Some vegetable varieties you have to grow yourself

One big advantage to having your own vegetable garden is being able to pick what ever varieties you want to grow.

For example, in my garden I always  grow at least one ‘Matt’s Wild Cherry Tomato’ plant.  This plant produces dozens of tiny tomatoes that  are about the size of a blueberry. These little, red pearls  are not overly sweet but have an intense tomato flavor.

You won’t normally find these in a farmer’s market.  Since they are so small, it takes a lot of  tomatoes to make a quart — or even a pint for that matter. So, not many market growers want to fuss with them.  That leaves it up to you to grow your own.

Matt's Wild Cherry tomato is not as productive as modern varieties but more than makes up for it in flavor.

There are other vegetables that fall into this category too — baby corn is another one that comes to mind.

Sometimes, if you want something special, you have no choice but to grow it yourself.