterfly.com/ A Nigerian blogger that features Nigerian cuisine.

Paticheri: http://www.paticheri.com/ An Indian cultural anthropologist blogging about food and culture.

Adam’s Apples: http://adamapples.blogspot.com/ This blogger writes about all the different apple varieties he’s found and tried in the Northeastern U.S. Yes, there’s more than 5. More than 10. More than 100!

Fruit Forum: http://fruitforum.wordpress.com/ Fruit related information, from the U.K., but still interesting.

Whizbank Gardening: http://whizbanggardening.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-planet-whizbang-idea-book-for.html If you are looking for a gift idea for a hard-to-shop-for gardener, this might hit the spot!

Okay, that’s all for now. You didn’t get all the way to the end before you clicked away, did you?