|
|
Home Grown: Mache, Mizuna, and Miyashige
| Article
# : |
13976 |
|
|
Section : |
LIFE
|
| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1988 |
1,396 Words |
| Author
: |
Walter Chandoha
|
You won't find mache, mizuna, or miyashige radishes on the menu at your local restaurant, nor are these vegetables sold in most supermarkets--not yet! However, as Americans travel and sample exotic produce abroad, they return home with an appetite for the unusual.
In the homegrown market, garden catalogs are now offering Egyptian onions, elephant garlic, and purple kohlrabi. Although "new" sounding, there is nothing new about them; they've been grown and eaten abroad for centuries.
Like all garden vegetables, these unusual varieties thrive in a loose, easy-draining soil, rich in humus. All gardens can be improved by adding humus-making organic matter like peat moss, leaf mold, compost or rotted manure. Scatter two to four inches of the organic compound over the garden bed (more if you have clay or sandy soil), then for each 100 square feet of area add a pound of ground limestone (omit if your soil is alkaline) and two handfuls of an all-purpose fertilizer like 5-10-5. Blend all ingredients to a depth of six to ten inches. Rake smooth and you're ready to plant.
After planting, water thoroughly. Thereafter, the growing plants need about an inch of water weekly--if there's no rain, use the garden hose. When the weather warms, mulch plants with something organic: grass clippings, chopped leaves, salt hay, or whatever is readily available locally. The mulch suppresses weeds, keeps roots cool and moist, and eventually decomposes, adding more humus to the soil.
Exotic vegetable varieties
MACHE--Generously sow mache seeds either very early in the spring or early in the fall. Let some spring-sown plants flower and go to seed. They will self-sow and germinate in midfall for early winter harvests.
This vegetable is also called feticus, corn salad or lamb's lettuce. Use tender thinnings in salads. The blandness of mache makes it a good mixer with stronger flavored arugula and cress and bitter radicchios.
MIZUNA--This mustard family member grows best in cool weather--early or late in the growing season.
Delicate and mild tasting, it can be mixed with stronger greens for a balanced salad. Add 4 to 5 leaves per serving to chicken soup a minute or two before ladling into bowls, or cook mizuna like spinach.
MIYASHIGE RADISH--Looking more like elephant tusks than vegetables, these winter radishes can easily grow to two feet. Plant in late summer for cool weather growing.
Sliced and served raw, the radish is delicious when dipped in a heated mixture of virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, garlic and anchovies. They're also good cooked; Julienne and sauté in butter, simmer until tender, season with your favorite herb.
PURPLE OSAKA MUSTARD--Cool weather growing is necessary for this green also.
This vegetable with a spicy, biting tang is used raw in salads
...
Read Full Article
|
|
