Friday, May 10, 2013 at 5:39 PM
Went to the big city (BB) today for almost the sole purpose of finding Boc Choy seeds, or Bock Choy, whatever the spelling. Well turns out the spelling is Pac Choi. The Co-op has an organic variety of seeds. Walmart outdoor living has none, the nursery on rt. 9 in BB North has none, but Agway had another , presumably inorganic variety at almost half the price of what the Co-op carried. I am continuously amazed about the price difference of food grown without expensive pesticides and with fertilizers that have no other manufacturing cost than that incurred from feeding animals and rotting plant stuff, vs food that is grown according to modern agricultural science. The Co-op now has a section that says "Regular products". There one can find all kinds of stuff that we are familiar with from our regular visits to the friendly neighborhood supermarket. I got a pack of each of the two seeds at those two places and will make a scientific evaluation of the relative effects of each. Do I feel better after High Mowing or Agway? Stay close so you will not miss the conclusion of the Chinese Greens mystery.
I came home, had something for late lunch, and eventually moseyed out in the garden to prepare the space for the new tenants: Pak Choi, egg plant and Kohlrabi. Can't wait to have a stir fried baby kohlrabi! Can't wait to have some eggplant, pan fried, with sunny side up and bacon and hard crusty bread for breakfast. Of course, I'm also looking forward to the fresh baby Pac Choi. I looked up what the nutrition of this green is and am amazed: 70 grams of it will yield 9 calories! One must run only some four miles to get rid of that again :-) It delivers 1% Carbs, 3% fibre, but estimable amounts of Vit. A, C, Calcium and Iron. So it is not just water, like we used to tell each other snickeringly about cabbage: Might as well drink a glass of water, rather than going through the trouble of cooking a cabbage. Yeah, and in lieu of adding all those spices so one can eat it, you add some hops and some grains to water and it gives it a real good taste!
Chip says the ground is still too cold to plant. Up here, one does not plant before the tenth of June! Al Gore's scheme must have caused a slipping of the dates: when I dug up the fresh garden row this afternoon, the ground was warm to the touch.; deep down, too. I grant you, the worms are still a bit sluggish when they are dug up to the day light, but then I never knew them to be great sprinters. So, I am going to plant right after the water drained off enough after these coming rainy days.
Y'all have a good weekend down y'alls way, hea!
Isa
********************************************************************************
Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 5:45 AM
Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 2:50 PM
I'm learning Chinese! Pac means green, Boc means white, Choi must mean stem. I made that up and I can just envision the condescending smirk this might get from your resident Chinese linguist. But I got it all straight now and I'm looking forward to the harvest. My hope is that your lack of success simply means that the 'Chois' don't like the southern climate, being of the cabbage family that likes it on the cool side.
We used to plant cabbage in Virginia while the ground was still trying to become unfrozen and never had much success. On the other hand, we'd take cruises into the Piedmont and within just a few miles from home, up toward Blacksburg, we'd run into acres and acres of cabbage fields. And then came Uncle Billy's day and I would get a fifty pound bag of local (VA Piedmont) cabbages from the trade-lot and bring it home to the women who went right to work to make our own sauerkraut. The women, in those days, was the team Helde and Emi. Memories!
My 'Chois' should get the cool weather here, if I can get the seeds down before it turns seriously warm. It is raining off and on all day and the shreds of the clouds are hanging over the ridge across the valley. Thanks for the lead in clearing the mystery of the "Stems," Laurie!
Opa
Went to the big city (BB) today for almost the sole purpose of finding Boc Choy seeds, or Bock Choy, whatever the spelling. Well turns out the spelling is Pac Choi. The Co-op has an organic variety of seeds. Walmart outdoor living has none, the nursery on rt. 9 in BB North has none, but Agway had another , presumably inorganic variety at almost half the price of what the Co-op carried. I am continuously amazed about the price difference of food grown without expensive pesticides and with fertilizers that have no other manufacturing cost than that incurred from feeding animals and rotting plant stuff, vs food that is grown according to modern agricultural science. The Co-op now has a section that says "Regular products". There one can find all kinds of stuff that we are familiar with from our regular visits to the friendly neighborhood supermarket. I got a pack of each of the two seeds at those two places and will make a scientific evaluation of the relative effects of each. Do I feel better after High Mowing or Agway? Stay close so you will not miss the conclusion of the Chinese Greens mystery.
I came home, had something for late lunch, and eventually moseyed out in the garden to prepare the space for the new tenants: Pak Choi, egg plant and Kohlrabi. Can't wait to have a stir fried baby kohlrabi! Can't wait to have some eggplant, pan fried, with sunny side up and bacon and hard crusty bread for breakfast. Of course, I'm also looking forward to the fresh baby Pac Choi. I looked up what the nutrition of this green is and am amazed: 70 grams of it will yield 9 calories! One must run only some four miles to get rid of that again :-) It delivers 1% Carbs, 3% fibre, but estimable amounts of Vit. A, C, Calcium and Iron. So it is not just water, like we used to tell each other snickeringly about cabbage: Might as well drink a glass of water, rather than going through the trouble of cooking a cabbage. Yeah, and in lieu of adding all those spices so one can eat it, you add some hops and some grains to water and it gives it a real good taste!
Chip says the ground is still too cold to plant. Up here, one does not plant before the tenth of June! Al Gore's scheme must have caused a slipping of the dates: when I dug up the fresh garden row this afternoon, the ground was warm to the touch.; deep down, too. I grant you, the worms are still a bit sluggish when they are dug up to the day light, but then I never knew them to be great sprinters. So, I am going to plant right after the water drained off enough after these coming rainy days.
Y'all have a good weekend down y'alls way, hea!
Isa
********************************************************************************
Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 5:45 AM
I found this article, which expresses about how I feel about keeping Chinese cabbages straight!
Our
neighbors used to plant all sorts of lovely cabbages each
year. They also planted a lot of eggplant, which I never much cared for
in the vast quantities they would wind up with!
I
tried planting some Chinese cabbage seeds here this year, but they
never came up. I hope you have better success than I did!
L.
******************************************************************************** Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 2:50 PM
I'm learning Chinese! Pac means green, Boc means white, Choi must mean stem. I made that up and I can just envision the condescending smirk this might get from your resident Chinese linguist. But I got it all straight now and I'm looking forward to the harvest. My hope is that your lack of success simply means that the 'Chois' don't like the southern climate, being of the cabbage family that likes it on the cool side.
We used to plant cabbage in Virginia while the ground was still trying to become unfrozen and never had much success. On the other hand, we'd take cruises into the Piedmont and within just a few miles from home, up toward Blacksburg, we'd run into acres and acres of cabbage fields. And then came Uncle Billy's day and I would get a fifty pound bag of local (VA Piedmont) cabbages from the trade-lot and bring it home to the women who went right to work to make our own sauerkraut. The women, in those days, was the team Helde and Emi. Memories!
My 'Chois' should get the cool weather here, if I can get the seeds down before it turns seriously warm. It is raining off and on all day and the shreds of the clouds are hanging over the ridge across the valley. Thanks for the lead in clearing the mystery of the "Stems," Laurie!
Opa
No comments:
Post a Comment