Wong Bok Chinese Cabbage produces large barrel shaped heads with crisp light green leaves. It is a hardy perennial and it can be grown by broadcasting in small blocks and harvesting individual leaves as and when they are required. Chinese cabbage has a more subtle and pleasant flavour than many of the European varieties and tends to have a delicious crispness much like you would expect from a lettuce. It can therefore be eaten raw or steamed or stir fried.
Yuki Chinese Cabbage (Chinese Leaves) produce short cylindrical heads which are well wrapped and very tasty. It is vigorous in habit and matures early from spring planting. This cabbage produces good sized barrel-shaped heads with excellent flavour and is easy to grow for summer or autumn crops. It is slow to bolt and has good disease resistance with crisp light green leaves.
Kintsai Chinese Celery boasts leaves and stalks which are vivid green in colour and have a distinctive celery flavour and aroma. Can be sown anytime and is fast to mature, about 2 months from sowing.
Chinese Kale or Kailaan as it is known, is a chinese broccoli which would make for an interesting substitute to standard brocolli with your dinner. It is slightly tangier in flavour than regular broccoli. This is a white flowered variety and the name is Cantonese for Chinese Kale. The flowers, leaves and stem can be eaten but the stem usually needs the skin peeled off. It is fast growing, approximately 60 days from transplanting and can be sown all through the growing season. It is grown in a similar way to Chinese Cabbage but needs less space in between.
Shungiku is also known as Garland Chrysanthemum. Sow by broadcasting in small blocks, harvest when about 10cm high and cook like spinach. Sow spring and late summer.
Amsoi are delicious tender greens with a mustard tang for stir frys or salads. To be sown from June to September for autumn use and late sowings will usually survive the winter for spring cropping.
The leaves of Mitsuba resemble plain leaf parsley, but the flavour has hints of celery and parsley. Sow broadcast in spring or late summer, you can extend the season with cloches but this variety is known for being good in cold temperatures. You can either pull whole plants or treat as "cut and come again".