A fast, erect cool-season annual in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), introduced to all of North America from Eurasia and grown widely as a leafy vegetable. NC State Extension describes a rapid-growing plant about 1-1.5 feet tall and wide with large (over 6 inches) leaves — lobed lower leaves and shorter-stalked upper leaves, smooth with a whitish bloom and sometimes purple veins or fully purple coloring. It does best in the cool of fall and spring and bolts in summer heat, throwing up terminal clusters of small four-petaled yellow flowers and developing a strong, spicy flavor. The leaves, seeds, flowers, and stems are all edible raw or cooked, making it a productive, peppery green for the edible garden.

A tender warm-season culinary herb native to tropical Africa and Asia; grown as an annual in most US climates for fragrant edible leaves and as a kitchen-garden staple. Sweet basil is the species behind Genovese, Thai, and most ornamental purple basils.

Soybean grown as a fresh-shell vegetable — edamame — an easy warm-season annual in the bean family (Fabaceae), native to China and the Russian Far East. NC State Extension describes a columnar, dense, multi-stemmed mounding plant about 1-2 feet tall and 9 inches to 2 feet wide, with hairy compound leaves and small pinkish pea-type flowers that give way to fuzzy legume pods. Like other legumes it fixes nitrogen, and NC State recommends inoculating seed with a soybean inoculant for best results. Pods are picked young and green for edamame, or left to dry on the plant for dry soybeans.

A leafy cool-season salad green in the daisy family (Asteraceae), grown as an annual (sometimes biennial) for its mildly bitter, edible rosette of leaves. NC State Extension describes an erect, rapid-growing plant about 10 inches to 2 feet tall, with two main leaf forms: the narrow, curly, dark-green leaves of the frisée types (var. crispum) and the broad, flat leaves of escarole (var. latifolium). It is native to the eastern Mediterranean and India and grows best at cool temperatures around 60-65°F, finishing a crop in about 70-100 days. The leaves are eaten raw or cooked, and growers often blanch the heads to soften the natural bitterness before harvest.

A cool-season leafy green eaten raw or lightly cooked — among the most fundamental garden vegetables. Bolts (sends up flower stalks) + turns bitter in heat above 70°F per NC State; cool-spring + cool-fall windows are the productive growing periods in most North American climates. Four habit groups: head (iceberg, crisphead), loose-leaf, romaine (cos), and butterhead (Bibb, Boston).

A cool-weather vegetable in the cabbage family (Brassicaceae) grown for the fat, rounded, turnip-like swelling of its stem just above the soil surface. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder describes a low, compact annual crop about 0.75-1 foot tall and wide that rarely flowers and is best picked young, when the bulb reaches 2-3 inches across and is tender and sweet — left larger it turns tough and woody. It needs cool temperatures and grows poorly once daytime highs consistently exceed 80°F, so it is typically grown as a spring or fall crop. Both the swollen stem and the leafy tops are edible, raw or cooked.