What are you eating from your garden?

[applestar]

Sounds like you’re eating a super healthy salad!

Don’t you think the flowers smell like honey just as you eat them?

[Gary350]

Sounds like you’re eating a super healthy salad!

Don’t you think the flowers smell like honey just as you eat them?

I will check that out tomorrow. I never thought about smelling the flowers.

[digitS']

Gary, remember when we spelled Beijing, "Peking?"

Written English and English-speakers have trouble with Chinese pronunciation. And, with the pronunciation of many, many different languages. Fact is, dialects in English are not well defined in our common, written language.

Bok Choy and Pak Choi may be sorted out and standardized at some time so that there is an "accepted" spelling. Personally, I'm not happy that Gai Lan seems to be used more and more often when I was happy with the name Guy Lon. As a teenager, I knew a kid named Lon. Nice guy, I wonder what happened to him ...

Steve

[Gary350]

Today, Pak Choy Taco Salad. I picked about 40 Pak Choy flower tops with leaves, 2 scoops of broken taco shells, 2 scoops of taco seasoned meat with, spices, onions, beans. 3 squirts of salsa, 2 scoops of cheese.

[imafan26]

That would be the stage to pick gai lan or Chinese broccoli, just as the flowers are budding up. Bok choy and pak choy are different here. Bok choy is green stemmed and pak choy or pe chai has a white stem. The flavor is a little different. Any choi is a cabbage. In the mainland both are called Bok Choy. Shanghai bok choy or gai choy are green stemmed, pe chai and pak choy are white stemmed. There used to be only the large version, but now there are mini versions of both. Anglicized spelling has many forms. Napa cabbage is called Won Bok here. In the markets, the names used could be different depending on who the customers are. ong Choi (Chinese water spinach) is labeled as Kang kong in Filipino markets. Won bok is rarely labeled as Napa Cabbage here. When people cook they will be particular about using white stem vs green stem bok choy because the flavors are different and they usually don't interchange them. They are in season at the same time, so there would not usually be a reason to substitute. Gai lan may be substituted for choy sum or Yu choy sum, because choy sum has a shorter season. Choy sum is sweeter and more tender than gai lan.
https://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/chin ... d%20manure.
https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-ingre ... fy-greens/

I stir fried the Tokyo Bekana this morning with garlic, oil, onion, salt, pepper, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. I had it with Bul Go Gi. A little too much at one time. I am paying for it now. It was good. However, not a good idea to cook down 7 cups of mustard greens and eat it all in one meal.

[Gary350]

Yesterday we had real stir fry for dinner with real chicken & onions it was very good. Today we have frozen heat & eat stir fry it was not very good. Garden broccoli is very good. Wife wants cooked broccoli, I like broccoli not cooked.

[Gary350]

Lunch, chicken sandwich with, 6 romaine lettuce leaves & 6 Pac choy leaves. I need to eat like this for every meal while supply lasts.

[imafan26]

Today, I picked 309 g of bush beans, but made bacon with snow peas and garlic today. I had the peas in the frig awhile and they needed to be used first.

[Gary350]

Lunch, 2 slices of sourdough bread, 8 Pac Choy leaves, 8 Romaine lettuce leaves, big scoop of chicken salad. Yummy.

[imafan26]

I never thought to use pak choy for lettuce. I have always stir fried it. It sounds like a good idea especially for the baby boks.

[imafan26]

I steamed the beans I picked yesterday and melted some butter. Simple and delicious with my hamburger patty and mushroom and onions.

[Gary350]

Dinner, hamburger with 8 pac choy leaves & 8 romaine lettuce leaves, slice of onion, cheese, musturd, mayo and baked beans..

[PaulF]

This time of year the asparagus is the only thing…rhubarb is a day or two away.

[Gary350]

This time of year the asparagus is the only thing…rhubarb is a day or two away.

Do you grow Rhubarb in the dark? If you put Rhubarb forcing pots over your plants before they grow plants will have no malic acid or oxalic acid. Flavor is amazing. We grew good Rhubarb in Illinois and it grew wild in Michigan but humidity is too high and to hot to grow it in TN.

[applestar]

I harvested almost 2 loosely filled gallons of brassica side shoots and florets, tender leaves etc. (broccoli, napa cabbage, cabbage) on Tuesday, and added them to a whole chicken soup this morning.

After separating into tender shoots/leaves vs. fibrous and tougher stems, pressure cooked the stems in water that potatoes and sweet potatoes had been steamed over, then vitamixed and then strained out all the fibrous bits, then reserving, pressure cooked and picked out the rib and back bones, neck bones, wing tips, added cut up meat that had been seasoned and marinating in gin, and onion/garlic, plus the potatoes, celery, carrots, parsnips, etc. and the tender florets and leaves. Dried oregano from last year and recently picked purple dead nettle.

[PaulF]

This time of year the asparagus is the only thing…rhubarb is a day or two away.

Do you grow Rhubarb in the dark? If you put Rhubarb forcing pots over your plants before they grow plants will have no malic acid or oxalic acid. Flavor is amazing. We grew good Rhubarb in Illinois and it grew wild in Michigan but humidity is too high and to hot to grow it in TN.

Our rhubarb was grown from small plants about fifteen years ago. We started with six or eight starts and they have produced a huge quantity ever since. They have never been thinned and just keep doing very well. Just lucky I guess.

[Gary350]

This time of year the asparagus is the only thing…rhubarb is a day or two away.

Do you grow Rhubarb in the dark? If you put Rhubarb forcing pots over your plants before they grow plants will have no malic acid or oxalic acid. Flavor is amazing. We grew good Rhubarb in Illinois and it grew wild in Michigan but humidity is too high and to hot to grow it in TN.

Our rhubarb was grown from small plants about fifteen years ago. We started with six or eight starts and they have produced a huge quantity ever since. They have never been thinned and just keep doing very well. Just lucky I guess.

If you grow Rhubarb is the sun they have malic acid & oxalic acid. If your grow potatoes in the sun they turn green and you can't eat them. If you grow Rhubarb in the dark for about 3 months about March to May there is no malic acid or oxalic acid.

[PaulF]

Wow! Talk about learning something new every day. Some of the plants are small enough I can give it a try. Always up for something new (to me.) Thanks.

[Gary350]

Wow! Talk about learning something new every day. Some of the plants are small enough I can give it a try. Always up for something new (to me.) Thanks.

Forcing Rhubarb is very popular in England. I don't know anyone in USA that does this. I tried it with 30 gallon trash cans wind kept blowing the trash cans away. 1x2 boards did not block out all the UV light. Buy a 2x8 board 10 ft long cut 1 piece for a top end, then cut the rest of the board in 4 equal pieces to build a tall square tube. I learned thinner boards block visible light but not ultraviolet light. I tried to buy 30" tall clay forcing pots several years ago I could not find any in USA. I bought a bag of cement to make my own 30" forcing pots but my Rhubarb plants all died TN is too hot and dry for Rhubarb. I have an idea that Rhubarb might grow good in TN if I plant them so plants never get full sun, bright shade might work here June to Feb., then total darkness March to May.

My grandmother was from Sweden she knew about Forcing Rhubarb she tried to explain it to me when I was about 8 or 10 years old but I did not understand it.

[Gary350]

Tacos for dinner with lots of Cilantro.

Our Cilantro is 3 ft tall we had 87° weather a week ago now its starting to bolt, we need to eat as much as we can before its gone. We have been eating Cilantro for about 2 months, it does not save well in the freezer it looses it flavor.

[digitS']

We also had our first meal with Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis . It is the first veggie out of the hoop house. Some lettuce will be ready soon.

The rhubarb could be harvested and, it's about time for a cobbler. A couple of flowers were taken off.

Steve