Bok Choy Harvest

If there is any green you should grow, it's baby bok choy! It's easy to grow, slow to bolt in hot weather, has awesome health benefits and it tastes delicious.

I use bok choy in pretty much everything. We harvest young greens for salad, but I also use them like I would baby spinach in egg dishes and soups. They are fantastic sautéed with garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, sesame oil, and soy sauce as a side dish, and they add great flavor and crunch to stir-fry.

Photo credit- Dessie Austin

We grow multiple beds of bok choy every summer. It's a super quick growing veggie, so you can get it in and out of garden beds in no time at all. We normally plant a bed in early spring, another bed after a spring veggie is done and before we get a summer veggie in, and a bed for our fall garden. 

To plant bok choy, you simply scatter the seeds in the bed and keep them moist. We saved these seeds from a few of our bok choy plants from our 2016 garden.

Photo credit- Dessie Austin

To harvest the bok choy, you cut it with sharp shears or a knife.

Photo credit- Dessie Austin

We plunge it into cold water to cool it down and keep it from wilting. If you plunge it in water and dry it well, it will keep in plastic bags in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.

The baby leaves are tender and great for salads, but you can also let them grow and harvest the heads. They are excellent in Asian dishes because the stalks add a nice crunch to stir-fry and noodle bowls.

Photo credit- Dessie Austin

Bok choy is considered a nutrient dense plant, containing large amounts of Vitamins A and C, antioxidants, glucosinolates, which have been shown to fight cancerous cells, and minerals like calcium, manganese, and iron. 

 So if you are wondering what to plant next or looking for something new to try, put this one on the list! You'll love it!

Coffee And Blueberries

About a year ago, we had a coffee fairy start showing up at our house. We'd head outside to be greeted by a tub of coffee grounds sitting in front of our garden gate. They say coffee grounds are good for blueberries, so we started putting the grounds around our blueberry bushes.

We have four blueberry bushes, and I guess even we have a little bit of laziness to us, because for the last year we have been spreading the coffee grounds around the two blueberry bushes closest to the garden gate.

Blueberry bush #1

Blueberry bush #2

Blueberry bush #3

Blueberry bush #4

(If you can't see blueberry bush #4, it's because it doesn't exist anymore)

We do a lot of experimenting in our garden, but this was by accident. We naturally spread the coffee grounds over the two bushes closest to the gate, bushes #1 and #2, and a year later they have grown and are bearing a nice crop of blueberries! Bushes #3 and #4 did not receive the coffee grounds, and as you can see from above, we lost blueberry bush #4, and #3 is quite a bit smaller than the first two!

This spring we started walking the few extra feet to give the third blueberry bush some coffee grounds and it is starting to look better already!

Not only does your morning coffee give you your daily energy, but it gives your blueberry bushes energy too! And it's a great use for those leftover coffee grounds, so feed them to your blueberries!