Wa Wa Ga Choi Stem Mustard (a.k.a. “The Thing”)

So, definitely our strangest vegetable, a unique sort of plant from Szechuan in China, where it is famous. How on earth to describe it?

The stem swells up like a kohl-rabi but making lots of bumps rather than one big one. The stem and leaves can be used sliced in salads, cooked, pickled or stirfried. The flavour is delicious, savoury and somewhat – but not very – spicy. It’s also excellent as a kimchi-style ferment with garlic, ginger & chilli.

It makes leaves quite quickly, say 4 or five weeks to a reasonable plant size; then it makes the swollen stem which should be ready roughly 3-4 months later.

A fantastic crop to grow overwinter for harvesting when other crops are scarce.