Winter is always welcome by Hong Kong gardeners as, the heat of summer gone, the climate moves into its most generous for most plants and importantly, the humidity is down a bit. By December, lots of vegetables are growing nicely, potatoes, peas, lettuce, tomatoes and all the greens.
Water becomes a problem as the late months of the year see little rain and the mountain water streams dry up. It’s the time of year for cleaning the garden, clipping bushes and pruning trees.
In time occasional cold winds blow down from the north and wind-burn on leaves can occur and there’s nothing much that can be done about that. Also, the bul-buls start taking garden stuff whereas previously they seemed content with foraging elsewhere, even hot red peppers are not immune so it’s best to harvest these before the birds!
We dry them in the sun for a few days, so easy with so many sunny days, then grind them into bits for storage in jars as a rough chilli powder.
Last year we planted kohl rabi this year and last and though for us it’s a new vegetable and we thought it was something new, apparently it has been around for years. Anyway, it is quite easy to grow in Hong Kong and worth doing. Rocket as well seems to enjoy this climate.
Rocket goes in salads and we learned not to throw it in soups because the strong taste is accentuated to the point of being distasteful. Kohl rabi can be used everywhere, throw in a stew, make a kimchi. And good for making salads, raw.
Our mint has lasted long enough in jars ready to use until now with the growing season is well underway and its green heads are appearing in strong patches again.
Robbie’s (Tony’s dad) mint sauce recipe - for roast lamb English dinners:
Chop up the mint leaves roughly, a few handfuls.
Mix in near equal amounts of salt and sugar - a bit more sugar.
Scrape into a jar and add malt vinegar.
See original site with pictures:
http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/neighbourlygardencookery/article?mid=71&prev=81&next=64
Tony
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