Superfoods are delicious and nutritious! They are like normal foods, except they have extra vitamins and minerals, making them an excellent choice in any diet. You may not like broccoli or kale, but you might love blueberries, strawberries, and goji berries. Superfoods are diverse in type, with nuts, berries, leaves, and fruits for you to choose from.
Whether as a side dish, main recipe, or a smoothie, superfoods are superb additions with flavor and fiber. Use them as a part of a complete diet with other nutrient-rich goodies, as no single food can give you all the nutrients you need. While true, these superfoods have many necessary vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber that help you achieve your dietary needs.
Some of these plants are small vegetables, while others are giant trees! There are cold hardy options, summer drought-tolerating species, and perennials that come back annually. Mix in a few perennials with fruit-bearing shrubs, adding more each season. When you have a diverse mix of superfood plants, you create a consistent supply of nuts, fruits, and vegetables for the entire year.
Increase biodiversity, grow yummy food, and gain necessary nutrition with these 17 popular superfoods you can grow at home.
Red & Yellow Pear Blend Pole Cherry Tomato Seeds
This heirloom blend brings you both red and yellow, firm fruit that can be eaten like grapes all summer long. Sweet, mild flavor and low acidity make these tomatoes traditionally best for pickling and preserves, but they are great for salads and snacking, too. ‘Red Pear’ seeds are dyed red, while the ‘Yellow Pear’ seeds remain natural so you know which color tomato you are sowing. Vigorous vines easily reach 6′.
Goji Berry
Orange goji berries sprout off arching, woody trunks. This shrub has multiple stems that bear leaves, flowers, and fruit. They all fall off in winter to grow fresh in spring, as this superfood is a deciduous shrub frost-tolerant from USDA plant hardiness zones four through nine.
Goji berry shrubs thrive in raised beds, tree wells, or large containers. These superfoods don’t need much care to grow. Apply compost twice a year during spring and fall, and prune any dead or diseased wood in spring. When berries appear, harvest them quickly before squirrels and birds eat them! They are perfect for fresh snacking or jams, preserves, and syrups.
Blueberry
Blueberries are essential summer berries in North American kitchens. They add blue color and tart sweetness to pies, fruit salads, and desserts; they also taste great alone. The shrubs they grow off are easy to cultivate if you give them the soil they love.
Blueberries appreciate slightly acidic soil with a pH level between 4.5 and 5.5. Add an acidic fertilizer alongside plenty of compost twice a year, and they’ll produce blue, swelling berries for you and your family to enjoy. If their leaves are yellow and they struggle to bloom, use a soil testing kit to determine the pH so you can fix it to their liking.
Strawberry
Many strawberry species exist for home gardeners, from the common garden hybrids to native, hardy types. No matter what strawberry you grow, you’ll enjoy their bright red fruits from spring through fall. Squirrels and birds love them as much as we do, so harvest strawberries a day early and let them ripen fully on a kitchen counter.
Strawberries are perennial groundcovers that spread through runners and seeds, although some types, like alpine strawberries, don’t usually have runners. Runners are long, thin stems that form new plants in the soil. They’ll quickly overrun empty beds and fill them with new rosettes. Cut runners off and plant new strawberry plants elsewhere, or throw them in the compost for efficient disposal.
Pacific Blackberry
Pacific blackberry is native to the West Coast, making it a local superfood! This low-growing vine blankets rocks, soil, and low-growing plants. It spreads but isn’t invasive like non-native Himalayan blackberry. Grow it in a wild garden for raspberry-sized blackberries in late summer. They taste far sweeter than store-bought types.
Pacific blackberry vines are dioecious, meaning plants have all male or all female flowers. Choose one with all female flowers to ensure you get berries, as male plants produce pollen but no fruit. This vine may also work on a trellis for tidy gardening. Its tendrils reach 20 feet long, so prune them to size in autumn.
Western Serviceberry
Serviceberries are gracefully ornamental fruiting shrubs. They’re native to North America, produce bushels of sweet-tart fruits, and create habitat space for birds and small mammals. Plant one where it has room to spread wide, and it’ll reward you seasonally with white flower blossoms and blue-purple berry-like fruit.
Western serviceberry is a special species endemic to western North America. It prefers moist, porous soil and regular moisture during the growing season. Like it is for most native fruiting species, birds and mammals love to eat the berries before we gardeners get to harvest them. Protect shrubs by draping bird nets or micromesh over them for protection from hungry critters.
Hazelnut
I love walking beneath a hazelnut shrub. Most species don’t grow over 15 feet tall but sprout multiple arching stems from a central crown. These branches arch upward and outward, creating a shaded habitat space beneath their canopy. Hazelnuts bloom separate female and male flowers that attract small flies, beetles, and pollinating insects.
Hazelnuts grow nutritious buttery nuts every fall. They ripen in a paper husk that protects their shell. Pick them off the trees when the nuts look brown, and the papery husks fade from green to brown.
North American gardeners can choose from two hardy native species: the beaked hazelnut thrives in the West and the American hazelnut prefers the East. European hazelnut also grows well across the continent but may reach over 20 feet tall in maturity!
Walnut
Walnuts, like hazelnuts, grow bulbous nuts with buttery, savory flavors. Walnuts require some extra processing before you eat them, as they have a thick, sticky coating on the nuts. Let them dry, crack them open, and you’ll find wrinkly brown walnuts. These edible superfoods grow from large specimen trees, so plan to give them space in your garden.
For an extra biodiversity boost, try a native walnut tree. Black walnut thrives throughout the eastern U.S., although it spreads a chemical called juglone that prevents other plants from thriving. However, there are some plants that can grow under black walnut trees. Try butternut instead, and use Northern California black walnut on the West Coast. Walnuts need moist, organically rich soil. Amend their root zone with compost annually to boost their growth.
Tomato
Tomatoes are superfruits with delicious, tender flesh full of juice. They have a wide range of applications. Use them for fresh eating, canning, sauce-making, or dehydrated powder grinding. There are thousands of varieties with different colors, textures, and flavors to meet all your culinary needs.
‘Yellow Pear’ is one of my favorites, with sweet, yellow pear-shaped fruits perfect for fresh eating. ‘Oregon Slicer’ is a superb red round type that blooms and fruits earlier than most other varieties. If you like funky colors on your tomatoes, try ‘Green Zebra’ with yellow-green stripes on its skin.
Swiss Chard
One of the easiest superfoods to grow, Swiss chard grows wild in gardens, as it readily self-seeds when left to flower. It’s an annual or hardy biennial, flowering after growing a rosette of tender, succulent leaves. Harvest them for crunchy stems and edible leaves. Saute the stems in oil with onions, carrots, and celery to make a fragrant base for soups, stews, or chilis. The leaves make a savory treat cooked, fresh, or steamed.
Swiss chard is closely related to beets and thrives under similar conditions. Give your plants fertile soil, regular moisture, and full sun. Leave a plant or two to grow flowers if you’d like seeds. They’ll produce clusters of knobby brown seeds in autumn—collect them and sow where you’d like new Swiss chard seedlings.
Kale
Kale is an incredibly popular superfood that is remarkably simple to grow. The hype is there for a reason, as this annual or biennial leafy green grows tender leaves packed with protein, vitamins, and minerals. They work well chopped in salads, blended in smoothies, or massaged into a kale salad. Kale also cooks well in recipes that call you to saute, bake, or steam fresh greens.
For a hardy red type, go with ‘Red Russian.’ Siberian kale is a cold hardy species with mild-tasting leaves. It survives winters from zones six through nine and sometimes will continue growing amidst freezing winter weather. Mulch them with compost to further bolster their cold hardiness.
Spinach
Spinach thrives beneath cool spring or fall weather, soaking in rainwater and basking in the sunlight. It tends to suffer in the harsh summer heat and grows best during the mildest parts of your year. Cool-weather keeps the leaves from tasting bitter, making them more palatable in smoothies, salads, and casseroles.
Do you want to grow this superfood in the summer heat? Try a substitute, Malabar spinach. This perennial vine differs from common spinach in genus and growth patterns but not in flavor. It sprouts edible leaves throughout summer but dies at first frost. Switch out spinach and Malabar spinach depending on the seasons, and you’ll have edible greens from spring through late fall!
Broccoli
Broccoli is a superfood vegetable every gardener should grow once. It tastes sweeter than store-bought bunches, and you’ll enjoy the satisfaction of eating a homegrown vegetable. Broccoli is rich in A, B, and C, as well as fiber and trace vitamins. Grow a dozen seedlings for a steady supply of fresh, crisp flower heads.
Broccoli heads will sprout into yellow flowers if they stay on the stem. Cut them off when the green flower buds are close to each other, and when they feel dense if you press on them. If you’d like broccoli seeds, let a few bunches flower. They’ll form seed pods that look like mini beans. Let them dry until brown and crispy, signifying the seeds are ripe inside.
Black Bean
Black beans lend a savory flavor to chilis, tacos, and stews. Their plump texture and distinct taste make them a standout of all bean varieties. Fresh black beans are a tasty delicacy—simply harvest green bean pods before they fatten and dry. Cut them up and throw them in a stir fry for garden-grown green beans.
To get enough black beans, grow at least two or three vines and plant them on trellises or cages for support. Let them grow flowers and pods, and cultivate them until they die in your garden during fall. Harvest the pods when they’re dry and plump. You should feel hard beans inside. Split open the pods, and you’ll find dry black beans ready to enjoy!
Olive Tree
Make homemade olive oil with an olive tree! A single tree produces dozens of olives annually when mature. It’ll reach epic proportions of over 20 feet tall if it’s safe from winter frost. Olive trees are hardy shrubs or trees throughout hardiness zones eight through ten. They sometimes survive in zone seven but require additional protection like frost cloth or extra mulch.
Olives aren’t edible when ripe, and they require some fermentation to be salty and tasty. You can press them after harvesting, but you need to put them in brine for a few months if you’d like whole edible olives. The process is straightforward, using simple ingredients like lemons, water, and vinegar.
If you live in Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, or southern California, check with your local extension office before planting this one. It’s invasive in these regions.
Acai Palm
Acai palms are towering tropical trees that reach over 80 feet tall! They need a warm, humid climate year-round, meaning they’re suitable superfoods for gardens in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, or Florida. Some Southern California gardeners may be able to cultivate them, but they’ll need extra water to stay hydrated amidst intense summer heat.
Acai palms grow long flower spikes that mature into berry clusters. The berries are a delicious delicacy with a sweet, fresh flavor. Harvest them with long harvesting poles and orchard ladders because the berries ripen at the tops of the trees. Some palm tree trimming companies may offer harvesting services, as they have the proper equipment to reach high in the trees.
Pawpaw
Pawpaw is a funny name for an amazing native tree. It sprouts maroon flowers that hang off leafless branches in early spring. When they successfully receive pollen, they mature into green, lobed fruits that taste of custard. Pawpaw fruits are sweet, juicy, and perfect for eating fresh. Animals love them, too, so you’ll want to harvest them before the local populations reach your garden.
Pawpaw thrives throughout eastern North America beneath the canopies of larger evergreen and deciduous trees. Grow them in full sun for maximum fruit production, but know they’ll need more water than if they grow in partial or full shade. They appreciate moist but not soggy soil and love occasional deep soakings during summer.
Wheat
Whether you make bread or tabbouleh, wheat is an essential ingredient in many baked goods, cooked salads, and sauces. Grind wheat berries to create whole wheat flour, or cut them into pieces to cook them as a whole grain. Wheat berries sprout off annual grass shoots in late winter through early spring. They appreciate cool, mild climates with no freezing weather and suffer under intense summer sunshine.
When you sow wheat grass seeds in early fall, they germinate into seedlings during the winter months. Then, as days lengthen and light increases, they’ll shoot up and sprout flowers that morph into wheat berries. They’re ready for harvest when brown, dry, and crispy.
