Asian Vegetables

[digitS']

They can be so very useful.

Here's a LINK for identification purposes.

I fairly sure that I once posted a link to University of Melbourne webpages devoted to identification but the Australian government now seem to have that info, complete with pictures. Australia guides our way! It's useful because the names can be confusing. The Latin names help, I mean when there are a half dozen names and spellings in English ... But also, Japanese is not likely to have the same name as Korean, Mandarin, Thai etc. And, not only might you be interested in Japanese cuisine but you might find Thai (or Taiwan) vegetable seeds in an Asian market. That sorta thing .

Since it's an English glossary, it starts off with A and the first is amaranth, with a picture of a variety I will be growing in 2018. The one shown is the most popular but I started with with another, 2 years ago. Too small! Then I tried a white amaranth last year, a little bigger plant but still small. Any would be useful for salads.

Useful but I'm not in entire agreement with the Aussies on all of it. Choy sum is an ingredient, as best as I understand from once reading an online article. It appears to me that I cannot buy the larger type in the US. That's frustrating. (It's sounding like I'm a giant veggie grower! No, but tiny and delicate become difficult to handle and I go for simplicity .) Anyway, I have one from saved seed that I have to mess with every few years. Where did it come from? I think it was on a rack at a Thai food store, 20 years ago.

"Japanese pumpkin?" A C. maxima squash is a C. maxima squash. Tweak a buttercup and you get a kabocha. I'm not saying that there aren't improvements as a result and I'm a great admirer of Japanese plant breeders - we all should be! But, C. maxima was in South America first and "pumpkin" isn't a very clear definition but it could be better used, if we don't use the term for half the squash and gourds on Earth!

I see that @HmooseK is growing Senposai and Komatsuna ..! Yay! I found that both were good choices in my garden. Nothing out of the garden for a stir-fry is as early & quick as komatsuna. It's very similar to bok choy and just as useful. Senposai has mostly been replaced by Portuguese kale in my garden. I'm having to dig in my heals so that collards don't replace both if DW has her way!

Any Way, East meets West - Asia! Australia! America! Eh?

Steve

 

[HmooseK]

@digitS'

Hi Steve,

This is my first year to try both semposai and komatsuma, but I have eaten Bok Choy for over 25 years. I like just about any type of green.

What is Portuguese Kale like? Any particular reason you replaced semposia with it, does it grow better? Taste better?

 

[flowerbug]

i wouldn't mind trying any of them, but the critters have mowed down any bok choi i've ever tried to grow. this is even inside the fenced gardens, but likely a groundhog or rabbit.

the only cabbage type plant we've grown that didn't get eaten was brussels sprouts and since we didn't know how to grow them it was funny. they turned out ok.

i can't get Mom to eat "different' things so it often doesn't make much sense for me to plant them. i grow a few turnips for me once in a great while (when i get to cook here or there on a day when she goes off to visit friends/relatives) and i will eat some radish sprouts when i'm out and around in the gardens, but that's about it for now.

 

[digitS']

@flowerbug , I realized last year that I don't remember ever eating a turnip green - other than bok choy, which is a sister . The flea beetles almost killed every plant!! After spraying it a couple of times, I finally got some to eat. It tasted like mustard greens and turnip roots ... which I don't really like. Mustard greens are a little strong for me but I eat 'em regular.

@HmooseK , I had some problems with Senposai making good growth after growing it for a couple of years. This was a two year "problem" and I could easily blame it on too much shade. That first season, I really did put it into the shadiest part of the little veggie garden. Shucks, that location wouldn't be good for a whole lot of things. Anyway, by the 2nd discouragement, I'd tried Portuguese kale. Rather than find a better home for the Senposai ...

Senposai is said by Kitazawa to be a cross between cabbage and komatsuna. That would mean it's a cabbage cross with the turnip family. Portuguese kale is a cabbage sister, along with kale, collards and cabbage. It's really like a cabbage that doesn't make a head. Years ago, I grew collards and they did NOT grow well. Last year, they made a repeat appearance and, altho the plants probably grew nothing like they would have in Georgia , they did okay. (I'm still trying to decide how much I like the flavor .

Portuguese kale soup is delicious. Check around if you have a restaurant that has it in your neck of the woods. Of course, the sausage makes a difference. We must not have many Portuguese Americans here but Italian spicy sausage from the store works fine. It would be easy enuf to replace the Portuguese kale with Scotch kale or cabbage but ... it would be a soup with a different taste.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

we had some kale a few months ago, decided that we'd rather eat loofa scrubbers instead...

@digitS' i don't eat the turnip greens here, i just like the roots. which are to me kinda like wimpy cabbage tasting.

 

[aftermidnight]

Has anyone grown Edible Chrysanthemum, just found a pkt. of this in one of my seed stashes along with pkts. of Osaka Purple Mustard Greens, Mizuna Greens, Komatsuna, Wrinkled Cress and Persian Broadleaf Cress. I thought I'd mix these up and sow in a cut and come again bed. I also found a Salad Mix pkt. this had red and green lettuces, kales, spinach beet greens, radish Leaf, more mjzuna, komatsuna and cress, mustard, arugula, fennel, shungiku. Any of these I should grow separately or can I mix the whole shabang together?

Annette

 

[digitS']

BTW -

I forget who on TEG said that broccoli leaves are pretty good stuff. I tried them after that - you know, kind of the bigger leaves. That person was right!

However, I'm a little defensive about eating the leaves and not allowing them to grow the best broccoli buds I can get. They are good . Also btw -- broccoli and cauliflower are genetically cabbage sisters, too. How the siblings grow so differently, I don't know ...

Steve

 

[HmooseK]

@digitS'

I've always been a Cowpea, Bean, Okra, Tomato and Melon grower and never bothered growing greens or lettuce. This year I'm trying all different kinds of greens.

Semposai, Komatsuma, Tronchuda, red stem Choy sum, dwarf vale kale, two other kale that I can't remember the names of, tatsoi and several lettuces one being Jericho. After talking with some other forum members on another forum, Some of these I'm growing in the fall because of my heat. So you could say I plan to grow greens all year.

White Russian and Red Russian are the other kal.

Hey @digitS' I just found out my Tronchuda is Portuguese Kale! So hot dog Lucy, I won't have to order any!

 

[aftermidnight]

we had some kale a few months ago, decided that we'd rather eat loofa scrubbers instead...

@digitS' i don't eat the turnip greens here, i just like the roots. which are to me kinda like wimpy cabbage tasting.

The couple of times I've tried Kale as a cooked vegetable I wasn't too impressed but
have you ever tried the kale salad mix sold in supermarkets, comes with dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and a pouch of poppy seed dressing, absolutely delish. What surprises me is hubby would eat this every day if he could get away with it, I love and could live on salad but like a little variety.

Tonight we're having left over oven baked barbecued ribs, hubby wanted kale salad, I wanted a mixed garden salad, we compromised, we're having a baked potato, steamed broccoli, and candied yams. The salad discussion has been left for another day.

Annette

 

[digitS']

Tronchuda

That's your Portuguese kale.

@aftermidnight ! Shabang!!!

I'd need my couple of decades of Asian greens experience to hope to be able to separately identify those if'n I mixed the sowing! I don't even know what shungiku is! Let's see, oh okay, a chrysanthemum ... I've grown mums but ... not for eating .

I've grown regular watercress but it's a nasturtium, um um um ... It was fun! The neighbor had a 4" irrigation valve that leaked. The water would pool about 8" from my garden. I asked him if I could put a pvc pipe in and allow that water to pool in my garden . I had a little pond of about 3' by 6' and bought some watercress from the soopermarket for starts ... it worked! But, he replaced the valve the next year .

Steve
kale in salad? see, you'd never get @flowerbug to think that raw kale would be okay ...