All eyes on Asian leafy things
Our part of Arkansas has had several frosty nights already. Nevertheless, I noticed a volunteer bok choy sprouted in a rock border in my garden, and it apparently does not mind the cold. Maybe I should protect it better because more freezing nights are in the forecast.
Gardeners in America are learning there are dozens of interesting leafy vegetables from Asia beyond bok choy. Napa cabbage and bok choy are the most familiar in America. Napa cabbage originated in southern China but became the prestige leafy vegetable in northern China. Farmers subsequently spread it to Japan and eventually to Korea, and the word “napa” comes from a regional Japanese word referring to all leafy vegetables. A Chinese recipe calling for fermented napa cabbage was the precursor to kim chi.
Traditionally, napa cabbage symbolized prosperity in China, and smart people with microscopes speculate napa cabbage probably developed from a natural cross between turnips and bok choy.
Residents of the International Space Station grew napa cabbage for both consumption and research.
In the Cantonese dialect, bok choy translates as “white vegetable.” It is popular in southern China and Southeast Asia, though because it is somewhat winter hardy, it has become a regular in gardens in northern Europe. Like other members of the brassica family, it is outstanding nutritionally with Bs, Ks and Es, plus iron and manganese… all your other favorites.
Because agricultural space in Singapore is so scarce, smart people there developed tower gardens 30 feet high, and bok choy commands the most space. About 500,000 pounds of bok choy is harvested from those towers annually.
But wait! Also from Asia…
Japanese Red Mustard grows well in our area, and it will reseed itself if you let it. The leaves are a vivid magenta and they get fairly large. Its mustardy tang will spice up a salad or a stir-fry, and it grows quickly once established so mustard will be on the menu often.
There is a giant leaf mustard in China with leaves bigger than your doormat, and it’s tasty.
Tatsoi plants are the cutest little things. Also in the mustard family, they grow as rosettes of dark green rounded leaves reminiscent of stubby Swiss chard leaves but with a taste similar to bok choy. Its nickname is “Vitamin Green” because it has more of this and that than milk and oranges. I am growing several of them in a bucket in my greenhouse.
I learned about yod fah, aka Chinese broccoli, this spring. It resembles a lighter-green broccoli that does not make a big broccoli head. It grows quickly, and all parts of it – leaves, stems, flowers – are tasty. I am nursing five of them through the cold weather. Maybe they’ll make it.
The Baker Creek seed catalog devoted five pages to the history of mizuna, a brassica closely associated with Kyoto, Japan. When Kyoto was the capital of Japan, mizuna was featured at royal banquets. There are at least 16 varieties of mizuna, some with pale green leaves, others with purplish stems and dark green leaves.
Malabar spinach is not a brassica. It is a vine from southern Asia, and excels as a summer leafy vegetable. The vines grew taller than my six-foot trellises. I pick leaves all summer for stir-fry or soup. The leaves are a bit mucilaginous but not too much. The variety I like has deep red vines carrying the green leaves. When days begin to shorten, the vines flower and produce dark purple berries which will fall and rest comfortably in the soil all winter and sprout new plants in the spring.
The list of tasty, healthy Asian leafy things to learn about never ends. Next year, it will be chijimisai, a cross between tatsoi and komatsuna which might grow year-round. I might need a bigger garden.