Cime di rapa

Cime is one of our favourite greens to eat and grow, its tender stalks and leaves are mild and the flowers are stunning. We are on a life time hunt for a large heading Cime, one day we hope to grow this cultivar!

We welcome cime di rapa, it's the beautiful flowering mustard green in the box. The seed we grow is from Italy, and it's a pretty wild & very popular green eaten all over Italy. The entire stalk is edible- as are the leaves & flowers. Sometimes, if we've got to the harvest a day or two late, some of the thicker stems can be a little woody and it's best to shop them off as you would the ends of asparagus.

Cime di rapa is delicious sautéed with some garlic & olive oil or tossed through pasta. Its also delicious thrown in the bowl, covering winter soups.

Gai lan

The whole Gai lan plant has been cultivated to be delicious: stem, leaves & flowerhead. The stem is sweet and crunchy, and often the most favoured part of this beautiful plant.

Gai lan is fantastic steamed, stir-fried or blanched. It's often served with oyster sauce or garlic ~ we like to enjoy Gai lan blanched, chopped into thirds and covered in this fantastic, easy plant-based Hoisin inspired sauce.

If any folks find the stem to be a little too tough, we recommend blanching the Gail lan stalks just for a minute or two in boiling water before adding it to soups or stir fries.

9 June 2021

This week we are very happy to have grown our very first successful crop of gai lan, or Chinese broccoli for you all.

All of our previous attempts have been irreparably damaged by wind because the gai lan stalk is quite delicate when it's a small seedling. Gai lan is thought to be one of the older cultivars of brassica, and is closely related to broccoli.

Frilly Chinese mustard greens

These Chinese mustard greens have been an unexpected & kinda delightful favourite of the box. They have a beautiful salty flavour all on their own. Both raw & steamed, they are lovely.

This flavourful mustard variety is called Ruby Streaks. Its a famous and common open pollinated variety, and the folks at Kitazawa Seed, who specialise in Asian seed, describe it as an heirloom. There are multiple published studies looking into the anthocyanin make up of Ruby Streaks, and they are really interesting! One of them I found was an experiment of Ruby Streaks growing under different levels of light, the changes in the light produced different distributions of the anthocyanin compounds in the leaves. Some plants grew to look more pink, others were close to blue. These purple compounds will turn your Hot Pot purple, and are super good for all of us to eat and enjoy.

Ruby Streaks is classified as a brassica juncea, the same species as most Indian mustard plants, including the mustards grown for their seed and oil. Although Ruby Streaks has a laced shape just like Mizuna, Mizuna is a different species, its a brassica rapa.

Dylan and I are eagerly awaiting a seed order from Kitazawa Seeds, thats in the post now from the US. We’ve ordered almost every single mustard variety we could, that isnt brassica rapa, as brassica rapa has lots of restrictions and requires expensive seed treatments when entering into Australia.

So we have many fabulous tasty brassica juncea mustards to look forward to, and they’ll join Ruby Streaks.

Wasabina

Wasabina greens are a little reminicent of wasabi flavour, depending on the time of year they are grown they can have a real kick. This fantastic mustard green has been bred in Japan.

To eat Wasabina greens spicy and raw enjoy them in a salad. We tear the greens up into bite sized chunks, and massage them with avocado, soy sauce and lemon juice. They are also great braised, steamed or added to soups!

Enjoy Wasabina greens steamed, cooled and added to nori rolls, or incorporated into a sushi bowl with pickled ginger, tofu and sliced carrots.