Lets go Oriental!

If you read my post about Summer Salad in March you will already know that I am doing research and expanding my ideas about salad...and included in that is what I am finding out about Oriental Greens. Somewhere between a salad and a brassica there is a huge variety out there which will add interest to any salad or stir fry.  It seems that they are wonderfully easy to grow, and best of all some will grow very well during the winter.  

Above is Mizuna which I have never grown before. Again it has germinated incredibly fast and the seedlings are a good size and are already out in the Patch. The feather leaves have a slightly mild mustard flavour and when picked young are a great addition to salad. When they are older they are best in stir fries. Mizuna is incredibly hardy - in Japan where it comes from it is grown all winter as a staple part of a winter diet. It is possible to grow it all year here too and I am adding it to my list of autumn sown salad greens for the winter.

For the first time I am growing Chinese Broccoli Kailaan and I am amazed at how quickly the seeds germinate and the seedlings grow. I have just planted the ones out into the Patch that I started only a month ago. Most of the tender stem broccoli that you buy in the supermarket are this variety and I love it steamed with a drizzle of oyster sauce.  It will be wonderful to be able to pick it when the Red Arrow purple sprouting is finished, great in summer stir fries and it should go on right into the Autumn.

It looks a little lonely right now but in a few weeks each seedling will be a bushy plant producing plenty of tender stems for me to pick.

Last year I grew only a very few Pak Choi. They were delicious and this year I am hoping to sow about five every three or four weeks so that we have a continuous supply. My first sowing this year (March) is now also out in the Patch - these oriental greens are dead fast!

Komatsuna is a Japanese green that I am going to grow in the winter. It is hardy enough to go through the cold season in the greenhouse beds and has big lush dark green leaves that taste  like spinach when they are young and like cabbage  as they get older with a hint of mustard. 


Another oriental green I want to try is Mustard Green in the Snow. This is a great plant for winter greens and has bigger leaves than most oriental greens and so it treated more like a vegetable than a salad. I love the name - it is so encouraging!
I grew a beautiful mustard in the greenhouse last year...Mustard Golden Streaks. From just a few plants we were able to pick a handful of feathery leaves for winter salads and it combined beautifully with salad rocket to give character and heat - it is a gentle and quite sweet mustard which remained tender enough for salad all winter.

  


Experimenting with oriental vegetables is an adventure. I am really enjoying learning about how to grow them and the great advantages they give us especially during the cold months. I am looking forward to seeing how it goes...