Garden Wisdom Blog — category: Vegetable Talk

Inspired by Chinese cuisine? Your garden can be too! Many of the greens we associate with Asia are hardy and thrive in cool spring weather. These crops are very easy to grow, and early maturing. Try planting some in short rows, and then plant some more in two weeks. You’ll get a much longer harvest period this way, instead of having too much mature all at once. Pac Choi These little, spoon-like stir fry staples are often referred to as Bok Choy. Unlike many mescluns, these greens feature thicker stems and leaves, making them sturdier for stir fries. Our stir...

Baby leaf lettuces are bred for their appeal at an immature stage. As baby greens they have traits that are particularly attractive for salad mixes. The leaves are succulent and tasty, with good texture, and they come in a variety of shapes. For growers Because these lettuces are ready to harvest in only 35 days from planting, they make very good sense for market growers. In fact, many of our grower customers depend on baby leaf lettuce production to provide reliable income throughout the year. If you can supply to one or two restaurant accounts, your income is set in...

Our seed potatoes are grown on this farm in the Pemberton Valley. What’s so special about seed potatoes from West Coast Seeds? Well, for a start, they are certified organic. That means that the farm where they are grown is monitored, and maintains a very high level of hygeine. The soil these potatoes are grown in is enriched with organic matter and guaranteed to be free of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Our growers depend on established organic practices like crop rotation and the use of beneficial insects in order to maintain healthy, robust, genetically clean crops. Our seed potatoes are...

One of the facts about carrots is that the wild ancestors of the modern carrot (Daucus carota sativus) probably first appeared in the regions of modern Iran and Afghanistan. The plants were cultivated primarily for their aromatic leaves and seeds, as the roots were woody, bitter, and white. Centuries of selective breeding resulted in softened the roots and increased the sugar content, but it wasn’t until the 17th century when Dutch growers produced the familiar orange carrot we know and grow today. The culinary versatility of carrots, combined with their nutrition, ease of growth, and centuries of cultivation, has resulted...

Like its close cousins in the endive group, all about radicchio varieties are members of the Chicory family. Radicchio has been in cultivation since the fifteenth century in Veneto, a region in the northeast of Italy. Most radicchio varieties are named according to the area within Veneto where they were popularized: Treviso, Chioggia, Castelfranco, and so on. (The Chioggia group are the familiar red & white, round heads.) It’s no surprise that radicchio’s strong Italian heritage has left it something of a stranger in the wider world of vegetables we know from northern Europe and the New World. But, like...