Purple asparagus is beautiful as well as delicious with crispy stalks. This is definitely one of my top favorite vegetables!

A lot of people have already come to visit my garden this summer, mostly friends of the family coming to see what I have been up to. This year has actually been a bit more crowded than normal with lots of aspiring gardeners around. It's so fun!

Some of the vegetables in my kitchen garden seem to be extra popular. My top-notch greens that are not only delicious but beautiful too. Keep reading to learn more about my top 7 vegetables this year!

Purple Asparagus

Purple asparagus looks so lovely, and tastes great too! The stalks are sweet and you can eat both small and large ones raw if you want to. They also contain a lot of antioxidants. Several of my friends who got to taste the purple asparagus in my garden were completely in awe! And you just can't compare it to the asparagus from the store.

More: Asparagus from Sowing to Harvest

Look at this delicious purslane Yellow! I'm growing it in my beds outside this summer. I can harvest the plants every day, and new little shoots keep growing all the time.

Purslane

This leafy green is just something else. The texture is almost creamy and so smooth. There are plenty of purslane varieties out there, but my favorite is called Gul (meaning yellow in Swedish.) It definitely stands out among the many deep green vegetables in my garden!

The lemon basil is growing in pots in the polytunnel, and I harvest the plants regularly. I freeze most of the harvest.

Lemon Basil

I decided to grow quite a lot of lemon basil this year. It's absolutely delicious! Some of our friends just came to visit and I made them a simple dinner. Oven-baked chioggia beets, pan-fried local sausage, fresh vegetables and a yogurt sauce with lemon basil. It was delicious! And of course, I just had to give my friends a lemon basil plant that they could bring home with them. It's actually very easy to propagate lemon basil with cuttings.

Read more: How to Grow Basil in a Plug Tray

Baby Matsuri is a lovely broccoli variety. It's insanely good too!

Baby Matsuri Broccoli

A lovely low-growing broccoli variety. Baby might not be the right word to describe it though. The main shoot is actually quite heavy, around 2 lbs (1 kg.) But, the plants are however pretty compact and easy to work with. They grow so nicely in my beds without taking up too much space. I know that many of my readers have fallen in love with this wonderful broccoli variety, and I was inspired to grow even more of them. Now, I actually have two large pots filled with new Baby Matsuri plants going.

More about broccoli: Broccoli for beginners

The Kiari lettuce is both beautiful and absolutely delicious!

Kiari Lettuce

This lettuce has been a real eye-catcher in my garden this year. It is simply put a really pretty lettuce variety, called Kiari which I sowed a few times this year. The leaves are many-colored and I especially like serving the lettuce in larger pieces so that I can enjoy all the colors at once. Kiari has a strong lettuce flavor (which I like) and tastes absolutely delicious with a simple lemon-infused olive oil on top. Definitely one of my favorite vegetables!

Read more: Growing Lettuce from Seed in Pots

The large berries grow in clusters. So pretty and easy to pick too!

Honeyberries

These lovely berries are actually still quite new to many gardeners. The most seasoned garden enthusiasts have of course been crazy about them for years though! Honeyberries are oblong, blueberry-like berries that we can grow quite early in the season. You grow the bushes just like currants and can use regular garden soil for them. They should be put in a sunny spot. Every bush produces plenty of (first tart, then sweet) berries similar to blueberries. A must-have plant and a given in this list of my favorite vegetables and berries.

Read more: Growing Honeyberries

One of my favorite vegetables, the allium Longor that I can start harvesting already in June.

Longor Banana Shallot

Lastly, I wanted to talk about my early banana shallots. Plenty of people seem very interested in them! Alliums are of course a favorite among many gardeners. But few know that you can actually plant the shallots in fall and then harvest in very early summer the following year. A lot earlier than regular onions, that is. So if you want to go on vacation in summer and would like to harvest your alliums before the end of June, then I would definitely go for Longor. This variety is very good too, and you can store it until spring in room temperature!

Read more content for beginners: Growing Your Own Vegetables - for Beginners

Summer is far from over, and there's lots to look forward to still! I'm sowing plenty of new seeds that I can't wait to follow soon. I might just find a few new favorites that I can use next year too? Calabash, dwarf tamarillo and black and giant soybeans are a few examples. Do you have any favorite vegetables this year?
/Sara Bäckmo