17 Weird Vegetables and Fruits You Have to See to Believe

Classic crops, such as tomatoes, lettuce, and potatoes, are classics for a reason. Still, if you want to add some unusual, weird, and exciting colors and flavors to your garden, you might want to try some of these fruits and vegetables.

Unusual and weird fruits and vegetables like black carrots, snake beans, Jerusalem artichokes, horned melons, and banana squash are easy to grow in your garden. Plus, they’ll add some well-needed intrigue to your crop patch and your dinner table.

So, let’s look at some of the weirdest, most unusual vegetables and fruits you can grow and go over the care requirements for each one.

The Weirdest Fruits and Vegetables You Can Grow in Your Garden

Whether you’re looking for a unique flavor, interesting growth pattern, or absurdly unusual appearance from your fruits and vegetables, we’ve got you covered.

Not only are these the weirdest fruits and vegetables you can grow, but they’re also very easy to cultivate in various gardens.

1. Romanesco Broccoli

One word: fractals.

Do you remember math class as a kid? Well, let’s make math class fun! Fractals are patterns that repeat ad infinitum – where the entire design is repeated in miniature as each component builds up to create a new shape.

And that’s precisely what romanesco broccoli is.

Each floret is a replica of the entire plant – in miniature. And so on, ad infinitum, or ad-at-least-as-small-as-you-can-see!

This weird vegetable is a type of cauliflower – romanesco broccoli tastes just like it. But its spiky green florets will weird out your dinner guests!

Growing Romanesco Broccoli

• Sun requirements: it needs a slightly shaded location
• Temp. requirements: this is a cool-season crop that does best when daytime temperatures are around 60°F
• Other notes: it requires a lot of water; it’s not a desert plant!

2. Black Carrots

These unusual root vegetables aren’t actually “black” per se, but a deep purple. Either way, it’s still pretty haunting!

However, these vegetables weren’t always unusual. Did you know before the 17th century, almost all carrots were purple and white? It took the Dutch to develop the orange variety that we know and love today.

(William of Orange, anyone? I guess the Dutch couldn’t get enough of that color!)

Dutch growers blended the purple and white varieties and came up with the orange thing that many kids today push to the side of their plates and try to hide under their napkins.

But the purple varieties are still around and an easy crop to grow and harvest – essentially the same as the orange ones, but loaded with antioxidants and other goodies!

Growing Black Carrots

• Sun requirements: Full sun
• Temp. requirements: This hardy crop can survive as long as the low temperatures are above 20°F!
• Soil requirements: Because the edible part is underground, till your soil to about 16” deep and mix in some compost! Have soil that drains well, but keep it moist.

3. Okinawan Sweet Potato

We’ve all seen purple potatoes. You cut them open, and the flesh is sparkling white – often whiter than the more common russet variety.

But what if you cut it open, and the inside was purple? Wouldn’t that weird out your guests just a little?

The Okinawan sweet potato isn’t actually from Okinawa (an island in Japan). Like all potatoes, it’s from the Americas. But it arrived in Japan in 1605 and made such a commotion there that it picked up the name.

And the best part about growing these unusual vegetables? Purple sweet potatoes are loaded with nutritional goodies!

Growing Okinawan Sweet Potatoes

• Sun requirements: Let’s not mince words – sweet potatoes like the sun!
• Temp. requirements: Optimal is 70-80°F, though it’s a hardy plant.
• Other notes: Don’t crowd it, please.

4. Dragonfruit

Dragonfruit, often considered one of the weirdest and most delicious fruits, fetches quite a price at the supermarket – sometimes up to $10/pound. But did you know you can grow this Central American oddity in your garden?

The usual varieties are white inside, and others are blood red. It’s full of black seeds that look like tiny bugs. And best of all, rather than rotting your kids’ teeth out, it’ll fill them with antioxidants and all kinds of goodies!

That’s right – it’s the perfect Halloween treat. And be sure to serve it in the peel. That’s the creepy part!

Growing Dragonfruit

• Sun requirements: A lot of sun
• Temp. requirements: 65-80°F is ideal, but it can survive up to 100°F. Frost will kill over time, but it can recover from a single cold night.
• Other notes: give it space!

5. Bittermelon

As you might guess from the name, this weird fruit can be pretty hard to swallow! But if for nothing other than the weird, long, wavy skin like crumpled cardboard, bittermelon is worth growing.

A bittermelon looks like a long, big, splotchy, and quite diseased cucumber – but if you prepare it correctly (sometimes with much brown sugar), it can be a great addition to any feast.

It’s very popular in Indian and Pakistani cuisine, so branch out your palette and give it a try.

Growing Bittermelon

• Sun requirements: at least 6 hours/day
• Temp. requirements: warm: 75-80°F
• Other notes: each plant will give you 10-12 of them!

6. Fiddlehead Ferns

Maybe you’re thinking: ferns? Do people eat ferns?

Yes – and it’s becoming quite hip to do so. So join the trend – and weird out your dinner guests along the way with these vegetables!

You want to harvest the “fiddleheads” (when they look like the head of a fiddle): before they’ve unwound and become bitter. Then, boil them and serve them with extra virgin olive oil or butter.

Check out this yummy roasted fiddlehead fern recipe!

One thing to note is that fiddlehead ferns are poisonous before you cook them due to the presence of a compound called shikimic acid. So, boil them well!

Growing Fiddlehead Ferns

• Sun requirements: This is a shade crop. Just think: where do you see ferns on the trailside?
• Temp. requirements: 60-70°F is best, though ferns are pretty hardy little buggers
• Soil requirements: well-draining soil is best, mixed with compost, and moisture is a must

7. Black Tomatoes

Maybe you weren’t too surprised by black carrots – most people in the USA have seen them in the produce aisle of health food stores. But tomatoes?

That’s right.

There’s a tomato cultivar that’ll freak out your friends – Black Krim, which makes its way to us from the island of Krim in the (appropriately named) Black Sea in Eastern Europe.

In terms of growth, this weird fruit is an heirloom tomato, so the same advice applies to growing any heirloom. Heirlooms are more demanding than commercial varieties, but the Black Krim will reward you with its unique, “smoky” flavor.

Growing Black Tomatoes

• Sun requirements: a minimum of 8 hours/day, though they love basking in much more!
• Temp. requirements: night temperatures must be at least 60°F before you start growing them
• Soil requirements: rich and loamy that allows the roots to penetrate deep

8. Snake Beans

Doesn’t the name of this unusual vegetable make you want to grow it?

Also known as “yardlong beans,” these are similar to green beans  – but sometimes up to two feet long! They’re very popular in Asian cuisine, but you can use them anywhere you’d use a green bean.

You might want to serve them whole, stir-fried in something dark like soy sauce, and tell your friends that you’ve made them worms!

Growing Snake Beans

• Sun requirements: full sun, please
• Temp. requirements: these weird vegetables love heat; and are completely intolerant of frost
• Soil requirements: not much – they’re very hardy!

9. Horned Melon

Also known as a Kiwano melon, these weird fruits are about the size of a mango, full of radioactive-green jellied seeds, and look like an orange, spike-covered alien fruit from Mars.

Actually, they’re from South Africa. But they grow well in the USA, too!

Growing Horned Melon

• Sun requirements: full sun
• Temp. requirements: over 60°F
• Soil requirements: fertilize well

10. Samphire

You might not even have to grow this unusual vegetable. It grows in salty conditions and close to the ocean or saline lakes. In many parts of the world, it’s just an ordinary seaside weed!

If you want to plant it, do so in a smaller container to keep the soil moist. When you water samphire, you want to include some sea salt (not table salt) – one teaspoon per pint of water.

So, what do you do with it?

Harvest it before it flowers – either when it’s a deep, emerald green or when it turns red just before it blooms if you like it saltier.

Remove the roots and tough stems, then stir-fry with oil or butter!

Growing Samphire

• Sun requirements: Samphire likes sun – so full sun, please.
• Temp. requirements: Germinate the seeds at 77°F (25°C), but once it’s established, it’s pretty hardy.
• Soil requirements: Sandy, but you don’t want to plant it in overly salty soil.

11. Banana Squash

This gourd is remarkable for one main reason evident the moment you set eyes on it: its size.

If you have a kid less than ten years old, odds are it’s taller than they are. And this weird fruit is full of yummy pink flesh with a taste similar to butternut. (Though one banana squash yields the fruit of perhaps fifty or more butternut squashes!)

The seeds are tough and chewy to eat if you roast them, but all the flesh is edible. Once opened, store it in the fridge if you have room.

It’s meant to serve a household and not just one person. (You’ll probably want some tips on how to cook this behemoth.)

Why a “banana” squash? Maybe it looks like a banana from a distance – but when you get up close, maybe “battering ram squash” would be more appropriate!

Growing Banana Squash

• Sun requirements: full sun, at least 6 hours/day
• Temp. requirements: you want the soil at 60°F when you plant it, with air temperatures above 50°F.
• Soil requirements: keep it moist

12. Peter Pepper

Maybe this one isn’t so scary, but it’s still a genuinely unusual vegetable in another way.

If you have kids, now’s the time to take them out of the garden! Because, if you didn’t know, “Peter” is last-century slang for… well, look at the letters it starts with!

Sure enough, the Peter pepper (or the “hot penis pepper”) delivers what its name promises. Including the “hot” part – it packs the punch of a jalapeño!

Growing Peter Pepper

If you want it even hotter, hold off on watering until it’s looking wilted.

• Sun requirements: full sun
• Temp. requirements: 60-90°F
• Soil requirements: well-drained and fertile

13. Sunchoke or Jerusalem Artichoke

This weird root vegetable is unusual, but it’s delicious when prepared well – roasted, stir-fried, or mixed into other recipes.

Despite the name, it’s actually native to North America. If you’re in the USA, you’re reseeding the soil with native plants that’ll grow nicely!

In fact, it needs almost no care to produce a crop!

This plant is also known by several other names, such as “Jerusalem artichoke” and “fartichoke.” So, as you may imagine, it has a reputation for causing some flatulence.

This reputation isn’t baseless: they contain inulin, broken down in the colon into… yes, a gas.

Growing Jerusalem Artichoke

• Sun requirements: as the name suggests, it loves the sun, so bring it on
• Temp. requirements: 65-90°F
• Soil requirements: they prefer to be planted somewhere with loose and sandy soil so that the tubers can expand

14. Miracle Fruit

The miracle fruit doesn’t look too unusual, but it has an incredible trick up its sleeve.

This fruit contains a chemical called miraculin, which blocks some of your tastebuds. Suddenly, everything that’s sour tastes sweet, and everything that usually tastes sweet now tastes sour!

This fantastic tropical little berry from west Africa is fun to feed your friends and kids, especially if you don’t tell them what will happen to their tongues.

But don’t worry – the effects wear off after only a few minutes.

Growing Miracle Fruit

Sun requirements: these berries need a lot of bright, direct sun to grow
Temp. requirements: Must be kept above 75 F
Soil requirements: The soil should be high in nitrogen and consistently moist

15. Monstera Deliciosa

In most cases, you’ll hear about monstera deliciosa as an indoor houseplant often called the “swiss cheese plant.”

However, the fruit from this unusual plant tastes nothing like swiss cheese. Instead, it’s incredibly sweet and tasty, as the name deliciosa better suggests.

The deliciosa fruit looks like a long cucumber with strange hexagonal scales that fall off of the plant when it is ripe enough to eat.

If you want to consume this fruit, you have to fully ripen it by exposing it to high humidity and sunlight until its snake-skin-like scales drop off. When unripe, it contains high amounts of oxalic acid, which can burn your mouth.

However, the fruit gets extraordinarily sweet – and safe to eat – once it’s ripe.

Growing Monstera Deliciosa

Sun requirements: bright, indirect sunlight
Temp. requirements: 65 to 75° F
Soil requirements: Moist and well-draining

16. Castelfranco Radicchio (Variegated Italian Chicory)

Italian chicory looks like a head of lettuce featured in a horror slasher movie from the 80s, and it’s sure to add color and intrigue to your garden.

With its blood-spattered appearance and bitter, green taste, this vegetable is the perfect addition to a healthy and spooky meal before you chow down on Halloween candy.

This vegetable’s looks aren’t all that makes this plant unique, though. Even though it looks just like cabbage, it’s actually a true variety of chicory, so it has a similar bitter taste and the same incredible health benefits.

Italian chicory is also super easy to grow, and it’s incredibly delicious in salads and sauteed with some seasoning.

Growing Castelfranco Radicchio

Sun requirements: Partial shade
Temp. requirements: 45 to 75°F
Soil requirements: loose, moist, and well-draining

17. Akebi or The Chocolate Vine

This gorgeous pastel purple fruit tastes unusual – unusually good!

These little purple fruit “sandwiches” are native to Japan, China, and Korea, and they grow in long vines with pendulous, pink, purple, and crimson fruits that pop open of their own accord when ripe.

The flower of this trailing vine is what gives it the name Chocolate Vine, as the strange, bulbous, sausage-shaped blooms smell just like chocolate.

So, even when this plant is not fruiting, you get plenty of weirdness from it!

This vine is one of my favorites since it is a perennial. It’s much like passion vines regarding sunlight, water, and soil requirements. Once it roots, it’s hard to keep it from crawling all over!

Growing The Chocolate Vine

Sun requirements: full sun, but may do well in partial shade – the vine won’t produce as many fruits when grown in shade
Temp. requirements: 55 to 85°F
Soil requirements: Sandy soil with plenty of drainage and tons of compost

Now Let the Weirdness Begin: Where To Get The Weirdest Fruits And Vegetables

So, have you found the best weird fruits and vegetables for your garden? Let’s look at where you can get some seeds so you can get your franken-garden started up as soon as possible.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About The Weirdest Fruits and Vegetables

While investigating unusual and weird fruits and vegetables, I came up with many questions, some of which had fascinating answers. Here they are:

The Weirdest Fruits and Vegetables: Which Ones Will You Grow?

All these weird fruits and vegetables take different amounts of time and grow in various climatic conditions – so you may not be able to cultivate them all at once! No worries.

Any one of these can make people’s eyes pop – and make a fun and delicious addition to your holiday feast. Whatever the holiday.

Take inspiration from Halloween, and get freaky!

More Reading on Gardening:

• 5 Homegrown Vegetables That Save You the Most Money! [Cash-Saving Crops!]
• 49 Weird Things to Dehydrate In a Dehydrator – Dehydrated Mushrooms, French Toast, Sauerkraut?!
• Food Forest Introduction – The Seven Layers of the Forest Garden
• 5 Scary Vegetables for Halloween You Can Grow at Home! [Growing Tips + Spooky Fall Decor]
• 5 Must-Grow Vegetables for Warm Climate Self-Sufficient Gardens

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