Tom Jow tells us: "There's more to Asian vegetables than pak choi." McClellan Ranch Master Gardeners have undertaken an ambitious Asian vegetable project to demonstrate the variety and growth characteristics of Asian vegetables in the south bay area.

Literally translated from Cantonese, choi is cabbage or vegetable. Pak is white and pak choi refers to the white stemmed choi. Eleven varieties of choi, white and green stemmed as well as mustard greens are under cultivation.

Besides choi, McClellan gardeners are growing 17 other Asian vegetables. There are several kinds of some of the vegetables: Main stream vegetables are hairy melon, winter melon, cucumbers, egg plant, garlic chives, Chinese parsley, taro, soybeans, kohlrabi, and lemon grass. Lesser known are bitter melon, perilla, Chinese boxthorn, and luffa. See the complete list in Joyce Tu's document below.

Our Asian vegetable expert, Jean Lee, provided most of the seeds, started transplants, and gave overall direction. First plantings of transplants and direct seeding took place on April 11. Further plantings and seeding occurred on April 21 and 28. Jean is an expert in chinese cuisine and prepared several dishes for the volunteers to sample during our meetings. She hosted a special luncheon at her home featuring:

• 4 varieties of pak choi
• 2 varieties of amaranthus - red, green
• 2 varieties of kohlrabi - purple, green
• chinese broccoli
• chinese chives.

Her method of stir-frying vegetables is very simple. She first heats a wok, then adds a little olive oil, a little salt and sometimes chopped garlic. Stir-fry the vegetables until crisp-tender and then serve. Sometimes she adds oyster sauce for the last minute of cooking. Soy sauce is used, if at all, only after the cooking is completed. Jean also supervised preparing and cooking the vegetables for our tasting event.

The McClellan Master Gardener volunteers held our annual tasting on August 25th, 2001. Over 200 people attended the event. We hosted guided tours of the garden, provided cooking demonstrations and samples of the produce. Many people were surprised seeing how these vegetables are harvested and cooked. Comments we recorded showed the most popular were:

• amaranthus (green is milder)
• chinese broccoli
• hairy melon
• kohlrabi
• pak choi
• soy bean
• yard-long bean

Harvesting and Cooking Tips for Asian Vegetables