Plant families

A little botany helps. Vegetables fall into botanical families that tend to share characteristics — the part you eat, cropping season, growing needs or appearance:

• Alliums (onion family) — onions, shallots, garlic, leeks. The first three are harvested and dried in summer; leeks run from autumn through winter.
• Beta (beet family) — beetroot, chard and spinach.
• Brassicas (cabbage family) — the most versatile; you eat root, stem, leaves, flower or seed. Cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, radish, kohl rabi, turnip and mustard.
• Capsicums (pepper family) — peppers and chillies.
• Cucurbits (gourd family) — courgettes, pumpkins and cucumbers; they need summer warmth.
• Legumes (pea and bean family) — important, easy and reliable.
• Solanaceae (potato and tomato family) — potatoes, tomatoes and aubergine; the flowers give away the family likeness.
• Umbellifers (carrot family) — roots (carrot, parsnip), stems (fennel), foliage (parsley, coriander) and seeds (cumin, coriander).

A few families offer just one crop of interest — sweetcorn (a grass) or lettuce (a daisy). The main fruits group under Rubus (raspberry, blackberry), Ribes (currants, gooseberry), Vitis (grape — there are a few vines at Hatherop) and Malus (apple & pear).