Kitchen Minis is a new line of miniature potted vegetables that folks can grow inside on a sunny countertop or out on a patio table. And considering that most of America has had to put their outdoor vegetable gardens on hold for the cold months, having some choices for what to grow indoors is extremely useful.  I should add that the Kitchen Minis line isn’t necessarily new. It’s been around in Europe (Denmark, specifically) for a few years. It’s just that now the Kitchen Minis line an breeding program have been purchased by an American company (PanAmerican Seed), making the genetics of this line of miniature plants more accessible to the U.S. market

Kitchen Minis Benefits

What makes the Kitchen Minis varieties different from your run-of-the-mill vegetable varieties for your outdoor garden?

Naturally compact habit. This means that the folks who grow these plants for sale aren’t using chemical growth regulators—good for the environment and good for you.

Breeding focus on taste. Usually when your breeding efforts concentrate in one area—say, pest resistance in roses—you lose something else, such as fragrance. Concentrating on Kitchen Minis’ compact habit hasn’t resulted in any diminishing of the fruits’ taste.

Shelf life at retail. When plants are shipped from the big commercial grower to your local garden store and then sit on the bench, they often undergo lots of stress; e.g. they aren’t watered as regularly, or are sitting on a rack and might not be getting ideal light. Kitchen Minis can handle that stress. Which is good for you, the consumer, because you are starting off with a great plant.

Bringing Variety to the Indoor Veggie Garden

The “veggies” I’ve seen touted for growing on windowsills and countertops are usually herbs, which are compact naturally and kept small by pinching when you need them in recipes. The Kitchen Minis line offers vegetables that actually produce fruit. The first batch of varieties introduced into the line have been hot and sweet peppers. They have 12 different pepper varieties, in fact, and in a range of colors from bright yellow to dark red. Height is about 6-14 inches, depending on the variety.

Kitchen Minis also has two varieties of miniature potted tomatoes. Micro Tom tomato is a red cherry type, growing between 12-18 inches and has a rounded shape. Siam, another cherry type, produces bright red cherry tomatoes and has more of an upright shape. A third cherry tomato variety, Red Velvet, will be available in 2022, and promises to be even mini-er at just 6-8 inches tall.

Of course, all of these varieties could benefit from additional lighting when grown indoors, especially during the winter months.