Perennial Greens (was Training our taste buds )

[Guest guest]

Slim, thanks for the information. You must live in warm weather too?

 

I tasted New Zealand spinach back when I lived in Oz. I was unaware it did

better in warm

weather, so I will try this when i get seed. We did get some of the green wave

mustard

but have not planted yet, will do in the fall. I got some mustards planted in

the winter but

I bought seeds from a bad supplier (Horizon seeds, stay away from them). so only

one or

two sprouted, and i got more greens from my volunteer lettuce!

 

Collards apparently really like warm weather and I have lots of collards going.

I planted

too much and mixed the seed with red and lacinato kales so I am thinning it and

letting

the kale get larger. I even got gai lan to grow for me this year! and bok choi

too. It is

getting too warm for them though, so they will find themselves in a dish

soon....our red

russian kale flowered with nice yellow flowers and we cut them, trying to get it

to stay

perennial and give us more leaves, let's see what happens...we have been picking

the kale

weekly for about 16 months now. That is a lot of kale out of one patch!

 

Roseta

 

, " slim_langer " <slim_langer wrote:

>

> Hi Roseta,

> Have you tried the New Zealand spinach? This is a weird and wonderful,

> nutritious hot weather plant. It seems perennial for the southern US.

> It pulled through my mild winter, slightly increasing and then started

> to go crazy, one plant producing a whole spinach patch. It grows

> overnight faster than I can cut and use it. However, eating it raw it

> does (to my taste) have a bitter and metallic aftertaste I don't like.

>

> I have some strawberry spinach (aka beetberry or Chenopodium

> capitatum) that seems to go well in hot weather. It tastes wonderful

> raw with very sweet long stems, supposedly fruit berries too, but I

> haven't seen any yet.

>

> The red malabar spinach is a beautiful plant, loves hot weather and

> tastes really good, raw or cooked. Though it is not as nutritious as

> the New Zealand spinach and not cold hardy enough for mild winters.

> I'm also trying purslane, sorrel, miner's lettuce and (later) burnet

> for perennial greens. My lacinato and red russian kale have had half

> the plants bolt, while my dwarf blue (tightly curled) and pentland

> brig kales are all keeping on bigger and more productive than ever,

> keeping me fed along with tons of the New Zealand spinach.

>

> Regarding mustard, my green-wave mustard greens were wonderfully

> productive all winter with frilly large leaves tasting strongly of

> horseradish. Then last month they bolted too and then quickly mildewed

> with our freak 100 degree temps so I had to pull them out. I got some

> tatsoi mustard to try, (mild taste, rounded leaves). And I'll probably

> start some more mustard greens in the late summer again for next year.

>

> Stay well,

>

> Slim

>

> , " rosetalleo " <rosetalleo@>

> wrote:

> >

> > Ginger, not sure where you live, but if you have an indian store

> with fresh spices and you

> > plant the brown/black mustard seeds and also the yellow ones, you

> will probably get a

> > few plants. I am experimenting with this since I want to grow

> greens even when it gets

> > really hot here. Lettuce will not be possible in the summer so I

> like to try other greens. I

> > am also trying fenugreek greens (have not tasted yet).

> >

> > My partner does not like cooked spinach either, and it is hard to

> get him to eat any greens

> > cooked. We do eat a lot of salads growing our own greens and he

> really likes that. So you

> > are not alone in the preference....

> > Roseta in Los Angeles

> >

>