Organic Oriental Namenia

Namenia
Latin name Brassica rapa
Approximately 450 seeds per g

Oriental vegetables have revolutionised winter salad production. As their name suggests they come from China and Japan. Being brassica, or cabbage family, the plants are very cold tolerant making them ideal for our autumn and winter months. It also means that some of the varieties have that hot, mustard kick to them. The variation in leaf, colour, shape and texture make them perfect for mixed salad and they are very quick growing too. Most varieties are cut and come again salads while some can also be stir fried.

Namenia is very similar to mizuna, although the leaf is not so serrated. The long lobed leaves have a small but fresh, crisp white stem. Namenia is very vigorous, it has a long growing period and is very cold tolerant. The leaves are mid to light green in colour with a mild spicy flavour.

How to grow:
Sow March until September in open ground. Prepare the soil and sprinkle the seeds over or grow in drills. Thin as necessary. You can use the thinnings in salad or as garnish. Plants may bolt in very hot weather so you may need to avoid mid summer sowings. Earlier and later sowings can be grown undercover.
Harvest young leaves three to four weeks after planting and cut larger leaves frequently as required.

Pests and diseases:
Protect the plants from slugs with an environmentally friendly method. Flea beetle may also be a problem. You can protect the plants from flea beetle using fine mesh.

How to cook:
Namenia is best eaten raw as a salad leaf. Pick small leaves regularly but even the larger leaves remain tender with a mild spicy flavour. Namenia makes a good base for a mixed leaf salad, add some of the purple oriental leaves for contrast.