growingtaste.com

Growing Taste (growingtaste.com) is a home food-gardening resource site for people who grow vegetables, fruits, herbs, and berries and care specifically about how the food tastes. Its distinguishing feature is that it puts flavor and eating quality first when recommending which varieties to plant, rather than treating variety selection as an afterthought. It is written for home gardeners, not commercial growers, and its advice is framed around a moderate northerly climate with a somewhat short but warm growing season — roughly USDA Zones 4 to 7, though the site notes it will likely still be useful in more extreme zones.

What makes it different from other gardening sites

Most home-gardening resources concentrate on how to grow a crop. Growing Taste covers that standardized how-to material too, but its stated priority is the flavor of what you harvest. That means it gives definite advice about particular varieties of each vegetable and fruit worth putting in a garden — the ones that reliably deliver the best eating quality while still growing readily under the conditions the site targets.

It is explicitly not a "gourmet growers" site. It does not emphasize rare or oddball vegetables or unusual crop types. The emphasis is on ordinary vegetables and fruits grown well and chosen for taste.

Who the advice is written for

• Home gardeners growing vegetables and fruits for their own table
• Growers with a deep interest in the taste of what they grow and eat
• Gardeners in USDA Zones 4 to 7, or in comparable conditions
• Anyone in more extreme zones who wants to test whether the guidance still applies

The site is candid that its authors do not claim special gardening expertise — the framing is that if they can grow something, anyone can. Where they do claim expertise is in "data mining": pulling solid, useful information about home vegetable and fruit gardening out of a large and mixed body of truths, falsehoods, and half-truths.

What you can expect to find

The site also maintains a directory that explains how and why it was developed and guides readers through its information. Note that the home page states it was updated for 2022, so treat dated details accordingly.

How to decide whether it fits your garden

Use it as a primary reference if flavor is your main reason for choosing one variety over another and you garden in a climate similar to Zones 4–7. Use it as a secondary source if you garden in a very different climate — the variety advice may still transfer, but the growing conditions it assumes will not match yours. If you are looking for rare or exotic crops, or for commercial-scale production guidance, this is not the site's focus.

Growing Taste is a home food-gardening resource that puts flavor first. Instead of treating taste as a footnote to yield, pest control, or plant size, it starts from the eating quality of what you grow and works backward to recommend specific varieties. That makes it most useful if you already grow vegetables and fruits and want to choose what to plant based on how it tastes, rather than if you are looking for a broad beginner's overview of gardening itself.

Flavor comes before everything else

The site states plainly that its special feature, compared with most home-food-gardening sites, is that it focuses first and foremost on the flavor of the vegetables and fruits you grow. Standardized growing information is still provided, but it sits behind the question of which variety is actually worth eating.

This matters because most gardening resources organize themselves around categories like "tomatoes" or "beans" and treat variety as a detail. Growing Taste reverses that: the variety is the point, and the growing advice supports it.

It gives definite variety recommendations

Because flavor leads, the site commits to definite advice about the particular varieties of each vegetable and fruit you might put in your garden. That is a different posture from sites that list dozens of options and leave the choice to you.

If you want to be told "plant this one, it tastes best," that is the value here. If you prefer to browse a wide catalog and decide for yourself, the approach may feel narrow.

It is not a rare-vegetable or gourmet showcase

The site explicitly says it is not a "gourmet growers" site, and that it does not emphasize rare or oddball vegetables or types of vegetables. What it emphasizes is varieties that reliably deliver the best eating quality of whatever vegetable or fruit they are, and that can and will grow readily in a garden.

So the recommendations lean toward dependable, good-tasting versions of familiar crops rather than novelty or collector varieties.

It describes its method as data mining

Growing Taste makes no claim to special gardening expertise — it says that if the authors, with their "black thumbs," can grow something, anyone can. Where it does claim expertise is in what it calls data mining: extracting solid, useful information about home vegetable and fruit gardening from a large and mixed mass of truths, falsehoods, and half-truths.

That framing tells you what kind of source this is: a filter and aggregator of growing and flavor information, not a first-hand trial station or a formal research institution.

Who it suits, and who it does not

The site's stated climate focus is a moderate northerly climate with a somewhat short but rather warm growing season, and it names USDA Zone 4 to 7 as the range where the advice should be good. It adds that what grows well under those harder conditions will almost certainly grow well through most of the United States and Canada, and that the advice will probably still help in more extreme zones.

One practical note from the site itself: it recommends rotating a mobile device a quarter-turn for a better viewing experience, and its home page was updated for 2022 — worth keeping in mind if you are checking how current a specific page is.

Growing Taste is written primarily for a moderate northerly climate with a somewhat short but rather warm growing season. The site states that its advice suits gardeners in USDA Zones 4 to 7, and adds that the same advice will probably be helpful even in more extreme zones.

The site's stated climate focus

According to the site's own description, the growing advice is aimed at conditions like those of a moderate northern climate — a season that is shorter than in warm southern regions but still warm enough to ripen vegetables and fruits. The site frames this as a deliberately demanding test case: what grows well under those harder conditions will "almost certainly grow well throughout most of the United States and Canada (among other places)."

What the zone range means for you

The site uses northern Alaska versus southern Florida as its example of why regional limits matter: what is appropriate in one is very different from what is appropriate in the other. That contrast is the reason the site names a specific zone band rather than claiming universal applicability.

How to decide whether to use it

• If you garden in Zones 4–7: treat the variety recommendations and growing information as written for your conditions.
• If you garden outside that band: the general growing information may still transfer, but variety suitability is the part most likely to need local adjustment. The site itself only claims the advice will "probably" help in more extreme zones.
• If your main concern is flavor: the site's stated purpose is to recommend specific varieties that reliably deliver the best eating quality, not rare or unusual crops — so the zone question matters mainly for whether those varieties will ripen in your season.

One practical note from the site's own framing: it makes no claim to special gardening expertise, describing its strength as extracting useful information from the large and messy body of gardening claims. That is a reason to read its variety advice as opinionated guidance rather than institutional authority — useful, but worth checking against your own local results.

Growing Taste is organized around a site directory linked from its home page. The fastest route to any topic is to start there: the home page states that "the directory listings below will take you to pages that explain more fully how and why this home-gardening site was developed, and guide you through the information in it." If you already know what you want to grow, go straight to the directory rather than scrolling the home page.

Start With the Site Directory

The home page carries a direct link labeled "Click here for the site directory." That directory is the intended navigation layer for the whole site, and the home page describes its listings as the guide through the site's information. Treat it as the table of contents.

Two other links sit alongside it on the home page:

• An email contact link ("Click here to email us")
• A request to link to the site, which is aimed at other site owners rather than readers

The page also notes it was "updated for 2022," so any date-sensitive detail you find should be read against that vintage.

What You Will Find Once You Navigate

The site is written for home gardeners growing vegetables and fruits who care specifically about flavor. Its stated distinction from other home-food-gardening sites is that it "focus[es] first and foremost on the flavor of the vegetables and fruits we grow," which in practice means "giving definite advice about the particular varieties of each vegetable and fruit one might put in one's garden."

That has a few consequences for how you search:

• Variety recommendations are the core content, not general cultivation theory alone. The site says it provides "a great deal of standardized information on how to grow your vegetables and fruits," but the variety advice is what it calls its special feature.
• It is not a rare- or oddball-vegetable site. The home page explicitly says it does not emphasize rare or unusual vegetables or types of vegetables, so don't expect novelty crops to be the organizing principle.
• Recommendations are filtered for reliable eating quality and for types that "can and will grow readily" in the conditions the site targets.

Check Whether the Advice Fits Your Climate First

The site is explicit about its climate assumptions, and this is worth confirming before you act on a variety recommendation. Its focus is on "a moderate northerly climate with a somewhat short but rather warm growing season." It states that if your USDA Zone is anything from 4 to 7, "this should all be good advice for you," and that it will "probably be helpful to you even in more extreme zones."

The reasoning given is that what grows well in those harder conditions will "almost certainly grow well throughout most of the United States and Canada (among other places)." Note the framing: zones 4–7 are the stated target, and anything outside that range is described as probable rather than assured. If you garden in a very different climate, read variety advice as a starting point rather than a settled answer.

A Practical Navigation Sequence

1. Open the home page and follow the site directory link.
2. Use the directory listings to reach the page for the vegetable or fruit you have in mind.
3. Confirm the variety advice against your own USDA Zone, using zones 4–7 as the site's stated comfort range.
4. If something is unclear or you want to follow up, use the email link on the home page.

One usability note from the site itself: it warns that depending on your device's screen size, you "may obtain a better viewing experience by rotating your device a quarter-turn" to get a wider view. If a page looks cramped, that is the site's own suggested fix rather than a loading problem.