Photo by Elias Morr.
After several months of wintertime daydreams about springtime arriving and summertime growing, I’ve awakened from a chilly, dark haze, now with a nearly electric energy returning to my body and mind. I’m feeling a rush of renewed motivation and ambition, fully awake at last, taking part in the push of spring. My blood is finally warm with spring fever, each day planning ahead for a bountiful garden of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. The garlic has appeared from its slumber underneath thick straw, beginning a short journey that magically turns single cloves into bulbs with a dozen. The strawberries, too, are stretching toward the sun from their shroud of straw.
I’ve finished pruning the red currants, Granny from so many years ago with me at each step of the way, helping me decide where to make the cuts. Brown sticks are now bearing leaves, soon flowers, then fruit. Spring has arrived, and in no time I’ll have a summer rich with beautiful, delicious, and nutritious Hudson Valley vegetables.
In building a small organic farm, I had to get smart about veggies. My success in growing for farmers market customers and community-supported agriculture (CSA) members depended on my gaining a deep understanding of eight families of flowering plants that provide nearly all of our vegetables—from among more than 400 such flowering families. And I discovered that getting smart about veggies is good, not just for laying out my beds on the farm, but for enhancing the flavors of my garden-to-kitchen dishes and for improving my health.
Photo by EyeEm Mobile GmbH.
The journey was so rewarding that my experiences called me to write a book, Veggie Smarts, part memoir and part healthy eating guide, with a hefty dose of snark and irreverence. Though not for anyone who absolutely adores iceberg lettuce, it hopefully holds promise for improving your health while conveying a smart approach to eating vegetables. Let’s take a glimpse into eight families of vegetables that will soon abound across the Hudson Valley.
the brassicas
This large family of superfood vegetables should, I think, be at the foundation of a healthy diet. The Brassicas include arugula, bok choy, broccoli, broccoli rabe (rapini), broccolini, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mizuna, mustard greens, napa cabbage, radishes, rutabaga, tatsoi, and turnips, among others.
The green Brassicas—such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collards, and kale—are densely packed with micronutrients like vitamin C, vitamin K, and folate; health-promoting fiber; and numerous phytonutrients bolstering immune function, supporting digestive health, and reducing disease risk. Those that are more purple than green—like red cabbage and scarlet kale—contain anthocyanins with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Modish kale enthusiasts aside, some people find many of the Brassicas to be a bit bitter; it’s mostly related, believe it or not, to a specific gene that allows us to either taste or not taste the isothiocyanate compounds that these plants produce.
Photo by Lynne Lu.
So skillful preparation (think butter and onions) and Granny’s great recipes are essential. Many of the Brassicas are easy to grow; radishes, for example, take only a month from sowing seeds to slicing atop a salad, making them the most expeditious vegetables in the garden.
the alliums
These veggies make our other veggies taste delicious: garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, scallions, and chives. Their characteristic pungent odors are produced by compounds (which, like the isothiocyanates in the Brassicas, are sulfur-containing) that can trigger a fascinating series of physiological events leading to stinging in the eyes and even uncontrollable tears. Get out your goggles and delight in spring and summer onions in the Hudson Valley. The delicious garlicky and oniony Allium bulbs are rich in micronutrients and fiber. Their phytonutrients convey immune-, inflammation-, and cardiovascular- related health benefits.
Because green veggies are usually more nutritious than white ones, chives and scallions are especially healthy. If you’re planning a garden, aim for enough garlic, onions, and shallots so that you’ll have a supply, once successfully cured, to last through fall and winter.
the legumes
Like the Brassicas, I view the Legumes as fundamental to a healthy diet.
Photo by Andrey Gorulko.
Some we eat as green vegetables, like the various peas and green beans. But many we eat as dry beans (pulses), including: adzuki beans, black beans, black-eyed peas, cannellini beans, chickpeas, cranberry beans, Great Northern beans, kidney beans, lima beans, lentils, navy beans, pigeon peas, pinto beans, small red beans, small white beans, split peas, and others, including peanuts. The Legumes are an excellent source of protein, fiber, and micronutrients, including folate, iron, zinc, and potassium. When beans and grains are eaten together (think beans with rice, hummus and pita, or peanut butter on wholegrain bread), they combine to make a complete protein, meaning they supply us with all of our essential amino acids, just like meat. Peas and green beans are easy to grow in the backyard garden. The pulses require more space and are typically grown in fields. This family also gives us the pleasure of farting and the treasure of green manure. I explain these above-ground and below-ground wonders in Veggie Smarts.
the chenopods
This relatively small group of vegetables so named because their leaves are often shaped like a goose (chen) foot (pod) is among the most power packed superfoods. Beet greens, beets, spinach, and Swiss chard—as well as lamb’s quarters and pigweed re rich in vitamins A, C, and K, as well as minerals like iron, calcium, and potassium, while being packed with antioxidants and fiber. Amaranth and quinoa are Chenopod pseudocereals that are a good source of protein, fiber, and micronutrients.
Photo by anmbph.
Every home garden, in my opinion, should boast Swiss chard, as it is such a beautiful plant and is easy to grow. And most home gardens will have lamb’s quarters and pigweed, two weeds to pull and take straight to the kitchen. Remember that beet juice can stain your fancy white apron and in some people might cause pink pee (beeturia, totally benign compared to the nearly identical-appearing hematuria), both due to the plant pigment betanin.
the aster greeens
This is my new term, as I needed a surname for a small but important group of leafy green vegetables from within an enormous family of plants that gives us so many types of gorgeous flowers in addition to its few vegetables: sunflowers, echinacea, blackeyed Susans, cosmos, yarrow, zinnias, marigolds, and dahlias, among others. The Aster Greens are the lettuces and the four chicories: catalogna (Italian dandelion), escarole, frisée (curly endive), and radicchio. The Aster Greens are low in calories and rich in vitamin A, vitamin K, fiber, and minerals like potassium. Variations in color indicate different phytonutrients; for example, deep-purple lettuces and red radicchios contain anthocyanins that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. While perhaps not superfoods like the leafy greens of the Brassicas and the Chenopods, the Aster Greens are eaten because of their super taste. We eat lettuces because they are slightly sweet; chicories because they are slightly bitter. Delicate lettuces never require a recipe; delicious chicories always benefit from one.
Photo by Melanie Hauke.
the umbellifers
Named for the shape of their fanciful flowers (pretty, lacy, flat umbrellas like those of wild carrots, or Queen Anne’s lace), the cousins in this family include carrots, celeriac, celery, cilantro, dill, Florence fennel (finocchio), lovage, parsley, and parsnips, as well as herbs such as angelica, anise, caraway, chervil, and cumin, among others. Carrots are rich in vitamin A, vitamin K, and fiber, as well as phytonutrients that support healthy vision, immune function, and skin health. The other cousins confer diverse health benefits through their own arrays of micronutrients and phytonutrients. While carrots are fairly easy to grow, some of the other Umbellifers (like celery) require a bit more skill and practice.
the cucurbits
This might be my favorite family. Cucurbits include cucumbers, pattypan squash, yellow squash, zucchini, watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew melons, winter squash, and pumpkins, among others. The Cucurbits are all fruits horticulturally, though most are eaten as vegetables culinarily. The skin and seeds of cucumbers and squash may be the healthiest part, providing abundant fiber. These fruits are high in water (like juicy, refreshing watermelon) and high in taste, but very low in calories. Superfoods like the Brassicas, the Legumes, and the Chenopods? Nah. Mouth-wateringly delicious in the peak of summertime? Oh yeah! Despite a number of pests
Photo by Markus Spiske.
and challenges, many of the Cucurbits are easy to grow and quite rewarding for the grower and the grower’s neighbors, as anyone who has planted a few too many zucchini plants will understand. The Nightshade family includes eggplants, peppers, tomatillos, ground cherries, potatoes, and perhaps most importantly among all the vegetables cited across these pages, tomatoes! Except for potatoes, which are tubers (starch storage systems attached to roots) and which are the strangest of all vegetables, as so many of us are actually addicted to them (when fried), the Nightshades are fruits like the Cucurbits. Tomatoes and peppers offer vitamins A, B6, C, and K, potassium, and phytonutrients such as lycopene, which has been linked to eye health, cardiovascular health, and possibly reduced risk of cancer. Like me, these are sun- and heat-loving organisms, and, like me, they are most productive during the longest and hottest days of our Hudson Valley summers.
veggie smarts
I coined this straightforward term, veggie smarts, to mean having a thorough understanding of vegetables so that meals will be more delicious and health will be optimized. It means knowing how the different vegetables are and are not related to one another, thereby enhancing selections for a highly diversified way of eating that promotes physical and mental health and prevents or reverses chronic diseases. It is the ability to confidently find, understand, and eat vegetables smartly, all the while cultivating curiosity about how vegetables are grown on farms and can be grown at home. Having veggie smarts
Photo by Jonathan Kemper
informs decisions at grocery stores, in restaurants, and around the table, but it is also a mindset and a commitment to oneself. Join me in becoming an unapologetic vegetable snob, a vegetable bon vivant! In Veggie Smarts, I cover more than just vegetables, like the fact that we’re bamboozled into the idea of needing so much protein, protein, protein; why our ketchup is made with GMO (genetically modified organism) corn, our mayo with GMO soybeans, and our undies with GMO cotton; the fact that Beyond Impossible fake meat concoctions contain laxatives; the ridiculousness of blueberry muffins completely lacking blueberries; and why it’s important to determine if you’re a natural-born berry picker.
We are so fortunate—here in the Hudson Valley and across the northeast—to live on fertile farmland and among many ambitious, eager, and motivated farmers pursuing sustainability and providing us with perhaps the most nutritious food on the globe. Join me in making 2025 your healthiest year ever, replete with diverse vegetables for health and longevity. Join a farm by becoming a CSA member, regularly purchase your produce from our local farmers markets, or grow some of your own vegetables. Spring has arrived in the Hudson Valley! Vegetable Nerds, Unite!
Dr. Compton is a Columbia University professor board certified in psychiatry, preventive medicine, and lifestyle medicine (www. drcompton.health). He is author of Veggie Smarts: A Doctor and Farmer Grows and Savors Eight Families of Vegetables, published by Regalo Press, which incorporates philanthropy into book publishing. As part of Regalo’s mission, a donation is being made to the Hudson Valley CSA Coalition, facilitated by the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, as chosen by the author.
