*Edit 5/19 - When I ordered seeds earlier this spring I couldn't get any vitamin greens seeds. Johnny's batch of seeds had some noxious weed seeds in it so they couldn't sell it. I will be growing this green in the coming fall - it's still the one I'm most excited to grow!
*Edit 11/28 - I've grown some (and eaten some) vitamin green! See them here!
I think gardeners all over are giddy with excitement. It's the time of year boxes of seeds come in the mail. I got my box of seeds in their clean white envelopes last week. Tomorrow I am going to plant eleven varieties of greens. Many are species you have heard of - spinach, kale and arugula - but some I have never heard of before. So, I've done a bit of investigating.
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| photo from johnnyseeds.com |
The first green, and the one I might be most excited to grow, is
called vitamin green. It is in the Brassica rapa napa group
which means it's a loose-headed cabbage-y type green. They are a
common Japanese green that grow vigorously and are cold tolerant. The
name vitamin green comes from their high vitmin A content. According to Johnny's the
"tender leaves are flavorful, but not at all mustardy." On a
blog I read that they are "sweet
and bright with just enough bite to bring them down to earth."
I couldn't find
much else about them, so it seems like measuring their growth rate (part of my
next experiment) will be useful as well as tasty. If you know anything
about this green let me know!
We are in a community garden. One of our neighbors grew some of this and I asked him about it. He told me he had plenty and asked if we wanted to try it. Why Not? So he cut some stalks off and we used them first in a sandwich, then broken up in a salad. Absolutely delicious. I can't stand th taste of kale but this plant is fantastic. We shared some with neighbors and everyone raved about it. So we are planting some as soon as our current crops are harvested. Highly recommended.
ReplyDeleteFabulous! I'm jealous you a) have crops to harvest right now and b) can plant new crops! Here in the northeast we've got a few more months to wait until planting crops outside can happen.
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