Friday, June 3, 2011

Baby Pak Choi


Earlier this spring I received an offer I couldn't refuse: a Media Kit from Renee's Garden, which included my choice of 18 free packets of seeds. Now that our weather has sufficiently warmed, (finally!) last weekend many of those seeds were sown in our two tiny raised bed veggie gardens. Earlier this spring I sowed a few cool-season vegetables including Renee's Broccoli Raab Super Rapini (also delicious, and all gone.)

I took advantage of the opportunity to try a number of new varieties, and in some cases, entirely new-to-me vegetables, including the broccoli raab, and baby pak choi. I have eaten pak choi (also known as bok choy,) but have never grown it until this spring. I grew Renee's F-1 hybrid Baby Pak Choi Green Fortune. Beautiful, tender, sweet, crisp, and delicious, its small size is perfect for a small vegetable garden like mine. Although neither of our two raised beds receives full sun, the pak choi grew very fast, and very well. Before planting, the soil was amended with organic vermicompost from my basement worm bin. (The red wiggler worms are fed only organic kitchen and garden scraps.) No other fertilizers were used or needed.

Traditionally used in stir-fry in Asian cuisine, I've yet to try it that way. Green Fortune is so delicious raw in salads, that's how I've been eating it, every day for over two weeks. And no, I haven't gotten tired of it. Besides eating it myself, I have also been using it as the vegetable in George's homemade dog food. He loves it too! He eats it mixed in with his food, and also enjoys it picked straight from the garden, as a treat unadorned. Since it's an early-spring vegetable that matures quickly, I planted a lot of it. After it's all harvested there will still be time to fill in the empty space in the garden with summer vegetables. As you can see in the photo above, I've already done this in one section of the garden, with tomato plants surrounding the remainder of a row of pak choi. Well-planned succession planting is one of the ways we manage to get an incredible amount and variety of vegetables even from our very small beds.

Pak choi is very low in calories, yet is one of the most nutrient-dense foods available. A nutritional powerhouse, it's packed with vitamins A, C, K, carotene, lutein, B vitamins, respectable amounts of several minerals including calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and zinc, and 28 different polyphenols, including kaempferol, a phytonutrient shown to have strong anti-cancer properties.

Renee's Baby Pak Choi Green Fortune has been very easy to grow, not bothered at all by pests, and very productive. I'm so glad I picked it as part of the Media Kit. I will definitely grow this again!


21 comments:

  1. Hi GG,

    This sounds delicious and certainly would fit in my small veggie garden.

    Eileen

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  2. That was one of the varieties I selected and have to say it is as good as you say it is! We've enjoyed it raw in salads - delicious!

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  3. Definitely give it a try Eileen! As with most of the veggies I plant, although I don't do the square-foot grid thing, I plant much closer together than seed packets recommend. I did this with the pak choi as well. There's a LOT of it here, which is a good thing since it's SO good!

    You have good taste Dave! I was amazed how fast it matured. Next time I'll start harvesting it earlier. It's starting to bolt now, but it's still delicious. The little 'broccoli' heads are also really tasty!

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  4. It's funny to know that you eat it as salad (raw). I have been stir frying pak choi with garlic and oil all my life haha...!

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  5. Aren't they so cute? It seems everyone who vermicomposts loves it. Fortunately, I can get the compost pretty cheap from a local source--for some reason it's just not something I want to take on (maybe an extension of my not even liking indoor plants). It also makes an awesome compost tea. :)

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  6. Stephanie, I stir-fried some in sesame and olive oils with garlic yesterday - yum! I'll definitely do that again. I can eat a lot more of it stir-fried since it wilts and is much lower in volume. I need to hurry and use it up since it's bolting. The stalks aren't as tender as they were at first, and I don't want what's left to go to waste.

    They are very cute Monica!

    I'm having fun with the worm bin, especially now that I've figured out how to keep the fungus gnats out (by burying the scraps under a nice thick layer of shredded newspaper and a top layer of cardboard. The Lawn Man probably thinks I'm nuts saving all those boxes we get from internet orders!)

    The compost those worms make can't be beat (except by bat guano, which is really pricey.)

    (I might not be so enthusiastic about the worm bin if I didn't have a basement.)

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  7. It sounds and looks great. I have never grown pak choi either but must give a try-soon.

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  8. I think you'd like it Tina! It's a wonderful spring vegetable. I planted it at the same time as radishes and peas. It matures almost as fast as radishes do.

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  9. it is so healthy for you.. i always forget how good for you they are.

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  10. Jennifer, learning about how nutritious pak choi is after I'd sown the seeds made me really glad I chose it! Tasting it the first time made me even gladder!

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  11. I wonder, does it taste like a cabbage?

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  12. Sissy, I can tell by the taste that it's in the cabbage family, but it's milder,more tender, and maybe a bit sweeter. It's seems milder in flavor than most of the cruciferous vegetables.

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  13. So impressed, Linda. Count me in for this taste treat! Happy HOT June :)

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  14. I've never tried growing pak choi before, but it sounds like a great plant to try next year. I received one of Renee's Media kits, too--all the choices were so tempting, it was hard to narrow it down to 18, even though I knew I'd never have room for all of them.

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  15. Joey, with your culinary genius, I'm confident you'd find lots of delicious ways to prepare it!

    Rose, I know what you mean - I had a hard time narrowing it down too! I've planted some of everything now, except the winter greens which I'll plant later in the year. I was determined to try everything - no mean feat considering the size of our beds and that all but three packets of seeds are veggies and herbs. The other three are Nigella (blue and white love-in-a-mist, and strawberries.)

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  16. Great minds think along the same lines, Linda :-) I've already harvested a lot of the 2 full rows of Baby Bok Choy that I planted from seeds as well. I saute it in Sesame oil, add ginger and chopped green onions and some soy sauce. Delish! I also saute it with tofu and onion.

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  17. Sounds delicious Carolyn! I haven't tried ginger yet, but I will, and I love it with sesame oil.

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  19. Hi Tanya, me too - love sesame oil!

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  20. Who doesn't love Sesame anything? Yum! Look forward to hearing more of your preserving exploits too - Mead is so tasty and I'd like to try it sometime as well :)

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  21. I wanted you to know I appreciated your comments on my blog for GBBD and had no way to let you know of followup comments from me, well not yet, so I'll do it here if that's alright. Here is my comment and thanks so much for your visit. I hope you'll visit again and I hope you'll have time to read one or more of my garden stories sometimes. I hope to hear from you again. P.S. I loved your GBBD collages.

    @Linda, howdy Garden Girl, Thanks for your GBBD welcome and thanks for your heads up on Bloom Day etiquette, I should have known that anyways but thanks for pointing it out to me and as far as doing no wrong, will you contact my wife and tell her that personally, you know that I can do no wrong.......:) Thanks for visiting and look forward to you visiting again and maybe reading one of my little stories.

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