I would say move it in.

I would move it in. I am going to put the cold frame back over part of mine and cut the rest. But most of mine is ready. Mine is still growing after temps in the mid/hi twenties so far.

Thank you soonergrandmom and mulberryknob .... I will move it in. It's still growing but not ready to harvest, and sure don't want to lose it now.

Suzie

You're welcome. My favorite way to eat it is to chop a Granny Smith apple into small cubes and drop them into a vinagrette salad dressing. The acid in the dressing keeps it from turning dark, then I add torn chinese cabbage leaves and celery and toss it around in the dressing. I'm not sure if it is salad or slaw, but I'm sure it's good. LOL

Yum! Carol, your salad/slaw recipe sounds wonderful. I'm going to add Granny Smith's to a future grocery list and use with my chinese cabbage. I'll probably be harvesting it very soon (courtesy of the evil side of Mother Nature).

Thanks for sharing!

That does sound like a wonderful recipe, and we love granny smith apples .... thank you again!

Suzie

I think we only have one Chinese cabbage left in the garden, only planted 9. I still have plenty of the regular cabbage but may lose some of them.

I will ask DW to try the recipe. This is the first time I have grown Chinese cabbage, I plan on more next year.

Larry

One of my children's favorite ways to eat chinese cabbage is wilted ie stirfried. I chop radishes (fall radishes or regular) and onions (bulb or green) into a skillet with a tbsp of olive oil and saute gently. When wilted a bit I toss in the chopped chinese cabbage and continue wilting. I don't overcook it; we like it with a bit of crunch. Before serving I toss with a sprinkle of salt and a splash of apple cider or red wine vinegar. Yummy.

And when Dorothy grows radishes, she grows radishes. This is her pic.

Dorothy, I would like it all of those ways too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dorothy's Radishes

That's 2 China Rose Radishes, one cut and one whole and one Daikon Radish along with a Purple Top turnip. And my hand for comparison. My radishes are as big as turnips!!

Dorothy, What huge radishes! Those China Rose radishes almost look too pretty to eat. : )

Dawn

I've never seen any radishes except the little red ones in the grocery store, and had no idea it was possible to grow radishes that large. My husband loves radishes and when I showed that picture to him, he was amazed! Are they difficult to grow, Dorothy?

Suzie

I was reading a post (I think, Dorothy's) a few weeks ago and it made me stop in Mena, Ar. and buy some China Rose and Daikon radish seeds. My plants are only 2 or 3 inches tall and probably wont make, but I have seed for next spring.

All this talk made me hungry and I had to get my boots and a light and go to the garden to get the stuff to make stir fry. No more Chinese cabbage in the garden now.

Larry

Suzie,

Radishes come in many colors, including red, pink, white, black, purple and yellow. There's also a few bicolors, generally in red/white. I can only assume that, in the same way that the commercial food industry decided decades ago that "all" tomatoes were round and red (but we know better now!), they also must have decided the same thing about radishes. Thanks to seed savers who kept heirloom, open-pollinated varieties around, we now have radishes, tomatoes and a whole host of other vegetables available in non-traditional colors. (Oooh, that seems like a topic worthy of its own thread!)

I've linked the radish section from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds below so you can look at the colorful radishes that are available.

Some years I grow rat-tail radishes too, but not for their roots. You grow them for their seed pods which you can add to stir fry meals.

If you haven't already signed up for a catalog from Baker Creek, now would be a good time to do so. The catalog is at the printer right now and will be going out in the mail in a few days. The Baker Creek catalog is so lovely it stays on my coffee table year-round.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Radish Varieties At Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Hi all, love these threads tho "I don't get around much anymore"...
To add my cents worth on the radishes; I adore them! First thing planted in the spring, and last thing standing in the fall garden. I'm still harvesting the elegant French Breakfast radishes, which stand longer than some varieties. When I was in Santa Fe in October, their Farmer's Market had the prettiest Easter Egg radishes I've ever seen. Of course, everything there looked as if it came straight out of a Baker Creek catalog. That was just a fun and tasty adventure I'd do again in a minute.
Anyways, this summer I found an obscure website that specialized in oriental veggies. I've never seen such an array of Chinese Cabbage in all shapes and sizes. And their Daikon selection was amazing. I like to grow Daikon not only to eat, but for soil improvement. Well, they had one variety, I believe it was called, simply, "Mammoth", aka "the 100 lb radish. Just think of the humus one could build into one's soil with radishes of that size! And here I used to think my whopping big Daikon's were the end all be all of the radish world. Next spring will find me designating some cover crop area to these babies.

Have a happy and tasty Thanksgiving everyone!
Barbara

Suzie, they are just as easy to raise as any radish, which is to say, very. They do need to be thinned to stand a little further apart and it takes them twice as long to mature as the spring radishes. I planted French Breakfast at the same time this fall and they've mostly been gone for a month. I'm going to dig most of my fall radishes today though, just leave a couple of each to see just how much cold they can take.

Oops, just clicked on the Baker's link Dawn posted and realized that my memory betrayed me. Those are Chinese Red Meat, not China Rose.

Thank you Dawn, Dorothy, and Barbara! Wow, this is just more proof that I've barely scratched the surface of learning about vegetable gardening. I'll sign up for the Baker Creek catalog, thank you for that link too. I'm sorry it took me so long to reply to all your wonderful information, we were out of town for Thanksgiving and away from a computer (sometimes that's a good thing, haha!).

Suzie

Barbara, ...and the name of the oriental website is.....?

Dorothy,

I bet she's talking about Kitazawa seed. Off the top of my head, they're the only place I remember seeing Mammoth radishes. Evergreen Seeds might have them, but I was on that website a couple of weeks ago, and I don't remember seeing Mammoth there.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitazawa Seed Website

Thanks, Dawn. I'll check it out.

Dorothy,

You're welcome. Don't blame me if visiting Kitazawa makes you want to try a couple of new varieties. It is not my fault. : )

Dawn

Yes, dear hearts, It was indeed Kitazawa as Dawn surmised. Didn't mean to neglect an answer but I've been down sick with viral bronchitis :(
Since the Chinese cabbage was the thread title, please do check their fascinating and huge selection of cabbage varieties. Eeeny meeny miney mo, which one or more I'll order I don't know....(yet).

Barb

Here is a link that might be useful: Chinese vegetable seeds

I recognized a couple cabbages and greens that are growing in my garden, from a package of mixed stirfry greens from Baker's. We certainly like our Chinese Cabbage. Didn't knowit came in so many forms. I'm goingto raise that fuzzy, yellow topped next year. And I really doubt that I can grow a 100 lb radish, but am going to try.

I want to grow one, and only one variety of Chinese cabbage. From looking at the Kitazawa website, I think I could be happy with any, but am most familiar with barrel type and rocket head type. Does anybody have a favorite variety from here or elsewhere?

Thanks,
Seedmama

Seedmama, I grow Blues (Oriental Hybrid) from Willhite.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blues

Thanks Carol!

Carol, I looked at "Blues", and liked what I saw. I want to order some, also I would like to order some Packman Broccoli seed. Do you, or anyone else have a good source of Packman seed?

Thanks, Larry

Larry,
You can find Packman at Willhite or Shumway. Also, we had a great thread last year where several shared their sources for cool weather crops. Here's a link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Varietal recommendations for cool weather crops

Larry, Same source. I think that last year was the only time that I have ever planted Packman, and the heads weren't as big as other kinds that I have planted but all things considered, it was OK. I think that I am going to plant it again this year, but along with another one to see how they compare.

Willhite has not posted their 2012 catalog yet but it should be posted very soon now. Their products don't change a lot from year to year and they seem to carry those things that are tried and true favorites. Their prices are very good and especially on open pollinated seeds. Sometimes I can buy a four ounce pack for little more than a rack pack in the stores, so almost all of my common things are ordered from Willhite. I buy a lot of things from Baker Creek also, but sometimes when I visit the store they are running specials on things, so I have been lucky to find good buys there as well. I also like Pinetree, but haven't ordered from them in a long time. Those are the top three companies that I use, with an occasional order to Johnny's, Thompson and Morgan. Tomato Growers Supply, or Totally Tomatoes. Last year I planted more hybrid tomatoes and peppers as an experiment and wasn't especially impressed so I will probably plant mostly OP types again.

Willhite also ships faster than any other company I order from.

Here is a link that might be useful: Packman

Larry, don't order broccoli seed (or snap peas) from Park's Seeds. Two years in a row they shipped too late (almost March) although I ordered in Dec. Dawn recommended Wilhite and I will order from them this year.

I do really like Kaboko hybrid Chinese Cabbage from Park's though and since I plant them in Aug, got them in plenty of time.

I always plant Packman, and I get the seed from Willhite.

My favorite new broccoli variety is Piricicaba although I have a heck of a time remembering how to spell it. Three of the 12 or 15 Piricicaba plants I put into the ground last March or April are still in the ground, still alive and still producing small side shoots. (This variety doesn't produce big heads.) So, it is both the most heat-tolerant and cold-tolerant broccoli I ever have seen, having survived temperatures as high as 115 degrees during the summer and as low as 16 degrees so far this winter.

In 2012, I am going to plant half Packman and half Piricicaba. Packman never makes heads as large as some other broccoli varieties, but year in and year out it is the most consistently productive broccoli variety I've ever grown, although I think Piricicaba may give it a run for its money. Likely I'll always plant both Packman and Piricicaba. Packman will produce large spring yields and I can freeze a lot of that since it produces so much over a short period of time, and Piricicaba will keep us in smaller amounts of fresh broccoli over a longer time period.

I'm going to link the Piricicaba description from Bountiful Gardens, since that is the source from whom I obtained the seed. I've noticed it is available from more seed companies this year, including Baker Creek, Nichols and FedCo. I think 2 of those 3 companies had it last year as well.

By the way, for anyone searching for heat-tolerant veggie, herb and flower varieties, both Willhite and Bountiful Gardens carry a lot of varieties that are exceptionally tolerant of hot weather.

Here is a link that might be useful: Piricicaba Broccoli