Mustard!

SherryA
SherryA Posts: 314 ✭✭✭
edited November 2020 in Vegetables

I finally got a little bit of mustard out of my garden tonight. OOOOEEY! Cleared my sinuses right out. Good stuff! 🔥 I've had a terrible time growing greens here because it's cold right up until it's too hot. I have hope this year! I'm thinking of planting another round in pots and trying to keep them in a cooler spot outside.

Comments

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    I have a new appreciation for mustard. From sprouts, salad greens, edible flowers and very hardy to grow. I've got perennial sorrel growing, beautiful citrus flavour and I've had enormous luck with rocket (arugula). Good luck with your green growing this season.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    The weather is crazy. My mustard grew great in late winter, into March. Then, it went hot... then cold... then hot... now cool again. My brassicas bolted a month ago. Maybe kale will come back. Maybe radishes and beets will self seed.

  • SherryA
    SherryA Posts: 314 ✭✭✭

    @jodienancarrow I love arugula! I should get some seeds.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The mustard the local walmart was selling..mind you, for a stinking maybe 6 weeks suddenly disappeared and they no longer carried it. It was the very best mustard I have ever eaten.

    Would anyone possibly have an idea what mustard is delicious, enough mustard taste to taste good without being overbearing, and not one bit of hot....just a tiny bit tiny tiny tiny bit of spicy mustardy....? I want to grow this.

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    @SherryA you definitely should grow arugula. Easy to get going from seed, prolific and I use it in salads, make pesto and use like spinach. Extremely versatile.

    @silvertipgrizz just as a rule of thumb, yellow seeded mustard is milder than black seed, not sure if you can see the seeds in the packet. Yellow seed is usually larger than black. The younger the plant, the milder taste and you can eat the whole plant. Just as a side Canola is from the mustard family! Shame it's sprayed with so many chemicals and GMO.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @silvertipgrizz I have been growing Giant Red Mustard Greens for the past several years. I planted it once and it has seeded itself every year since. It is really nice when young but as soon as it starts sending out that first flower stalk, it gets quite strong. I like bitter greens but its a bit much for me raw. Mush better steamed with a bit of garlic butter or with a drizzle of balsamic reduction.

  • DebiB
    DebiB Posts: 92 ✭✭✭

    @silvertipgrizz there are so many varieties of mustard out there. The one I stumbled across a few years ago is called Osaka mustard. It’s a purple mustard that has small (for a mustard plant) leaves and a nice mild mustard flavor. I think it’s nice looking enough you could sneak it into an ornamental flower bed if you had to.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    These sound interesting. Wonder how well they would grow here? Might have to try some next year if I can talk my husband into eating some.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @vickeym It is one of the first greens that pops up in my garden. Even before the snow is gone from some parts of my garden, I will find mustard coming up where it is snow free. Takes a frost pretty well. The type I grow has quite large leaves as it gets older. Its a very sturdy plant. I'm sure it would do well in your garden. The rodents (gophers, bunnies, squirrels, etc.) leave it alone so they must not like the taste. the deer don't seem to like it, either.

    Mixed into a salad, my husband doesn't notice it but he likes mustard so maybe that's why he doesn't think there is anything strange in his salad. Or maybe he has just become accustomed to me putting things other than lettuce into a salad and he just doesn't question it anymore. :)

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2020

    @SherryA I've had great luck growing Giant Red Mustard here in zone 4. We have hardly any spring here, as things jump from cold winter to hot summer very quickly, and they handle that just fine.

    Giant Red Mustard is mild when young, but quickly turns hot. I like to pick a few individual leaves and eat them fresh, but they are hot that way. They work very well on sandwiches or in salads with other mild greens to temper the flavor, or chopped and fried with eggs or stir fry.

    They're basically unkillable until frost comes, though they will eventually bolt, so you need to use succession planning. But we're able to harvest them over six months of the year, perhaps a bit longer in cold frames. Give them a try!

  • SherryA
    SherryA Posts: 314 ✭✭✭

    @catherine.james That sounds great! I'll look for Giant Red Mustard.