Bimis, kalettes or zucchiolo: these new hybrid vegetables, born from crosses between well-known varieties, can now be found on the shelves of certain supermarkets. They seem to arouse the curiosity of the French-speaking population.
In the supermarket, bimis, zucchiolo and kalettes now have their place alongside the traditional carrots, beets and fennel. These new vegetables are hybrids, resulting from crosses of cousin varieties, but also protected brands.
“Initially, zucchiolo was said to be a cross between a cucumber and a zucchini. The play on words is quite clever from a marketing point of view (this is a contraction between the Italian words zucchini (zucchini) and cetriolo (cucumber), editor’s note), but it is absolutely impossible. This can only be a cross between two varieties of the same species, recalls François Lefort, agronomist at the Haute école du landscape, d’enseignement et d’architecture (HEPIA) in Geneva.
Hybrid species are natural and there are even “every day”. “Some can be fertile and give rise to individuals which, if fertile, will give rise to new species. […] In a garden, if you grow squash of the same species, pumpkins or zucchini, where there are squash for example, there will be cross-fertilization between these varieties”, explains the agronomist, Saturday in the 7:30 p.m. of the RTS.
Cold-resistant kalettes
In Zealand, Urs Johner, market gardener in Kerzers (FR), will soon plant kalettes, a cross between kale and Brussels sprouts. “It is a vegetable that resists negative temperatures well. I can therefore offer consumers fresh vegetables from our fields in the middle of winter,” he says.
The market gardener also tested other hybrid vegetables a few years ago, such as bimi, a cross between broccoli and Chinese cabbage. But demand has struggled to take off.
However, these new vegetables could soon become classics. Currently, when it comes to kalettes, consumers are mainly hungry for something new in French-speaking Switzerland. The vegetable can be eaten raw or cooked, “it adapts”, underlines Mina Kandé, expert in plant-based cooking.
Matthieu Hoffstetter/iar
