Substitute for Spinach

Hi! Everybody!!

This is the first time I posted on this site (as far as I can remember anyway). I just wanted to ask if there is an alternative for Spinach available in the vegetable world. Spinach doesn' t grow very well here in Perris. I have tried Mustard Greens and they are delicious!! It fits in my garden also. It gets me in the mood to try other substitutes for spinach.

I would appreciate any input...

Thanks,

Chuck

Might try New Zealand Spinach, which is not a spinach at all, but is called Tetragonia. Grows vigorously in Summer heat, and can be used any way one uses regular spinach. There's also another substitute called Malabar Spinach, but I don't recommend it as it is a poor substitute.

Leaf beet is a great alternative, swiss chard is good too!

CBernard...you alsom might like "Florida Broadleaf mustard". It is very easy to grow and the young leaves are very mild, like spinach. As the leaves get larger there is a bit more mustardy tang to them so it's like getting two different crops from only one!

Another one you will like is "Tendergreen" sometimes referred to as a 'spinach mustard'. Although you can cook it like any other green it is so mild it is used in salads.

First time posting on this site? A hearty WELCOME to DG!

Shoe.

Shoe,

Thanks, but I have posted messages on several forums but I meant I haven't posted to The Vegetable Garden Forum before. My computer vocabulary sometimes is not too good. But thanks for the welcome. I can't find the seed packet but I think that I planted Mustard Greens from India. I am not sure to be truthful. If I make it to the nursery tomorrow I will check the seed display. All I know is that the older leaves taste delicious. My wife said that she tasted a little dellicious aftertaste and I agreed. She served them with okra. Actually I have grown them to be eaten by caterpillars. I still have seeds from rue, dill and I am growing fennel and parsley...all for the caterpillars.

Take care,

Chuck

Thanks, Chuck.

I know I'll be picking greens ( a combination of turnip greens with kale and two kinds of mustard) from our Thanksgiving meal this week! Yummy!

And yes, India mustard is a good one. Glad to hear you are eating okra...I thought that was a dish only us Southern folks liked!

Shoe.

Thanks for answering so quickly, Shoe. Both my parents were from the South(the Ozarks actually) and my wife is Asian. Between the three of them, I have been eating okra a lot in my life. I forgot to tell you also that my mom(she's deceased)'s family came originally from Winston County Alabama. A little okra with soy sauce is very good!!

Thanks again,

Chuck

Chuck, if you are looking for leafy greens, have you considered collards? They are usually easy to grow, very tasty and nutritious. We are growing Flash Collards ( http://tinyurl.com/ykw8qh ) and a thin stemmed southern Italian chard called "Verde da Taglio" that is very sweet and can be substitued for spinach in most recipes. ( http://tinyurl.com/yz7wth)

Shoe, lot's of folks eat okra, not just in the South. We had "okra wars" at the community garden last summer resulting in much "okra envy" as some folks okra crop did better than others. There was intense jealousy as one gardener had sizeable transplants in an growing while the rest were waiting for the seeds to sprout.
:D

Go Okra! And yes, Chuck and G_mermaid, I was only speaking in a tongue-in-cheek (and joking with ya) about only the South eating okra. (I send seeds and plants of okra in the mail to various parts of the States.)

Chuck, I gotta try the okra with soy sauce...thanks! Your wife has undoubtedly turned you on to some great cooking I bet. Hope to see some recipes in the Recipe Forum, if you care to post some there.

G-mermaid, those okra wars must be similar to the "tomato wars" and such, and those are the best wars, eh? Sounds like ya'll had a great time with those.

Shoe.

Yep, taught a lot of folks how to cook okra this past summer. Some were growing it just to get into the "competition", and then told me that they didn't like to eat okra because it's slimy. I very quickly set them to rights about slimy being only ONE way to cook them, and showed them several other options. We'll probably have a lot more growing next summer.

I can see it now, Mermaid...

... you leading a class showing them stir-fried okra (with garlic!), pickled okra (or okra pickles!), okra gumbo, grilled okra (basted with olive oil/garlic, yummy!), etc.

Guess I better send you seeds of my Betty's White okra, a local heirloom.

Shoe.

may i pls. join the conversation? sorry i can not help but to share some good healthy recipe.

definitely i am not from the South, but the Philippines to be exact.

i sauté collard green in garlic, red onion using olive oil. i partially cooked the stems of collard green in microwave. add all the greens and stem in the sautéing pot plus 1/2 cup of wine. simmer the green to the point they get cook. i add pepperonchino for added flavoring, since i can not use salt in my food.

how much healthier do u think this way of cooking will be?

funny garden_mermaid have to mention she teach people to cook okra. it would seem each week i go to the local farmer's market , i land up teaching a lot of house wife how to cook the greens they see on the tables of the Japanese vendor. the vendor of course love it, his sales increase. this vendor sells all kinds of Oriental veggies. his home is in Fresno. he travels every Thursday to cater to all the housewives and other local customer.

i am the only customer who buys lots of veggies, the very reason questions are always thrown at me. just my 2 cents.

Dear MaVieRose,

Hi! How are you? I haven't seen a post from you for a long time. I hope everything is all right. The recipe sounds wonderful!! I just planted garlic and it all came up today. From what I hear from the Head Deaconess at church is that garlic controls aphids. I don' t know if this is true but we planted ordinary garlilc from the supermarket last year and we saw very few aphids this year. This time I went to Loma Linda and bought organic garlic. We will see what happens.

I bet you could give us more recipes if you have the time. I would really appreciate this. One question: is it okay to substitute wine vinegar for the wine? If so, what kind do I use? Or does the alcohol in the wine get evaporated out from the cooking? We don't have alcohol in our home for religious reasons.

Does the Japanese vendor sell opo, camote tops, kamungay, Japanese egg plant, and various other vegetables that are in a Filipino home? I go to the Filipino store in Moreno Valley also to pick up ube bread and casaba cake. All these are under suspicion of not being spelled right...lol.

Thanks,

Chuck

hi Chuck :),

i was away for a long time due to life threatening illness. i am fine now, and hope to be living for another 50 yrs more! i hope Y'All don't get tired seeing me around.

i do not make fuss with what garlic i plant on the ground. when i see growth on some of them, i keep them cool until i am ready to plant them. i place garlic bulb in all my plants i grow. it sometimes do not look right, but what the heck. what matters is the bugs are driven away. it's my garden, right? so i can do as i please.

unfortunately, i do not drive cuz i have phobia in long driving. i can only ride in cars with close members of the family so when i have the panic attack, i can request the car to be stop till i can gain my composure.

the farmer's market is on Bear Valley Blvd. by the Victorvalley Comm. College lot, every Thursday, but not this coming Thursday cuz of the holiday. YES, YES, YES!!!!! on all mentioned veggies. i alway buy talbos ng ampalaya [bitter melon leaves] http://www.stuartxchange.org/Ampalaya.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_melon http://www.rain-tree.com/bitmelon.htm i make this into salad. it help me control the glucose level of the type 2 diabetes. plenty of bitter melon fruits too. i love the yam tops! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sweet_potato leaves http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/2001-May/012847.html , i make that into salad too with shallots and tomatoes! lots of Oriental greens. believe it or not he carries all kind of herbs, plus young leaves of garlic [cut this in small piece, cover with enough heated vinegar. allow to stand at room temp for a few days. eaten with broiled poultry or meat, controls hypertension from soaring.

can u tell most of medication for my illness is controlled by natural food. research really pays off to help me understand how my body will tick.

i make my own cassava cake. very easy to do. the only hard part is to read and understand the recipe. once u got the steps down path, cooking is a cinch. send me d-mail, give me ur private email, i will send u lots of easy to make recipe. speaking of recipe, u should try my home tested Brined turkey recipe http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/670025/ . if u eat squid or octopus, i have a recipe to die for. seriously, most squid or octopus i eat in restaurants are like eating rubber, this one u will be amaze how delish and soft the meat of squid or octopus is. to those who read this, and are skirmish, u do not know what u are missing.

i have lived up here for the past 6 yrs, yet, never found any oriental store, except in Fontana close to Kaiser hospital. Chuck, would u be interested to meet at the Farmer's market the week after next? lmk so i can plan on it, ok?

going back to ur original question, it will not be easy to answer ur question cuz to substitute spinach with other greens will be dependent on the dish u are cooking. u can substitute spinach with bok choy or cabbage in boiled meat dishes but u can substitute spinach in Mongo dish with bitter melon leaves, or yam tops http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/vegetables/sweetpotato.html , http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1999/v4-388.html [yes, we eat the leaves of sweet potato in the orient for it's nutritional value]... where u folks use them in compost.

edited cuz i could not spell ... hehehe

This message was edited Nov 19, 2006 7:17 AM

if u eat squid or octopus, i have a recipe to die for. seriously, most squid or octopus i eat in restaurants are like eating rubber, this one u will be amaze how delish and soft the meat of squid or octopus is. to those who read this, and are skirmish, u do not know what u are missing.

Hi MaVieRose

Thanks for your very informative posts. I am glad you are better now and wish you the very best of health and recouperation!

Would you please send me yur recipies for squid and octopus? I love both and have always ended up with rubberbands whenever I try to cook them!!!!

all the best ~ Lizzy

i just sent u dmail lizzy :D.

sorry Chuck, i rambled too much, i forgot to address ur questions:

i have been known to share. yes i will be willing to share, but! the problem is... i do not read people's mind. oh no! that is dangerous LOL! check this thread http://davesgarden.com/place/t/669605/ u will get more info and recipes i have posted there. pls. be specific, what kind of recipe are u looking for?

no u cannot substitute wine vinegar for wine. wine vinegar is wine that has been soured naturally or artificially.
u don't really want to use a soured wine in this recipe.

the purpose of using wine is to add liquid to the cooking process. since wine is sweet, it will also add flavor to the finished product, without having to use sugar cuz in the orient, sugar is used in cooking to balance the acidity of some ingredients in the recipe.

any wine use in cooking will naturally evaporate during the process of cooking. i will not worry about it. but if u are, do not use wine. use water instead. but the flavor will not be the same.

if u do not want to spend money on wine. i have seen Gallo brand of Latino products to carry wine these days. i think $2.00 is fairly reasonable price for a bottle of wine. do not quote me on that, ihave not bought one nor have i tasted a bottle of Gallo wine. i did not buy any cuz i still have stocks that my son bought from Napa Valley 2 yrs. ago.

for the sake of not keeping other reader not in the know of what we are speaking of. i will attached a Filipino link to each of the veggies u inquired about.
Does the Japanese vendor sell the following?
opo http://www.stuartxchange.org/Upo.html
camote tops http://www.stuartxchange.org/Kamote.html
kamungay or malungay http://www.stuartxchange.org/Malunggay.html
Japanese egg plant http://www.stuartxchange.org/Talong.html
and various other vegetables the link/s provided will show a list of other edible food in the Phils., scroll down, click on each item on the list to familiarize urself with other edible flora in the Philippines.

i hope i have answered all ur question, if i fail to address it, pls. let me know. i tried.
ma vie

MaVieRose, I am also used to teaching people how to cook vegetables when shopping at the farmer's markets. I think many people these days grew up with packaged foods and do not know even the basics of cooking. I will try your collard and okra recipe when okra is next available here. We usually cook the okra with ground spices and/or dried coconut, which absorbs the liquid and prevents them from getting slimy. I also like to stuff and pan fry the larger ones.

Do you prefer the larger or the smaller bitter melon? I'm used to the ones that are only a few inches long and rather spiny. I see some that are much larger and smooth. I think these are the Chinese bitter melon and the small ones the Indian bitter melon. The small ones can be stuffed and pan fried nicely.

Opo is used a lot in Indian cuisine as well. It is known as louki or doodhi.
The drumstick tree is also very popular. Anyone looking for these vegetables can also try the Indian markets if there is no Phillipino market available. We can usually get fresh casava there, which we grate and mix with fresh grated coconut, palm sugar and them steam in banana leaf. This snack goes well with ginger tea.

We make a vegetarian version of mongo with better melon or sweet potato leaves. I'll have to try spinach in that one.

Shoe, do you have a recipe for pickled okra? Haven't tried that yet. I would love to try your heirloom okra seeds. Let me know what you need to share them.

hello garden_mermaid ... isn't it fun in helping others learn about good nutritional food? i help others a lot with the thought that another family will have a healthy dish on the table tonight.

i love to cook in a simple way, that is how we do it back home. we cook veggies in different way: steaming, roasting over live charcoal, sautéing in anchovy sauce or fish sauce, stewed in coconut milk and so many other ways influence by regional cooking.

as far as bitter melon is concerned, the smaller one that looks like it has lots of bumps on its skin is my preference for it.s medicinal value http://rain-tree.com/bitmelon.htm , http://www.diabetesherbal.com/ingredients.php?ingredient_id=13&ingredient_name=Ampalaya&scientific_name=Momordica%20Charantia&product_id=18&product_name=AmpalayaBanaba%20Plus , the long or smoother variety http://www.evergreenseeds.com/bitgourbitme.html -commonly known as Chinese bitter melon is not bitter at all. lots of orientals love it stir fried.

Opo or bottle gourd http://www.evergreenseeds.com/mungbean.html is mostly stir fried with shrimps, use in boiled meat or fish dishes. the only Indian market i know of is down in Cerritos, close or near Orange Co. or accessible to Los Angeles too - where they have their own community. there are no Asian store in Hesperia. i either go to L.A., or i order my ingredients on line.

one need not be vegetarian to enjoy vegetables. i sauté most veggies in garlic, onion and tomatoes. or i broil them in live charcoal, mix them with onions and tomatoes, ginger, almost like salad style.

mongo or mung beans http://www.evergreenseeds.com/mungbean.html is nice sautéed, once cooked either sweet potato tops or bitter melon tops[greens/leaves] are added.

when i cook cassava cake, i line the baking vessel with banana leaves. i do not grate cassava, instead i pulse the cassava in food processor, coconut milk and brown sugar added. baked in the oven for 40 mins or until the cake is set. sometimes, when i am lazy, i buy the frozen grated cassava. i also process fresh coconut in the food processor, make my own coconut milk or coconut oil.

i will be off track here for a bit to satisfy my curiosity... would it be fair to assume u are Indian from India in Asia? i sense u mention Indian a couple of times. reason why i ask is cause we used to have neighbors in the Phils., people from India. the elders gave me the name me Surya, accdg to them it means sunshine? so they say, i am the only child who is not scared of them due to their long hair and beard, the turban on their head. each time they see me, i managed to either make them laugh with my joke or smile. we have another member here from India also, my good friend Dinu.

if u don't mind, i feel a wee bit awkward calling u garden_mermaid, can u share ur nick name pls.??? but if u will feel awkward sharing ur nickname, that is ok, i will understand.

ma vie is my real name. i was baptized with the name Maria Victoria. if u will notice, ma was taken from Maria, vi from Victoria. how the letter e got added at the end is a long story all it's own..

yo Chris,

pls ask ur wife if she is familiar with the following veggies. yes, folks they are mostly planted here in the U.S as ornamental plants, but they are edible plant for us in Asia.

Sigarillas or Winged beans http://www.evergreenseeds.com/wingedbean.html cooked stir fried or steamed, glass noodles added to the dish.

Bataw or Hyacinth Beans http://www.evergreenseeds.com/haycinthbean.html these are steamed, made into salad.

Kinchay or Chinese celery, often mistaken for cilantro. no folks, we in Asia have our own version of cilantro http://www.evergreenseeds.com/orcelchincel.html flavors enhance boiled meat or fish, a necessity in making pancit or stir fried noodles. the same confusion applies to noodles. there are so many varieties of noodles, each has a distinct way of cooking them. do not be surprise if u visit an oriental home, they offer u pansit. then on ur next visit, it will be another type or flavor of stir fried noodles.

Chinese broccoli http://www.evergreenseeds.com/chinkalgail.htm i love this steamed, flavored with real oyster sauce and tiny bit of sesame oil. this is that dish u pay some pretty penny in Chinese restaurants.

petsay or napa cabbage http://www.evergreenseeds.com/headtypnapca.html added to boiled meat, stir fried, most importantly made into Korean Kimchee! Shoe this is ur favorite of all the bunch i listed here LOL!

patola or luffa http://www.evergreenseeds.com/edibleluffa.html in the west this is dried, when in matured and dried form - use to expolate the skin. whereas in the east, Asia to be exact, it is edible. very sweet when pick young. always use to cook with pancit or noodles.

cilantro or coriander http://www.evergreenseeds.com/corchinpar.html this is the real cilantro. texture of the leaves are pliable and soft, while the kinchay leaves are firm like celery.

'nuff lesson for the day LOL. i am so glad to share this info with u folks.

MaVie, sorry to dissappoint you......I am an "Amalgamated American" from San Francisco originally. My DH and I are products of the American melting pot. I have ancestors on three continents, so I've inherited many cooking styles and learned several others sitting in the kitchen with friends. Spending childhood summers with grandparents involved many trans and inter continental flights. Different branches of the family call me by different nick names, but they all refer to me as the mermaid - I learned to swim before I learned to walk and spent a lot of time in the water.

Surya does mean the sun or sunshine. From the description of your Indian neighbors with long hair, beards and turbans, I would guess that they were Sikhs. Sorry to hear that some of the other children were afraid of them. Sikhs have been a part of California communities for over 100 years.

I am happy to hear that you are eating such a variety of vegetables. Many of my colleagues from the Phillipines eat primarily meat, with hardly any vegetables at all. The Phillipine restaurants in San Bruno do not have any vegetarian items on their menu. Have you found that the cuisine has altered significantly in the US, versus how people would eat back home?

Apologies Chuck.....we seem to have hijacked your thread on spinach substitutes.
Perhaps one day we'll have a Dave's Garden cookoff. What an amazing potluck that would be.

Chuck, my favorite spinach substitute is Swiss chard. It is a vigorous grower and is actually perennial here. I like to grow the variety "Bright Lights" with the beautiful stalks in 5 colors. I have one large container of it on the front porch primarily as an ornamental. Very dark green leaves - a beautiful plant and very tasty. To cook, I start the stalks in the boiling water about 5 minutes ahead of the leaves.

Another favorite is lamb's-quarters. Basically a wild plant and easy to grow. You should be able to find it near you; it volunteered in my garden in San Bernardino. Yuska

Wow, what good eats that would be, mermaid! A DG Cookoff!

I'll check my Recipe File for pickled okra, I have several ways I do it. And sometimes, I admit, I just use one of the "Mrs. Wages" pickling mixes and it comes out delicious! Will Dmail you regarding the seeds.

MaVie, thanks for all the links, now I just gotta find time to sit down and read them all! However, this thread will be a good resource page for future reference.

Shoe

Yummy, Yuska...Swiss Chard is also a favorite of mine, too.

Love it lightly steamed/stir-fried in a bit of olive oil and garlic then crumble a little feta cheese on it. So good!

Shoe.

Beautiful chard "bush" there Shoe. Are you able to my Mrs. Wages pickling lime (calcium hydroxide) locally in your area? I can no longer find it locally (within a 50 mile radius). Guess no one makes pickles at home anymore around here.
I know I can order it online, I just have a problem with paying $10 in shipping for a $4 product. I make bite the bullet and get the small Harsch Fermenting crock pot from the Canning Pantry to make the order seem worth the shipping cost. I'm growing Testa de Ferra savoy cabbage at the moment. I'd like to make some live culture sauerkraut with it.

Mermaid, yes, we can still get quite a few of Mrs. Wages products. I'll check to be sure pickling lime is available. If so, maybe I can send some with the okra seeds, eh?

I'm not familiar with with the Harsch Fermenting crock pot...will have to check into that. I used to have a very large ceramic pot that would've been great for sauerkraut, unfortunately it was used as an ornament and then cracked long before I began to make kraut. (I am still kicking myself over this!)

Shoe.

Here's a link with description of the crock from canningpantry.com. I'm googling around to see if it's offered elsewhere at a better price.

http://www.canningpantry.com/sauerkraut-crocks.html

All summer and fall, I pickled assorted garden vegetables, pretty much any harvest that was more than I ate or gave away. I do have 2 harsch pickling crocks which I use for Kim Chee and sauerkraut. For the assorted garden veggies, I used gallon glass jars from http://www.essentialsupplies.com/ My recipe was pretty much whatever I felt like putting in each jar, but here are some of the things I included:

pickling cucumbers
mideast and mediterranean cucumbers
lemon cucumbers
tender green cucumbers
zucchinis
crookneck squashes
okra
gypsy peppers (sliced)
habanaro peppers
horseradish (sliced, for flavoring, too tough to eat)
onions
tomatoes
dill
cilantro
rosemary
oregano
basil
ground black pepper
miso (2 tablespoons or so)

After each gallon jar was packed with vegetables, I pour in apple cider vinegar about 3/4 full and add about 3 tablespoons of himilayan or sea salt, then fill the rest of the way with pure water. Sometimes I maintained the jar at a temp of about 60 degrees using ice packs in a cooler, other jars I just put right in the fridge (pickles more slowly in the fridge)

The burgandy okra is my favorite. Early gypsy peppers (still in white stage) take on much of the flavor of other herbs and spices in the jar. Many of the cool weather roots like turnips, beets, carrots, parsnips, burdock can be pickled. I usually slice root veggies before pickling. Cabbages and winter greens along with grated or julienned root vegetables are wonderful in Kim Chee's.

Nataraj


This message was edited Nov 20, 2006 10:42 PM

This message was edited Nov 20, 2006 10:43 PM

I mostly eat my okra raw. In the summertime I'm a bit of a garden nibbler and love to go out and eat veggies right off the plants, though I do enjoy preparing all kinds of fun dishes. I think that some varieties of okra are less slimey (mucilaginous in herbal terms) than others. The burgandy okra seemed less slimey than the green okra, though the mucilage is very soothing and healing to the digestive tract.

nataraj

g_mermaid ... i really feel awkward addressing u in such manner LOL!

well, u know how it is w/small kids, had u forgotten how u perceive matured folk when u were a toddler? in my case, when my uncles are group together, it seemed like i am looking at a group of giants. and with the seriousness in the faces of those Sikhs, and their heights, i would be scared too, if i did not know any better.

we have not even scratch the surface of veggies and fruits available in the Phils. now that we are discussing it, memories of the past come to fore. the family of my 1st husband is from the No. area of the Phils, where most people are vegetarians. btw... regional areas food are influence by their environment. i could remember the family of my ex to be bringing to the city wild veggies gathered from the virgin forest way back then. i wish i was more attentive and learn what the veggies names are cuz they are so good and nutritious at that!

i am surprise u have an impression of Flips to be meat eaters. most of Flips i know of back home are veggie eater. in my family, my siblings use to tease me a lot, cuz i am the only one who love to eat veggies.

u're welcome Shoe :). at last i am finally able to share some of the veggies we eat in the Phils. not all veggies are cook with meat. in the big island of Luzon, people from the North's cooking is flavored by anchovy sauce or fish sauce, where as the South, uses coconut and hot peppers to cook their veggies or fish. if i find more links i will surely post here.

oh, if we have a cook off, i will be first to volunteer. just let me know.

similar to Koreans earthen jars http://www.lifeinkorea.com/culture/tools/tools.cfm?xURL=kitchen, the Flips in the olden days, uses earthen jars for preserving food. water stored in earthen jars, as i recall has a sweet taste and very cold like they were in the fridge. http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/9845/tech.htm http://www.philippinecountry.com/filipino_foods.html

Dear Shoe and Yuska,

I am going to plant Swiss chard next Spring. They look very delicious and the way that Shoe prepares them sounds delicious.

MaVieRose,

I would be happy to meet you at the Japanese farmers' market if my wife can get the day off also. My wife is from Leyte (Ormoc City to be exact) in the Visayas. Like Garden Mermaid, my children have ancestors on three continents. Let me know what day you would like to go and then I will notify my wife.

Last night for supper, we had a vegetarian dish of mustard greens, bittermelon, Japanese eggplant, okra, the long green beans at the Oriental store(I don't know what it is called) all stirfried with a little extra virgin olive oil and lots of ginger. It is delicious and we made enough for two nights. We also served it with rice and vegetarian baked beans.

Thanks to everybody,

Chuck

I plant lots and lots of swiss chard, green and colored. It grows great in California and this time of year is good for it as well.

Wow, I had so much fun reading this thread today.

My input for spinach substitute:

For summer I like to plant Malabar Spinach (it climbs - so you can plant it to grow on a fence)

For winter I like Hon Tsi-Tai (I save my seeds from season to season, but you can buy from evergreenseeds.com)

I like all greens - in Texas the winter is the best to grow most of them.

Hi! How is everybody? I have a question about Mustard Greens. Until last week, I was harvesting the India Mustard to supplement suppers every evening. Then I found a green cat that I thought was a cutworm. I destroyed the cat as I thought that it was similar to another cat in my garden that turned out to be a cutworm. Afterwards I found out that it was a Mustard White cat according to my caterpillar book.

It was warmer at the time that I found the cat but I still don't want to discourage any other of these cats from the mustard greens. I am growing the mustard greens as butterfly larval hosts. If I stopped harvesting the plants, will it make them more attractive to cats in the Spring or should I continue to harvest the leaves until they bloom in Spring? I am also concerned that the plants won't live if I don't harvest them.

Sorry for rambling...

Thanks,

Chuck

Chuck, although I'm not familiar with your zone/weather and high and low temps etc I believe I'd continue to harvest what you want but always leaving leaves on each plant so it will keep growing.

In the Spring, or when the days begin to stay consistently warm and daylight is lengthened the mustard will begin to flower, thereby hopefully attracting the butterflies. (And by the way, when the flowers come on, try them out too! They taste like little heads of broccoli!)

Shoe.

Thanks, Shoe!! Sounds like good advice. We get maybe six or seven evenings of frost. Maybe in a blue moon, we get a freeze. However, the earliest we can plant outside is the second week of March and continues until November. Sometimes (like this year) the summer stops all gardening activity other than watering.

Thanks again,

Chuck

What a great gardening and growing area you are in. With weather like that you might want to just observe the flowering of the mustard rather than go by my idea of "Spring flowering" (which is when our mustard will do so).

Sure am glad you are eating good healthy food but yet are sharing it with the wildlife, too! At least with the butterflies and cats.

Happy gardening!
Shoe.

My vote is for Ruby Red/Rhubarb Chard. I think it has a much nicer flavor than the plain white stemmed Swiss Chard.

This message was edited Dec 7, 2006 8:06 AM

Dear Lilypon,

The Red Swiss Chard is what we bought from the grocery store to try before we planted. I actually bought the seeds to regular Swiss Chard and the seeds to red Swiss Chard for Spring. Is the red Swiss Chard a hybrid? Last night we threw some cucumbers into our vegetables for supper. This was the first time I have had cooked cucumber. It was delicious!!

Thanks,

Chuck

Hi Chuck
Good ?........I wasn't sure but after checking the PlantFiles it looks to be a species: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/62644/index.html

I've had some pretty awful tasting white Swiss Chard (maybe it was the year) but the Rhubarb Chard had never let me down (I can hardly wait to plant it next spring :). We've always enjoyed beet greens but the rhubarb chard, we find, tastes even better.

Pam


p.s.we had cooked cucumber for the first time too not long ago and, like you, found it to be quite tasty.

This message was edited Dec 7, 2006 12:22 PM