If you love to cook great tasting Asian meals you know that the best tasting meals are the ones in which you use the freshest ingredients.
It would be ideal, if fresh and healthful ingredients were just a step away from the kitchen!
Many Asian herbs and vegetables can be raised in containers that sit attractively on the porch, deck or even the windowsill.
Container gardening is a great way for cooks to raise the freshest herbs, greens, and root vegetables in a limited amount of space.
Just about any plant can be grown in a container, provided the container is large enough for the plant. Garden centers and online seed catalogs offer plants and seed packets of Asian herbs and vegetables that will not only please the cook but will be pleasing to the eye and palate, and will require minimum space and care.
In this article, we will explore an easy to grow Asian herb that can be used in many Asian recipes:
Chinese Chives
Kau tsai, Chinese chives or Garlic chives (Allium Tuberosum) are an easy to grow healthful ingredient used to flavor eggs, mushrooms, soups, fish, and lend themselves very favorably to the Asian Stir Fry.
Relatively new to the West, Chinese Chives have been used by the Chinese for centuries. References to the herb often appear in Traditional Chinese Medicine text. There is some evidence, that like garlic, Chinese Chives may help regulate hypertension and cholesterol.
Chinese Chives have a flavor that mildly resembles Garlic. They are high in vitamin A and extremely high in Vitamin C, low in calories and exhibit antibacterial properties.
They are an attractive plant, with jade green stalks and star shaped white flowers that bloom in the summer. The leaves and flowers are both edible, the flowers can be added to a salad, ground into a spice or dipped into tempura batter and deep-fried.
Easy to grow in containers, Chinese Chives will grow in just about any soil that has been prepared with organic matter, and can be grown in full sun or partial shade. Seed packets can be found at local garden centers or at many online seed companies.
Sow seeds in the spring, sow thinly and cover with light soil, keep seeds moist. Seedlings will emerge within 14 days. Chinese Chives grow slower than regular chives. Thin to 1 inch apart when seedlings are 1 to 2 inches high. Allow the plants to mature for at least 12 weeks before harvesting leaves. They are a perennial plant, which will usually go dormant in the fall, but will show new growth the next spring
A container 6 to 12 inches wide and deep would be suitable for container gardening, glazed or unglazed, terracotta or plastic it is your choice. Keep the plants moist but be careful not to over water.
Chinese Chives can be seeded directly to the garden, some people use them in borders because of their attractive display, however be warned that the plant is highly invasive.
If you don't desire the plant wandering to other parts of the yard, you must remove the flowers before they go to seed.
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