Oops, I Bolted

This is a baby bok choy that has sprinted toward setting seed, due to the recent warming days. Bolting causes a plant to become leggy, tough, and in certain vegetables, to become bitter. There wasn’t much to do, unless I wanted to experiment with saving seed, except pick it and eat it.

Bok Choy

Bowl of “shiro” baby bok choy, trimmed of roots, washed, and ready to be cooked. It was quite tasty, like a very mild broccoli raab. Another variety of baby bok choy is more resistant to bolting, so I took a chance and left it in the ground for another week.

Bush Beans

Beans are showing strong growth. Bush beans do not send up vines, so there is no work to put up a trellis. The yard long beans are popular in asian cuisine, and have a drier texture than string beans.

Yard Long Beans

Borage, probably

Not too much color yet, but finally flower seedlings are sprouting. I designated an area for flowers that deter pests, thinking that I can grow it here and transplant as necessary. Borage produces an edible purple flower that tastes like cucumbers. It is supposed to be a good companion plant for brassicas, and tomatos.

Calendula

Lettuce Experiment

Tiny seeds such as lettuce have a pelleted version to enable the use of mechanical seeder. The seeds are not expected to germinate well after a year, but it has worked out. This experiment on older seed worked even without weeding, irrigating, fertilizing, or spraying.