This Solanaceous green is super spiny, but when the young leaves and stems are cooked down they make for a delicious, melt-in-your-mouth green with a spinach-artichoke flavor. Larger spines are removed while younger ones soften up easily. Quishtán is indigenous to Guatemala and is commonly cooked en caldos y sopas, in broths and soups.

Although all potatoes originate in the Andes, the origin of diversity home to over 4,000 varieties, we tend to see just a few colors of nice round potatoes in stores and at markets. Explore the gorgeous diversity of rumply lumpy splotchy multi-colored potatoes that have colorful surprises inside and out, and a variety of textures and flavors to be enjoyed. (Photo—The guardians of the Andean potato)

Thanks to European colonizers, these Andean potatoes made their way to France where they were bred into the popular Fingerling potatoes that are a somewhat common specialty potato in stores. With a long thing shape they are ideal for roasting and quick-cooking, and are known to have a particularly condensed buttery flavor. (Photo—Harvesting History)

There are many common yellow-skinned potatoes, big russets and Yukon Gold and hundreds of others. Some have a more waxy texture, some have more of a mealy texture better for mashed potatoes, every variety its own being entirely.

Often white-fleshed with a pink blush inside, red potatoes can be roasted up or plopped into a soup just like any other potato, but they lend themselves particularly well to dishes that have a bit of a tang, like potato salads.

There’s no doubt about it, purple potatoes are always so beautiful. Ranging from white to yellow to purple flesh, either solid colored or with rings of color within, purple potatoes add rich colorful flavor to any dish.

Grown without any irrigation, dry-farmed tomatoes have the sweetest, condensed, almost sauce-like flavor. Despite their incredible flavor, they are grown to address the climate crises that we’re facing, including hotter summers and decreased water access.

The classic red tomato that is the bases of salsas, sauces, and incredible dishes all around the world, but particularly throughout Central and South America where tomatoes originated from. With less bells and whistles than whimsical cherries or extravagant heirlooms, these ripe red tomatoes will never cease to satisfy.

These oblong sauce or paste tomatoes are usually harvested without their stems and are known for having a condensed rich flavor and low water content. Easy to roast up, pinch off the skins, and process into your sauce of choice.

Ranging greatly in size, color, and shape, there are thousands of heirloom tomatoes, known for their humungously wonky gorgeous fruit, almost meat-like, an aortic pump of a Solanaceous kind. Add these tomatoes to any dish to dazzle the eyes and the palette.

These dainty little sugar bombs are straight up just fun, always a joy to have in the garden and a pleasure to find on your plate. Eat whole right off the vine, pop into a salad or sliced up in pasta, sun dry for condensed flavor, & more!

This tart tomato cousin grows similarly to naranjilla (lulo), but tastes much more similar to a tomato. Cocona comes from the Amazonian region and is commonly used in Peru and other areas to make incredible fresh salsas.

Originally from the Andes, this tiny orange tomatillo cousin hides its sweet tangy fruit beneath a papery skirt. This fruit is such a treat to pop out of their husks and into your mouth! Picked too green, it’s acidic like a tomatillo, one must shake the plant and let only the ripest of fruit fall to the ground before collecting. Ground cherries are a very diverse group, ranging from around 70 species that all differ in flavor, color, size, and growth habit, including the Cape Gooseberry.

This sweet and tart almost citrusy fruit is commonly enjoyed raw, used in drinks, desserts, and even in savory dishes throughout Central and South America and in many other tropical and subtropical climates.

A solanaceous fruit masquerading as a melon! Often called Pepino Melon, this fruit is mildly sweet and really does taste like a soft honeydew or cantaloupe melon, or like a “sweet cucumber” as its name describes. Very common in tropical and subtropical climates, pepino dulce is a favorite treat and varies greatly in shape, size, and color.

These small ground cherry-sized fruits have a tropical pineapple-peach flavor with a lovely balance of sweetness and acidity. Plants typically grow smaller like an annual tomato plant but in tropical regions can become quite a large shrub or tree. Fruits grow upward much like a chile de arbol, rather than dangling down like a cherry tomato or tamarillo does. Similar to the Guava Tamarillo which is slightly larger has more of a guava-kiwi-passion fruit flavor profile.

Also known as Tomate de Arbol, these oblong fruits dangle from tall trees, vary in color, sweetness, and astringency, and are enjoyed raw or as the base of salsas just like tomatoes. Only grown in tropical regions, unlike tomatoes, tamarillos are generally cut in half and the juicy flesh is scooped out from the inside with a spoon while the tougher skin is left behind.

This shy little green tomato cousin is cozy inside a paper lantern. Known for its acidity and thicker texture, tomatillos are the base of many salsas and other dishes, used both raw and cooked. Ranging from large tomato-sized fruits to small purple tomatillos milperos with varying levels of acidity and sweetness, tomatillos are a staple solanaceous fruit.