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June 05, 2013Finding Asian Herbs and Vegetables for Your Garden
My father loves to garden and my mother loves to cook. I enjoyboth as they pretty much go hand in hand. However, I have to admit that Ipretty much neglected my garden for most of last year. We hired a nice mannamed Ricardo to help us keep things tidy but his construction skills wereunderutilized by the simple tasks that we asked of him: weeding, trimming, andspreading mulch. He went on vacation, promising to check in with us when hereturned. Alas, he never called. We got the message. Ricardo let us go asclients.
That said, my husband and I realized that we needed toreclaim our yard ourselves, like we used to back in ... 2011! We spent a coupleof weekends filling our greencycle bin and then I attacked my little vegetablegarden. It’s nothing fancy, just about 4 feet by 8 feet wide and constructed asa raised bed when we redid our backyard. Every year I plant Asian herbs and afew summer vegetables. After preparing the bed, I went shopping for plants. Isn’tshopping the reward for lots of hard work?
Finding starters for Vietnamese herbs and other Asianaromatics is not as difficult as it used to be. Over the years, I developed alist of places that I hit to source plants. This time of year, you never knowwhat you’ll find at:
Local nurseries andhome improvement centers – I’ve found the darnest plants at ourindependent, local nurseries as well as places like Home Depot and Lowes. Withthe large big box stores, it helps to shop at one located in an area with a sizeableAsian community. I bought a Thai Kaffir (Makrut) lime tree at Home Depot twelveyears ago. The Chinese garlic chives purchased 8 years before continues to be astalwart, volunteering in various places.
People who garden love to tinker and try new plants and thisyear, I was rewarded by lots of chile plants. They seem to be hot these days. (Ha.)I basically shop by name – like Thai Dragon and Super Chile, then I read thefine print to see whether or not they’re actually hot. Some, despite theirAsian provenance, lack spicy heat. This year, I planted 5 kinds of chiles justto see what would happen. We lack consistent hot temps in coastal NorthernCalifornia so my back up is buying chiles from the Hmong farmers and freezingthem for the long haul.
Note that common herbs such as mint and even sorrel are employedin Asian cooking. Those seedlings may be available at mainstream nurseries andgarden supply shops.
Farmers’ markets –Small nurseries sell starter plants at our farmers’ markets, and I mine theirstalls for interesting plants. In Santa Cruz, for example, Upstarts Organic Seedlingsalways has new varieties to explore.
Last weekend, I chat with Sarah, theowner, about growing Southeast Asian long chiles and she suggested trying Joe’sLong Cayenne. She also had starters for rau ram (Vietnamese coriander), Thaipurple basil (rau hung que) and Mrs. Burns basil, which she said seems to beeasier to grow in our climate than Thai lime basil. I’ve had problems with Thailime basil so I’m switching to Mrs. Burns. I’ll keep checking back with Sarahbecause later on this season, she’ll have Thai holy basil.
Asian Markets –One of my favorite places to source Vietnamese herbs is a tiny market in SanJose called Thien Thanh. The man who tends to the makeshift nursery speakslittle but his plants are always healthy.
My Vietnamese balm (rau kinh gioi) didn’t reseed this yearso I started with a new plant. I always need a new purple perilla (rau tia to,an earthier kin of Japanese shiso). He promised me that the black chile plantwas spicy hot so I bought one. The fourth plant I purchased from him was a ricepaddy herb (rau om), that I have to keepin a plastic bag where things will sweat to mimic super humid growingconditions. Prices are not marked but I was charged about $4 or $5 for each. Whata deal. What a steal!
Indian grocery stores are also a great source of plants.Five years ago, I bought a curry leaf plant for [gulp] $35 from Bharat Bazaar, asomewhat sad Indian market in Santa Clara that happened to sell the plant. TheIndian customers asked me why I was buying it because the market sold theleaves by the bags for about $2. I was curious, I said, and want a super freshsupply at my home. The $35 investment was a baby, no taller than 12 inches, butlook at it now – a bona fide little tree on my patio.
Berkeley’s Tokyo FishMarket is an excellent source for Japanese seedlings, as well as seafoodand groceries. The market displays the plants right outside the doorway.Eggplant, shishito peppers, various kinds of shiso, are among the seedlings I’veseen there. They often sell Asian seed packets too.
You don’t need much space to cultivate a few herbs toenhance your cooking. Yes, you can buy the stuff but growing even a tiny bit ofyour own food is immensely rewarding and tasty to boot.
Related information:
If you can’t source Asian herbs and seedlings in person, tryone of these
onlineseed sources.Need a refresher or introduction to Vietnamese herbs? Checkout the
VietnameseHerb Primer. Posted in
Asian Ingredients,
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Comments Finding Asian Herbs and Vegetables for Your Garden
My father loves to garden and my mother loves to cook. I enjoyboth as they pretty much go hand in hand. However, I have to admit that Ipretty much neglected my garden for most of last year. We hired a nice mannamed Ricardo to help us keep things tidy but his construction skills wereunderutilized by the simple tasks that we asked of him: weeding, trimming, andspreading mulch. He went on vacation, promising to check in with us when hereturned. Alas, he never called. We got the message. Ricardo let us go asclients.
That said, my husband and I realized that we needed toreclaim our yard ourselves, like we used to back in ... 2011! We spent a coupleof weekends filling our greencycle bin and then I attacked my little vegetablegarden. It’s nothing fancy, just about 4 feet by 8 feet wide and constructed asa raised bed when we redid our backyard. Every year I plant Asian herbs and afew summer vegetables. After preparing the bed, I went shopping for plants. Isn’tshopping the reward for lots of hard work?
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