Veg Showcase Mibuna

[Mark]

Mark submitted a new Showcase Item:

Mibuna

Mibuna is definitely one of my favourite edible greens to grow - I love all aspects of it! It's easy to grow, grows fast so it's very productive as a cut and come again salad or stir-fry green, and its pleasantly mild taste means it's also easy to eat.

I actually prefer Mibuna over most other Asian greens and I think it's almost as good as spinach (if not better). I would say Mibuna tastes less peppery than rocket and slightly more flavourful than cos lettuce but at the end of the day it's just a really nice leafy vegetable.

The growth habit of Mibuna is strikingly upright with its narrow leafy stems spraying out from the centre like flowers splayed out of an imaginary vase - I think it looks great in the patch.

In my subtropical climate Mibuna isn't quick to seed like some other salad crops, which is a bonus but it's better grown in winter/spring and by mid-spring it will start suffering in the heat with seeding likely occurring soon after.

Our kids like eating it in salads and they have no trouble with Mibuna in a stir-fry it really is an awesome crop to grow. Recommended!

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[Letsgokate]

Never heard of Mibuna before. Sounds interesting. I use baby spinach a lot in green smoothies so this could be a great change.

 

[Mark]

It's hard to beat such a great green as spinach but mibuna is definitely worth growing I recommend it for sure!

It's probably best grown at the same time as spinach and other coolish climate crops but at the moment (mid-spring) my spinach is showing signs of going to seed and many of my other asian crops are doing the same even rocket however the mibuna is still producing nicely.

 

[Letsgokate]

Thanks Mark, so it needs to be bought as a seed? Yeah my greens have gone to seed as well, did well with the bok choy

 

[Mark]

Thanks Mark, so it needs to be bought as a seed? Yeah my greens have gone to seed as well, did well with the bok choy

Kate you can find it at nurseries that sell seedlings and bunnings also in those asian seedling variety packs. Seeds are the cheapest way to buy of course but if you just wanted to try a plant first then perhaps buy it as seedling then collect the seeds off it that's what I do sometimes.

 

[Tim C]

My best cooked leaf veg here is spoon choy, and for salad/sangers I use southern giant curled mustard greens. I have heaps of seed for purple choy, just didn't get any in yet. That one is similar to broccoli in texture.
My leaf lettuces are all mixed up, and come up everywhere, all year round now. Same as purple and yellow carrots.
Wong Bok just bolts, but I have heaps of seed now. If I ever get the timing right I may get some heads.
I have yellow and red silverbeet going to seed and Yellow Eckendorf mangel beets- they were BLOODY ENORMOUS!, but woody now.

 

[Mark]

Timing is the key to most of these green salad crops - dead of winter is best in the subtropics but even then I often get it wrong and see premature bolters everywhere lol