Growing and Cooking Bok Choy

I have two rows of Bok Choy planted in our fall garden.  It is also called Chinese cabbage.  To be honest, it is called a lot of things.  Choy means 'vegetable' in Chinese.  We discovered this vegetable three years ago and it has proven itself to be a staple as a side dish for supper.  There are different types of bok choy and it is also spelled bok choi, pac choi, Shanghai greens and a multitude of other variations.

It grows pretty quickly and is ready to eat in a couple of months.  The first row I planted was from a seed packet given to me and it was labeled as Asian Greens. These are similar to the Bok Choy that I've grown except the leaves don't have the characteristic 'soup spoon' stems like the others do.  The leaves, other than that, look pretty similar.

Asian Greens

We have been clipping leaves off of the plants at the head of the row.  You can see where the plants have been harvested at the bottom right of the picture below:

Picking a few bok choy plants

In this photo, you can look at the stems to see the difference between Asian greens and Bok Choy.  Notice how the stems are long with no scallop or spoon shaped stems.  The leaves and stems are delicious!  In the few days since I took this photo, the bugs have discovered just how delicious the leaves are and have put more than a few holes in the leaves unfortunately.

Healthy Asian Greens

Here is the second row of the more traditional Bok Choy that I've grown since 2012. The plants are stocky and more compact and the leaves are held by fat, 'soup spoon' shaped stems.

Bok Choy

Bok Choy is said to be one of the most healthy vegetables on the planet and a 1 cup serving provides more than 100% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin A and about 2/3s of the RDA of Vitamin C.

Vitamins from the "Farmacy"

So I pulled a bunch of Asian Greens from the first row and washed them off in the sink.  They'll last longer if you don't wash them, but I was going to cook them quickly.  I added a little butter to the bottom of the skillet and let it melt while the skillet warmed up.  I added a sprinkle of kosher salt and along with a splash or three of Soy Sauce and let it stir fry for a while.

Stir Frying Asian Greens.

And in no time at all, it is ready to eat!

Grab a plate!

Bok Choy, Chinese Cabbage, Pak Choi?  No matter what you call it - I call it GOOD!

2014 Bok Choy

Bok Choy is not a vegetable that I grew up eating, but I eat it now.  Some call it Chinese Cabbage. Regardless what you call it, it is one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat.  In fact, the Center for Disease Control study, bok choy ranked second out of 41 fruits and vegetables for nutrient density.  It is loaded with Vitamin A and Vitamin C.  We added it to our planting rotation a couple of years ago.  It has really grown well this year and is now ready for harvest.  It is one of the first of our Fall/Winter crops that is currently ready.  Kale will be ripe soon.

So last week, we pulled some of the biggest bok choy plants, took them inside and washed them and stir fried them in a little oil, flavored with garlic, ginger and soy sauce.  It was nice to eat the first produce out of the Fall Garden.  They were delicious.  We'll continue to harvest and eat them over the next few months.

Healthy bok choy flourishing in the garden

We mulch either side of the bok choy with hay and this keeps competition from winter weeds from overtaking the crop.

Row of Bok Choy

We'll pick and eat the largest plants first as it will bolt, sending up a tall shoot with yellow flowers on it.  Bok choy has a scallop shaped stem, sort of looking like a soup spoon, where it attaches to the stalk that must be washed good as the scallops harbor dust and grime.

We like trying new things in our garden and will continue to plant new and exciting things like bok choy.  In fact I've got a few very interesting items that I'll be showing you over the next couple of months that are new to Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.