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Post by amyinowasso on Jan 8, 2023 10:49:47 GMT -6
I have an embarrassing amount of lettuce varieties. I'm a sucker for red lettuce and went on a quest for butter lettuce a couple of years ago. I could order every variety Fedco carries. Anyway, some are getting old so I'm planing to throw a bunch out in a bed and see what comes up.
Cool Season Greens Chijimisai (new) Claytonia Cress, Upland "Belle Isle"(new) Crispy Winter Greens Mix(endive)(new) Flowering brassica, Kosaitai (new) Green Full Heart Corn Salad (mache)(new) Huauzontle, Red (new) Komatsuna, Old Tokyo (new) (I love komatsuna) Mache, big seeded Mache, Dutch Vit Mache, Granon Mache, Large-Leaf Round MÂCHE ‘NORTH HOLLAND' Mâche, Verte de Cambai Mizuna, Beni Houshi Mustard, Pink Lettucy gene pool (this is pretty. I plan on replacing coleus in the front with a pot of colorful Mustard greens next fall) misome (F1) love this Orach, Ruby Gold (like lambs quarters) Orach, Triple Purple salad burnet (green all winter) Salt wort (new) sorrel, red veined (new) spigarello lisca broccoli (I grew this before, no pests, grew through summer unphased) Spigariello Riccio (wild version of above) Tyfon (new) Yokatta-Na F1 (another old standbys)
Warm Season Greens Cranberry Hibiscus (new) (supposed to taste like roselle) Doucette d'Alger / Horn of Plenty (from Northern Africa) komatsuna, Summer fest (this thumbs it's nose at heat, from kitazawa) Mache, Medalian PURSLANE, GOLDGELBER Purslane, Golden Purslane, Organic Tall Jewels of Opar (flower with edible leaves) manihot, hibiscus not the same species as the cranberry above, supposed to have high protein leaves) Melokhiya (Bon convinced me to grow this years ago, it has no pests and ignores heat) New Zealand Spinach (new)
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Post by woodeye on Jan 8, 2023 11:07:30 GMT -6
Wow!!
I didn't know there was that many varieties in existence. Cool!
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Post by Tucson Grower on Jan 13, 2023 17:28:55 GMT -6
I've been growing some dark red coss lettuce - it might be my new favorite. Red/purple/orange/dark blue, are colors I enjoy in most plants.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jan 16, 2023 15:07:04 GMT -6
Nice! And that’s a lot of different varieties of mache. Last couple seasons, I’ve been growing various greens, namely mustard and collards because they survived the drought and my neglect.
We’re not big salad eaters. I hope to start introducing some greens cooked in tempura. I”m looking ahead for hard times with this, something that is palatable to the family in lieu of missing items on the plate. Think Korean style. I saw one old Korean woman boil onions to produce an onion flavored tempura that she coated the greens with. Sounds yummy to me.
Tatsoi Mithilini (I know I just spelled that wrong. In fact, it’s so wrong Google didn’t even provide an answer.) It’s a tender Jap mustard green. Giant Red Jap mustard Southern curled Wow, those are all mustard. Pak Choy Chinese cabbage, a variety I cannot recall. Butter crunch Black Seeded And, of course, collards.
My soil is only just now tender enough in some spots to direct sow. Greens are good because the bun buns can enjoy what we don’t eat. I’m just more familiar in growing warm season crops. Not good at it, mind ya, just more familiar. Keh
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jan 16, 2023 20:49:17 GMT -6
@frosty Turnip, This is just a guess, but could your second line refer to Michihili? I’ve not grown it, but it’s listed as a recommended variety for my area by our extension service, so I remembered an odd name similar to what you typed above. The link below says it’s related more closely to turnip or rutabaga than to cabbage. specialtyproduce.com/produce/Michihili_Napa_Cabbage_16957.php
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jan 17, 2023 2:14:05 GMT -6
@frosty Turnip, This is just a guess, but could your second line refer to Michihili? I’ve not grown it, but it’s listed as a recommended variety for my area by our extension service, so I remembered an odd name similar to what you typed above. The link below says it’s related more closely to turnip or rutabaga than to cabbage. specialtyproduce.com/produce/Michihili_Napa_Cabbage_16957.php Yes, that’s it. I was surprised how well it held up in the heat, how fast it germinated and grew. It bloomed heavily and I captured some seed. Needs to be staked for seed saving. It’s a keeper. Taste is okay. Mild. I was expecting something like mustard. It was not.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jan 17, 2023 7:27:15 GMT -6
I enjoy Napa cabbage for a change of pace. We don’t have it often. We usually sauté it with garlic. If I’m really on the ball, I ferment it into kimchi.
I had a few seedlings going last month in the garden, but they were wiped out by the freezes. I knew that was a risk when I put them in, but that was before the hard freezes were in the forecast. I haven’t tried again yet. I may start some seeds inside in a couple of weeks for transplant later. I really need to start my full planning for my garden space.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jan 17, 2023 19:40:57 GMT -6
I had a few of my shoe boxes of seeds with their contents scattered across the kitchen table at about 3am this morning because of this thread. I was looking for the packet of that Chinese cabbage. Never found the cabbage, but I got those few shoeboxes cleaned up and organized.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Apr 15, 2023 14:17:53 GMT -6
Michihili, Chinese cabbage
Well, I did find the Michihili, Chinese cabbage seed and ended up with one plant that is leafing out now. It has been 80 degrees the last week and it is still going strong as long as I shower it with water to cool it down. The soil is mulched, so the soil is still cool.
I ate a raw leaf of Michihili for the first time, today, and I love it. It’s leaves are big and juicy but not too big and a little denser than lettuce. It’s taste is neutral. I was surprised by this. A neutral palate will mellow out other flavors or take on flavors as needed.
It is a very hardy plant in the winter and tough as the large cabbage beneath the sun. My last plant bolted in early June last year and was prolific with seed that I did not save. Apparently, this is a healing type, similar to Napa cabbage, but my timing I was off.
The farm store had seed and I’m glad I picked them up. I look forward to snacking on its luscious leaves after a first winter frost and gaining the developed head in cooler weather. I look forward to using some of it as winter fodder, as well.
_______
Tatsoi, Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. narinosa or Brassica rapa var. rosularis)
It’s a dark green leafy variety of cabbage from Asia. I gotta say, it’s most stunning feature is its beauty. I put them in pots. My daughter said they look fake. LOL One of the plants is bolting. I tasted a raw leaf from a plant that is not bolting. It is bitter somewhat with a mild cabbage taste. I really enjoyed the taste and look forward to eating it this winter after a frost. Somewhere, I read that it is very cold tolerant, not unlike mache. ________
Yesterday, I cooked a hardship meal. I picked a bunch of greens: spinach, collard greens, Michihili and baby lambs quarters. Then, I plucked some green garlic and young Egyptian walking onions. I sautéed all in butter and mixed in a little of leftover rice, like a gentle sauté. I gathered and roasted some bright red radishes to serve on the side (thank you chrysanthemum , they are sizing up well now). I plated the rice and greens with a splash of lemon juice and some salt. The electrolytes were soothing and the rice satiated sufficiently to raise my blood sugar a good bit. Very tasty.. _____
When the warmth becomes steady, it’ll be time to start New Zealand spinach and see how it tastes and cooks.
The collard greens are bolting, but only one plant. These are not self fertile? I should work this fall toward a group of plants to bolt the summer of 2024. Wow. Seems so far away and that’s a long time for a piece of real estate to remain idle. It’s a lot of greens, though.
With several plants of Tatsoi, I should be able to save seed. I was wrong in thinking the warm days caused the Tatsoi to bolt. I read that frost during spring causes it to bolt. That’s odd, because it likes cool weather, but a freeze causes it to bolt. Strange, isn’t it? It’s a fast grower. A big harvest would require expert succession sowings around the weather patterns in late winter and early spring. Or, perhaps, its best place to grow would be indoors.
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Post by amyinowasso on Apr 16, 2023 9:12:20 GMT -6
Your greens meal sounded wonderful. We have cooked greens in the crockpot, too.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Apr 16, 2023 10:33:26 GMT -6
It’s something the Arabs taught me, one of my favs. But they usually cook only one type of green and stew them with meat. Pot herbs, I guess? They would always over cook everything but I suppose we would too without a stringent FDA watching out over food mfg. I never had many greens growing up where our hardship meals were chicken and dumplings or beef stew without greens. Not even collard greens. I can see why collard greens are a staple. Such a tough plant! What greens we did have were cooked to death and were never served again.
I remember my dad abhorring chicken and when we had scrambled eggs, he’d put catsup on them. Later, I learned that my paternal grandmother had chickens during the depression and would always serve chicken, making it stretch for a very long time. Basically, they had chicken every day. So, he abhorred chicken in his adult years and could only tolerate scrambled eggs with catsup.
My maternal grandparents were into beef stews and beans with pork. My mother new how to cook these very well, but outside of that she wasn’t that great of a cook. But was anybody who survived the Great Depression a good cook? They didn’t have access to what we have now via mail and didn’t have a whole lot to work with?
As a result, my heritage is that I can cook a mean beef stew (several different ways) and my chicken and dumplings are pretty good too. My mother was good at fixing salad greens and was a healthy eater, but my dad would always call it rabbit food. It took him a very longtime to become acclimated to rice which my mother loved, but it was mostly eaten at restaurants. She only knew how to cook instant rice, I think (I’m not certain they even sold rice at that time.) So all the rest, I learned from the Arabs and, then, the internet when it became populated with recipes.
I may be able to turn stew 3 different ways, but I can turn leftover rice with either chicken or beef any into a plethora of gourmet meals with rice from Mediterranean, Asian and my own concoctions. I don’t say that to boast, but to admit I am blessed with it for use during hardships. So many of the adults during my childhood abhorred anything resembling poverty after enduring the Great Depression throughout their childhood. Left me in the dark.
I should also add that my hardship meal was play-tending. It wasn’t required, but it was really tasty.
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Post by macmex on Apr 16, 2023 19:14:58 GMT -6
My wife's grandparents on her father's side were married at ages 15 and 14, I believe in 1931. They'd already grown up in extreme poverty (Grandpa had to work to supply food and shoes for himself and his little sister from the time he was 10) and, I hear that they figured they might as well be married and take care of each other. Grandma was an amazing cook. When I first met them, I was dating Jerreth. Right off the bat they wanted to show me their pantry, which was huge and stocked, floor to ceiling with their own canned foods. They made sure to give me a tour of their beautiful, food producing, garden, and I probably won some real brownie points by being able to converse with them about favored varieties. Grandma was an AMAZING cook, though most of the time they were exceedingly health conscious and "ate like rabbits." But when they had company, watch out! She'd cook up MOUNDS of delicious foods, refilling everyone's plates as fast as there was any space available. I could tell that Grandpa LOVED to have company. He didn't talk much, just reached for more biscuits and gravy or whatever else was being served
Sometimes the most delicious food is born from poverty. I know, when Jerreth and I have been really hard pressed financially, we'd use every scrap of what we had, exercising more ingenuity than ever to put together a good meal. It took more time to prepare but oftentimes the results were really excellent.
I noticed when I left home to go to school that a lot of folk in the middle of the country didn't eat rice. This astounded me. My family had rice all the time. Dad worked with engineers of several different Asian (and other) ethnicities and made a point to get recipes from them. For several years he himself would make us a meal from "such and such country" and we kids learned to enjoy it all. Yet, our family always did the instant rice. Jerreth and I learned to make the real stuff while in seminary, where our two closest neighbors were Korean.
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Post by amyinowasso on Apr 17, 2023 8:37:04 GMT -6
A philoppino lady taught me to cook rice. She held up her hand, index finger down, thumb on first knuckle. This much rice. Thumb on 2nd knuckle. This much water. In essence, 2 to 1 ratio. I had waterless stainless steel cookware. (A thing in the 70s), very heavy pots with tight sealing lids that didn't need much water for vegetables. Aside from cast iron, I don't know how to cook with anything else. Don't get me wrong, I'm a pro at getting burned rice and burned broccoli out of those stainless steel pans. But, I could bring the water and rice to a boil, let it cook a minute or two, then take it off the heat and it would cook on residual heat And be ready by the time the rest of the meal was done.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Apr 17, 2023 8:37:46 GMT -6
What am amazing couple. What I would give to spend time with them, especially with the Mrs. in the kitchen! Just wow. Married so young and remained steadfast all those years. No television or internet distractions, just did what was supposed to be done in proper time and without delay. A lifetime of learning skills and building wisdom from doing what was expected and dealing with what was in front of you to do.
When the Korean street cooking went viral on YouTube, I watched them all with intense focus on how they used a type of tempura on their various greens. I like the idea of adding carbs to greens. But what particularly interested me were the rural small restaurants. One elderly restaurant owner would chop and boil onions to season water. She used the oniony water in her tempura batter to coat greens cooked on the grill. I’m looking forward to trying this out.
I briefly read somewhere about traditional cabbage rolls made by the Swedes. They used cabbage that had been in storage and had begun to take on their own fermentation giving the leaves a bit of a sour taste. Now, THAT would require some traditional skills not added to a cook book, not only the particular underground stone cellar that imparts its bacterial. I mentally made the connection to the universal application of lemon juice over cabbage rolls to their sour cabbage method. Not sure if it’s a real connection, but it wouldn’t surprise me. It’s not unlike adding a slice of tomato to a pot of stew to help break down the fibers in tougher meats. Now, a southern style stew doesn’t taste the same without a touch of tomato even when using prime meat cuts.
I imagine every one of these quirky recipes that taste so great were born of necessity. “Ma. The cabbage is starting to turn but it’s all we got.”
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