Search Results for: brassica

Komatsuna Japanese Spinach Brassica Rapa Perviridis Seeds

Komatsuna Japanese Spinach Brassica Rapa Perviridis Seeds

Packet of 70+ home grown seeds of this tasty Asian leafy green!

Higher iron and less oxalic than spinach, this stuff is truly awesome.

We eat normally eat it in miso soup, just chopped up and wilted in the heat of the broth.
You can use it any of the ways you use any other leafy green.
Salads, ricotta pies, stirfried with garlic and chillies, you name it, if you would normally use Spinach then this stuff is even better!

Because of the lower oxalic acid levels it doesn’t have that soapy squeaky feeling on your teeth that you sometimes get from microgreens and supermarket salad mixes, and you can harvest it early and use it exactly the same way.

The name is a reference to the Japanese Komatsugawa district(Edogawa, Adachi, Katsushika) but it was also grown in Taiwan, and Korea on a huge scale, and still is today.
Why stop when you’re onto a good thing, hey!

I even saw it sold in the prepacked plastic packs in the Asian supermarkets last time I was in the city.

Very high in calcium, and quite large leaves that can be picked individually over a very long period, without harming or interfering the mother plants.

It’s great stuff, and if you want a leafy green vegie them this fella has to be on the short list, surely.
Now you know where to get some seeds from to get you started!

Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!

Large Leaf Mustard Brassica Juncea Seeds

Large Leaf Mustard Brassica Juncea Seeds

Packet of 50+ home grown seeds of this tasty Asian leafy green.

This variety was originally acquired from China and has been grown over for many generations.
We have been organically growing here for several years now and we have been selecting for maximum leaf growth before bolting, and for ability to handle our hot dry climate.

We have always used the fast bolting plants for cooking and kept the slow bolters for seed production. (Bolting is producing seed then dying)
In that way we are constantly improving this unusual breed of Asian vegetable from generation to generation.
I reckon its pretty near perfect at this stage!

Most commercially grown leaf mustards are fast, and as a side-effect they are also fast to set seed(bolt) and not much good for long season growing as a leafy vegetable, like home gardeners like us want.
This cultivar is the exception!

It looks more like a Wombok, Hakusai or Chinese cabbage when mature, but instead of watery sweet, it is sweet spicy hot and it has a real wasabi, pepper, horseradish kick to it.
Great when eaten fresh in sandwiches with corned meats or pickles.

When cooked like any other leafy green, the hot spicy flavour turns to a mild sweetness.
Physical heat, like stir frying or streaming kills its spicy “Heat”.
It has no spice to it at all when cooked for a couple minutes, and it tastes much better than any other Brassica species in my humble opinion.

High yields, Long harvest life(remove leaves from the bottom of the plant as needed), and BUGS DON’T LIKE IT!!!

When all our broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage got nearly wiped out by 3rd instar grasshoppers(that seemed to be totally resistant to chilli/garlic spray!) the large leaf Mustard, only got very minor damage.

It can be chopped up and frozen in portions ready to chuck in a stirfry.
Makes a very good kimchi.
Perfect for wrapping rice vegetables or mince in for steaming or even poaching in a broth.
Awesome stuff!

Grown by us organically, no chemicals, no nasties, no problems!!!

 

 

Mizuna Mustard Green Brassica Rapa Nipponosica Seeds

Mizuna Mustard Green Brassica Rapa Nipponosica Seeds

Mizuna Mustard Green Brassica Rapa Nipponosica Seeds

Packet of 75+ Seeds of this tasty Asian leafy green.

Mostly known as mizuna or Japanese mustard, but also called water greens, shui cai, kyona, potherb mustard, Japanese greens, California peppergrass, or even “spider mustard”..

No idea why?

Anyway, on to the taste. The taste is fantastic! Crisp, leafy chlorophyll packed with an mild peppery after kick. Jam packed with vitamins and it has a taste a little bit like sweeter, tastier, watercress, or a really really mild rocket.

Love the stuff and love the way it grows too. Really bushy for a “Brassica variety”, and it replicates really fast. Keep trimming off the leaves and I just keeps producing them. If you remove the main stalk when it starts to flower it makes it really bush out and you can keep harvesting it for a few more months.

You can salt or vinegar pickle the leaves and store for later as you would with Sauerkraut, Kim Chi or Tsukemono.

Loves the tropics and the cold equally, and it is is grown extensively during the freezing cold winter months in Japan. Mild frosts that we get don’t affect it here.

There you go, another rare Asian leafy green.

Grown by me and the Mrs Organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!

 

 

Red Cabbage Brassica Oleracea Seeds

Red Cabbage Brassica Oleracea Seeds

Red Cabbage Brassica Oleracea Seeds

Packet of 200+ seeds, plenty to get you started!

This fella is just like the cabbage you see in the supermarket, except that with this one you can save the seeds and grow your own. Not like those F1 hybrids most places sell.

Buy a packet from me and you will never need to buy red cabbage seeds ever again!

Plant a few of them shallowly, in a nice moist soil. In a month when they are up, plant a few more. Water them and pinch the odd leaf for a salad or snack as they grow. Harvest all the fast growing ones first, and save a couple big beauties to set seed for the next planting. Once they are really big, or they get a lumpy bulge in the middle, cut an X in the top like a hot cross bun. That creates a weak spot for the flower spike to push its way out.

It sends up a flower spike like a normal lettuce, the bees do their thing or you do with a paintbrush, and Bobs your uncle! Hundreds and hundreds of seeds.

If you harvest the little fast growing ones, and only save seeds from the really big vegetables, each generation the plants get bigger and healthier.
There are also getting more and more suited to the soil and conditions that you guys have where you are.

Each and every generation is improved by your “selection” of only the best. That’s the key to strong genetics, something that many growers no longer do.

If you select the fastest to flower (and therefore most profitable for the seed seller) each generation you end up with smaller, scabbier plants, with a much shorter useful period. Something I am seeing more and more from a lot of heirloom seed suppliers unfortunately…

Anyway, here they are folks. Delicious red cabbage, perfect for salads, coleslaw, soups, stews, sauerkraut, pickles, kimchee, wonton, dimsim, even the humble “Chicko roll” is filled with this glorious stuff.

The list of uses for cabbage goes on and on, and these red varieties are even more nutritious than the whites due to the flavonoid phytonutrients like anthocyanins that not only act as antioxidants, but also function as supporters of the immune system.

They also contain twice the vitamin C as white or green cabbage, and I reckon they taste better as well.

Grown by us organically, no chems, no nasties, no dramas!!!

Mibuna Brassica Rapa var. japonica Seeds

Mibuna Brassica Rapa var. japonica Seeds

Packet of 100+seeds just like in the picture.

Awesome stuff, easy to grow.

Traditionally grown in the Kyoto region of Japan.

Just like tatsoi, pak choi, spinach or other Asian Leaf Vegetables, but with a little spiciness to it that really adds something to a bland or boring salad.

As it keeps sending up new shoots and you harvest individual leaves, not the whole plant, the harvest period goes for months. Always got a feed ready when you need it.

Cruise outside with a pair of scissors, cut a heap off and wack it in a sandwich, salad, soup or stirfry, and in a week there will be a heap more to replace it.

Keep the water up to it, and you can grow it all through Summer.

Thrives in Autumn, Winter and well into Spring.

Partial shade is best, so a cool damp patch on the side of a building is ideal. That said, we grow it all year round in full sun most of the time.

Haven’t killed it with neglect so far, and that’s really saying something!

Use it for salad, stirfry, soup etc etc…..

That’s it folks, another delicious Japanese leafy green.

Grown organically by me and the Mrs, no chems, no nasties, no dramas!!!

Pak Choi Canton White Brassica Rapa Seeds

Pak Choi Canton White Brassica Rapa Seeds

Pak Choi Canton White Brassica Rapa Seeds

Packet of 250+ seeds from this very versatile asian vegetable.

I’m sure you guys have seen it in the Asian supermarkets under a whole host of other names. Bok Choy, Bai Cai, Bai Tsai, Cai Trang, Chinese cabbage, Pe Tsai, Pechey or even Bak Choi.

It’s really gaining popularity due to the sweet, juicy, mild flavour, and very high vitamin content.

Super easy to grow, being a mustard green, and this one in particular is perfect for our high summer temperatures and low rainfalls.

Don’t get me wrong, it loves a bit of water and cooler climates than mine, but it can also handle the hot dry times we get here better than a lot of the other Asian green vegetables that we have tried.

This is the “Canton white” variety, not the Dwarf, Chinese, or the green stem hybrids. It breeds true to form so what you see is what you get, and you can save your seeds and grow your own next time too.

Large, white stemmed, drought tolerant, crisp and crunchy, very productive leafy vegetable.

If you get a bumper crop and want to store some for later you can cut the leaves and soak them in a brine over night, then hang in a cool dry place.

They will store like that for months and months and it’s a traditional way to provide green vegetables during the long harsh, Chinese winters.

Makes a pretty good pickled vegetable or Kimchi too!

You can start pick from about the 6th leaf onwards, or wait until they get really big and cut them off about 3cm from the base. If you do that about every second or third plant will reshoot and give you another crop in a month or so.

Pretty handy vegie this one!

Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!