Re: [gardeners] A postage stamp garden

Margaret Lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 02 Sep 1998 08:10:45 -0600 

At 10:43 PM 9/1/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Margaret, I wrote the wrong thing last night:
>>>Bok choy is usually Chinese cabbage. I'm not sure how bok choy
>>>would work out. Might work.
>
>I should have said, "Kim Chee is usually Chinese cabbage. I'm not
>sure how bok choy would work out."

The old Sunset Oriental cookbook defines Kim Chee as "fermented vegetable
pickles," and I have heard from a Korean friend they make Kim Chee out of
cucumbers or anything else, so it must work out.
>
>Bok choy in a sense looks like celery with huge top leaves. It has
>individual stalks. Chinese cabbage looks like an elongated head of 
>cabbage, with tightly closed interleafed leaves. 

I know.  I've grown and eaten both.
>
>I have a number of wonderful recipes for Chinese cabbage in cold
>salads and slaws. But I only have one recipe for bok choy, almost the
>same
>in every cook book, as a warm, stir-fried dish. How do you fix it? 
>
>Penny, NY
>
Sometimes add chopped leaves to soups.  Larkcom says you can eat chopped
leaves and/or seedlings in salads, as well.  By the way, Penny, "Oriental
Vegetables" is NOT a cookbook, although there are some use instructions in
it.  Joy Larkcom (note spelling) is a British garden writer, and she's as
good as they get.  Her book on salad veggies is also outstanding.  She
tells you how to grow, when and how to harvest, and how to use Oriental
vegetables.  Paperback is $17.  Margaret
>
>
>
>
>>>Last week I pulled out one whole bok choy plant to fix for dinner. 
>>Jim
>>>was convinced that I should have pulled OFF the outer leaves, and
>>>left the plant to regenerate itself. I vetoed that emphatically. So 
>>we
>>>did it my way. This afternoon when I reached for a plant, Jim said
>>>No Fair! This time you have to try it MY way! Fine, I replied, then 
>>will
>>>you please go pull the stalks...? And he came in with a 5-gallon pail
>>>full of separate bok choy stalks.  
>>>
>>>Does anyone of you know just which veggies do well when only
>>>the outer leaves are pulled...? 
>>>
>>>Penny, NY
>>>
>>Penny, I KNOW it's Chinese cabbage.  I've grown it myself, and cooked 
>>with
>>it.  That is why I suggested you get Joy Larkcom's book, "ORIENTAL
>>Vegetables."  The whole plant is usually pulled when you're preparing 
>>bok
>>choy.  I grow "baby bok choy," but do not harvest it until it's 3 or 4
>>inches tall.  Some snag it smaller.  Margaret
>>
>>
>
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