Every garden cycle we try some new vegetables in the garden and either add them to the annual rotation or abandon them because they weren't what we hoped. For example, instead of filling the garden full of Yukon Gold potatoes that you can buy in the store really cheap, we plant fingerlings and purple potatoes. Instead of traditional dark green zucchini, we plant the yellow and light green/Armenian cucumbers because they have a much sweeter taste.

This year we tried Asparagus Beans and Armenian Cucumbers (pictured above) and they will both have a place in the garden next year. The cucumbers are huge but sweet and tender without huge seeds. The pole variety beans are a foot long and mild with small seeds. They are sweeter than regular green beans and slightly chalky when raw. We'll cook them up tonight in a Thai stir fry. After stuffing ourselves with Kentucky Wonders and Royal Burgunys they offer a nice change of pace. If you haven't tried Royal Burgundy beans, they are another winning experiment from last year. They are dark purple and turn green when you cook them. They taste just like regular green beans.

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