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For years I really hated cabbage. I did not like the smell or taste of it until I discovered that my family had been cooking the heck out of it. Once I realized what could really be done with cabbage I had no problem with adding it to my cooking arsenal.
Along the way I discovered Chinese cabbage which, though a member of the cabbage family, doesn’t taste too much like cabbage. Often called Celery cabbage, this lettuce like vegetable has a wonderful sweet taste and it can be used in salads or boiled as greens.
This vegetable is not a hot weather vegetable and it should be grown in the early spring or late summer or early fall depending on your zone. It likes to be planted in soil that has been composted well or has had a generous amount of manure dug into it prior to planting.
I have found that this plant does not transplant well so I direct sow it into the ground about ½ inch deep and I keep the rows about 16 to 18 inches apart. Once the plants are about 3 or 4 inches high I thin them out, keeping the thinned plants to add to our daily salad. When I thin them out I make sure there is at least 10 inches between my plants.
I water them every evening as they like lots of moisture and weeding is essential. I like the Michihli seed because they grow more uniform than the leafy Pe-Tsai which looks like Swiss chard.
Both varieties will mature in about 70 to 80 days and I cut the heads as I need them. If I know the first light frost is coming I cut all the heads and I store them for a couple of months in a box that I have protected with dry straw and stored in one of our outbuildings.
Chinese cabbage is a very good source of vitamin C, vitamin A, folic acid and potassium.
You can wrap your unused portion of your head of Chinese cabbage in a damp towel and store in the refrigerator up to three days. You can eat it raw, sauté it, bake it or even braise it.
One does not find this vegetable in many gardens, but it is a good one to add to your garden.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site.”
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