New Edibles to Chew On

Chris Beytes, Bill Calkins & Jennifer Zurko

Basil Everleaf Lemon (Burpee)
Basil Everleaf Lemon is a tasty new offering, featuring smallish leaves on an upright plant that’s late to bloom, giving you lots of bright-flavored pesto.

Pepper (Thai Chili) Skyline Red (Burpee)
The new red chili pepper, Skyline Red, from Burpee produces a larger quantity of peppers compared to most mainstream varieties and in clusters that are perfect for drying. The flavor is more mild than jalapeños making them a safe bet for any pepper lover.

Tomato (Beefsteak) Wonderstar Red (PanAmerican Seed/HandPicked Vegetables)
New Wonderstar Red tomato from PanAmerican Seed’s HandPicked collection is a determinate beefsteak type with heirloom flavor best suited for in-ground planting.

Tomato (Cherry) Unicorn (Burpee)
Why Unicorn, we asked? Because a pink cherry tomato is as rare as one, they answered. Plus, both colors (Red and Pink) are crack-resistant. And there’s nothing worse than having a big crop of cherry tomatoes ripening nicely only to have them all split and crack after a rain storm.

Pepper (Sweet) Sweet Canyon (Burpee)
The Pepper Sweet Canyon series of red, orange and yellow features big, blocky bell peppers that are resistant to all 10 races of bacterial leaf spot.

Squash Golden Griller, Green Griller (Burpee)
These are “hand-sized,” meaning good for individual portions.

Zucchini Rocio (Burpee)
Rocio is a light-green zucchini new in the Burpee program for 2025. The plants are high yielding and once ripe, these squash are best used for frying, grilling and stuffing.

Basil Bonsai (PanAmerican Seed/HandPicked Vegetables)
This fine-leafed Greek basil has small leaves that don’t require chopping before using in recipes. Bonsai basil is quite compact and mounded (growing shorter than a foot tall, fitting into PanAmerican Seed’s Kitchen Minis program) and is the first herb in the program, helping diversify the collection.

Broccoli Purple Magic (Sakata)
Purple Magic broccoli from Sakata is a 2024 All-America Selections edible/vegetable winner, demonstrating its game-changing attributes. It has beautiful purple color, tight heads and excellent flavor. It’s also easy to grow and has strong heat tolerance.

Pepper (Cayenne) Rajah (Sakata)
Sakata’s new Rajah hot pepper is similar to long, slim cayenne types but with improved quality. The root systems are strong, increasing heat tolerance, and the foliage covers the fruit, reducing sun scald. As stated, the fruit is hot.

Cabbage Osceola (Sakata)
New Osceola cabbage from Sakata not only holds very well in the garden but also has strong disease-resistance to Fusarium yellows and Xanthomonas black rot. The outside of this cabbage is blue-green and the inside is green with excellent flavor.

Tomato (Roma) Inca, Kuzco (Sakata)
Two determinate roma (saladette) tomatoes, both of which have good disease packages and take the heat (Kuzco takes a bit more).

Eggplant Black Stallion (Sakata)
Black Stallion eggplant from Sakata is a traditional eggplant with dark skin and white interior, continuing to set fruit later than other varieties. It is spineless and the foliage canopy keeps sun off the fruit.

Jalapeño Unicron (Sakata)
Unicron jalapeño pepper (yes, that’s the correct spelling) is said to produce the largest fruits of any jalapeño—5 inches!

Peas ’N Pod Bernard (PRUDAC)
Peas ’N Pod Bernard is a dwarf windowsill shelling pea. That’s right—not a sugar snap, a traditional shelling pea! Now, you’re not going to feed a family with Peas ’N Pod Bernard, but you could educate America’s youth about botany. Growing from seed to finish in about 60 days, kids (and adults) can see the whole seed to peapod process. And at the end, they have a handful of shelling peas to munch on or dry out and plant again.

Peppers Pillar Luna Red (PRUDAC)
Also new in kitchen window veggies is a sweet snack-type pepper called Luna Red with bite-size red fruit.

Tomato Ponchi Re Yellow (PRUDAC)
In the Ponchi collection of tabletop cherry tomatoes is Re Yellow (think the song “Do-Re-Mi” from “The Sound of Music”) with bright yellow fruit and loads of them—they said this little plant had 47 of them!

Salvia Italian Sage (Hishtil)
This herb is said to be powdery-mildew resistant.

GO HERE to watch all of our videos.