Perennial Veg?

Before anyone gets too carried away with the idea of growing perennial veg (as I did) here's a reality check. 

They are not a true replacement for their annual counterparts. 

If you want decent size onions for cooking, you need to grow annual ones from seed or set. Perennial onions will give you something the size of an individual garlic clove - if you're lucky! Yes, they come back year after year, but don't expect great yields.
If you want an onion flavour, some of the bunching onions (look like spring onions) will multiply and you can pull individual salad onions from the bunch.


5/9 Star perennial caulis are big plants and grow like sprouting broccoli. After a year or 2 they're big and sprawling. The heads are like a cross between baby caulis and sprouting broccoli. Don't expect multiple big caulis from them, you'll be disappointed.

I grow Babington (perennial) leeks because they're rare and grow in only a few places in the wild (including Flat Holm island that I know well). I don't want to eat them as I'm more interested in building up a stock of plants.
If you want to grow "perennial" leeks its much easier to replant the bottom inch or so from the root end of an annual leek and let it regrow. 

Perennial kales are the one veg that I think is a worthwhile replacement for annual brassicas. You can pick leaves from them all year round and the plant doesn't seem to suffer. 
Since I treat all kales as perennials, I've no idea which ones I'm growing.