Thursday, April 3, 2014

C Is For Chinese Cabbage

Today's harvest when I thinned Chinese cabbage patch
Cabbage is a very popular vegetable in our household, but I've struggled quite a bit to grow it in our garden. The reasons for the pathetic crops were varied depending on the season: the roaming chickens ate the seedlings one time, then we had drought, and then the bugs got to them and then the plants themselves got sick. Ha! It's a wonder I managed to get even a small harvest at all!

So when someone suggested I try growing Chinese cabbage, I was eager for something different. And different it is. The seeds sprouted very quickly and the seedlings are plentiful. This April I'm planting a new batch of seeds to ensure a succession of harvests.

How to grow Chinese Cabbage

Where: Chinese cabbage likes the kind of soil that keeps/retains water in a sunny area, though your summer crops would prefer a shady area to prevent bolting. The  soil in my garden, which is red clay, was previously fed with homemade compost and cow manure.

Online research says you should lime your soil if it's acidic. This is to prevent clubroot disease, a fungal organis.

Planting process: I generally plant directly into the soil but I expect the space and depth of soil requirement is similar for your seeds whether you plant in the soil or container.

The only difference kicks in when once your seedlings are starting to grow, then the rules for container gardening kick in (e.g. water more often, move container to shade if it's too hot, make sure plant has room to grow a head etc).  Anyhoo, make sure your seeds be around 13mm (0.5in) deep in rows 38cm (15in) apart.


Intentionally planted too tight, so I'm thinning it.
Caring for Chinese Cabbage: I've found it to be very low maintenance. Keep it watered and thin the seedlings to around 30cm (12in) apart to allow for the large heads to grow or to 15cm (7in) apart for "cut and come again" salad leaves.

Like all other brassicas, Chinese cabbage is  prone to bolting when exposed to too much heat. So water it well  before a dry spell or the onset of drought to keep the soil moist.

Harvesting: This morning I went into the garden to thin one of my  beds, which I'd planted very densely. Some of the seedlings are being transplanted into beds where they will have the space to grow big heads. Some will be grown into salads leaves. The rest I'm giving to my sisters (and inlaws) and friends as gifts, to keep near their own kitchens.

Serving suggestions

I decided to use some of the leaves I thinned from the garden to make stuffed cabbage wraps for lunch today. I was inspired by these Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls from Aggie's kitchen except, I didn't want to cook fresh as I had leftover mince and rice to kill.

I mixed the two, chopped some more onions, green pepper and chives from the garden into the mix and added paprika for a smoky flavour. Then I  spooned it onto a big leaf, wrapped it over and held it together with a toothpick.

I used more leaves to wrap the mix where they were small, put them in a baking dish, sprinkled a bit of salt, black pepper and some olive oil, covered with a foil and put in a 150 degrees Celcius (302 F) oven for 30 minutes. The idea is that they slowly simmer, not cook quickly. We had a bunch of these wraps served with freshly chopped tomatoes and cucumbers for lunch.

You can get creative with whatever leftovers you have in your fridge, but try to  make sure you have something starchy to hold your veges and meats together. Or you could chop up some meats and veges, stirfry them just like you usually do and then wrap them. I love chilli, so sometimes I sprinkle my own dish with chopped chilli from garden.

The meal works regardless of the size of your cabbage leaves. Some people prefer to blanch mature leaves before wrapping them, but I've never found that necessary, so use your taste and texture preferences to decide when making the dish.

27 comments:

  1. So exciting to see your garden. How wonderful it must be to see things grow! thank you. Living vicariously through you :)

    Vidya
    I think it is important to be realistic and flexible when venturing out to do anything. My credo is "fail to plan and you plan to fail" Preparation, then, is the route to success. :-)

    I love the phrase Calculated Risk. Makes everything seem so much better :)

    Cheers, Arlee!

    Vidya
    Rocking the A to Z Challenge with Team Damyanti
    Counting Calories
    Cholesterol and the Complications of Living with Type 2 Diabetes

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    1. It's very good for my spirit to see things grow. Working as a writer and mostly on the computer, it's easy for me to lose perspective, especially when I work on a long-term project that won't become tangible for months. Growing things helps me see things I have done in weeks, instead of months. And it just makes everything look pretty:-)

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  2. Hi Damaria, I am saving all your posts for future use...These are so lovely with all detail information about how to grow these vegetables in your own garden and for serving dishes. Keep sharing :-).

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    1. I'm also enjoying trying things out and blogging about them. Thank you for visiting.

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  3. I used to grow veggies in my garden many years ago when I had a bigger backyard. Though never tried chinese cabbage, but cauliflower yes :) These days I stick to only flowers and some herbs. But maybe I will try some simple veggie plants again, thanks to this post. There is something so nice about bringing veggies from the garden and cooking with them!

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    1. It has become part of my daily routine to go into the garden and pick ingredients for the day, and it gives me such a good feeling. For me one of the big joys is deciding while I'm cooking that the dish needs some coriander leaves or chives and being able to decide to just go outside for a couple of minutes to get them. Before, I couldn't afford fresh herbs all the time. BTW, good luck with planting a veggie or two. I'm glad my gardening has inspired you a bit.

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  4. Hi Damaria, I am so glad you posted about Chinese cabbage because this year I am trying my hand at it. Right now they are just small starts but soon I will be about to place them in their final home in the garden. Looking forward to more of your posts.

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    1. Good luck with it, Emma. I hope it grows for you as well as it has for me.

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  5. We don't eat much cabbage around here, but I do like lettuce. We've started eating the hydroponic stuff, and I'm trying to decide if it's any different.

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    1. Not sure. I haven't known if I was eating hydroponic stuff, back when I was buying most of my veggies. I don't imagine it's a big difference though, if there is any?

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  6. Love chinese cabbage. Wish I had enough room to grow it.
    Damyanti Co-host, A to Z Challenge 2014, Latest Post

    Twitter: @damyantig
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    1. Ja, sometimes lack of space is a bummer. For years I dreamt of a time I could have a garden. I used to buy gardening magazines.. read the articles... stare at people's gardens. Having my own garden seemed so far off, then.

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  7. Your post was so informative and just a please to read. I like that you added some cooking hints too. Looking forward to reading your 'D' blog.

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    1. Thank you Vicky. I hope you enjoy the upcoming posts. And thank you for visiting.

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  8. thanks for such a great blog- wonderful to read and learn from!

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  9. I would love to grow vegetables etc in my garden, but I have two dogs, two cats and two sons, so basically impossible it is hard enough just keeping flowers going, the dog runs off and on the flower bed so soon i am resorting to prickly plants if he continues LOL...lovely blog and just saying hello too from another A-Z blogger x

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    1. Hehe! I hear you. Pets... we love them... but they don't make great gardeners' helpers:-)

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  10. I have never heard of or tried Chinese cabbage. It looks wonderful! ~ Angela, A to Z participant from Web Writing Advice (http://www.webwritingadvice.com/) and Whole Foods Living (http://wholefoodsliving.blogspot.com/)

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    1. Thanks. I'm also learning about these plants (vegetables and herbs) as I go along, and then something new to the garden when possible. It's been a very interesting experience.

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  11. Really interesting post Damaria - thank you. It's lovely to see some sunshine coming through the screen :) I've got my first seeds starting to come up on the window sill - mainly herbs this year, but I'm hoping to get a bit more adventurous if these work. - hello from another A to Z blogger :)

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  12. Thanks Fil. We had lovely weather today. Cool because it's Autumn, but the sun was bright and shiny too. Good luck with your seeds. It's not too long ago that I was starting my first garden too, and somehow, many of the plants survived despite me. I'm still trying to find out the level of benign neglect that supposedly keeps sage happy though. I haven't killed a bush this past summer, but before then...the poor things:-)

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  13. Not a great Cabbage fan but then it is always nice to know things like these!!

    ~S(t)ri
    Participant|AtoZ Challenge 2014
    Smile, it makes (y)our day!

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  14. Very true. We have a few veggies we don't like or grow around here too. Aurbergine/brinjal/egg plant is top of that list. I grew it several seasons and it grew very well, but family just didn't like it.

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  15. it's amazing how you use vegetables from you garden to cook. Nutritious as well as safe :)

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  16. Thank you. Mma is diabetic and I wanted us to have a wider variety of veggies, herbs and fruit without increasing my food budget AND I needed a relaxation/exercise outlet. That was more or less my starting point with my Phokeng garden. Safe(r) came along the way, to be honest. I didn't buy fertiliser because I couldn't afford it, and then I realised I didn't want or need it:-)

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  17. Cabbage is not a 'loved' vegetable at our home. Thanks for sharing such an insightful and informative post, Damaria :)

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