We cream them it into soup or eat them as is as a side with some type of pork as the main course. They can get fibrous if you leave them to long in the field so harvest early. The best greens are beet greens or kale though mustard is a staple because it produces a heavy crop. We canned 30+ quarts of spring greens. In our soil lambs quarter is actually a very good green though we don’t can it. Some friends canned lots of lambs quarter every year but I believe they were former Amish that had left that lifestyle. They were resourceful people and very good friends. By the way in the south collards are king and in colder climates cabbage or spinach is king. In Kansas our climate is far less than hospitable so we can grow some of the greens sometimes but mustard and kale all the time.
I prefer the texture of collards and flavor of turnip greens with some mustards thrown in, slow braised with lots of onions, garlic and smoked ham hocks with turnip roots added towards the end.
Thanks Clark. I was wondering how you kept the mustard strains pure; not having any wild mustards around is key.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) we have an abundance of wild mustard family plants growing here, so very unlikely we could keep any strains pure outside. But I am trying saving seed from some of the mild mustard greens we grow as winter crops in the GH. Just harvesting seed now from those, so I’ll find out how they did in a few months.
Don’t forget chard. It’s my personal favorite cooked green.
This is a lot of mustard seeds. Birds got most of my mustard seeds
You’re lucky, its the easiest vegetable to grow.
Will chard grow in winter? In the south? Would love to try it, imagine the local deer and bunnies would nibble it to the ground, though. I can’t grow beets or broccoli, or cabbage, or turnip greens, etc. My deer and rabbits take advantage of my garden.
Why can’t you have a fence?
It will grow through winter as long as it gets a bit of size to it before the shortest days arrive or the coldest snaps hit. I’d say that it’s not as hardy as kale, mustard, or collards, but takes winter better than lettuces, which also grow. I do throw row cover over greens. None of it does much actual growing for the last 2/3’s of Dec and first couple weeks of January for me. After that they pick back up.
I’m glad I don’t have deer to contend with, and I’ve been fortunate that the rabbits have left the gardens and fruit trees alone.
I can, just hate to be troubled with putting it up and taking it down everytime I need to till or mow. Usually I grow twice what I need to compensate for the critters. I like your taste for greens, the collards and ham hock recipe. You gotta have some southern blood in your veins. That and a pan of cornbread is meal by itself.
You are very lucky not to have deer. I think I’ve seen Swiss chard in catalogs that has bunches of color. It looks very pretty. I can grow collards with no deer problems but most everything else wont work. But, I think I’ll try chard this year. Fingers crossed!
Many have questions about this useful plant. In some threads you have seen me use it as a green like this one Fall crops of mustard are bountiful! or seed like i did in the first part of this thread. I thought it might be nice to post a few pictures of the transition period from greens to seed. Today is May 22nd.
We do the same thing let it over winter and the extra seed we dont harvest from the year before comes up in following years. Sometimes we intentionally start a new patch. Great for pickles!
Mizuna keeps tasting decent going into flower so I never hesitate to let it bloom either. It’s the last row
Your mustard patch is beautiful - I’m going to have to grow a bigger patch and start saving the seed! Mustard flower buds, just before they open are one of my favorite things to much on raw in the garden.
Nice garden area! Good looking plants!
Hard to beat fresh mustard i agree!
There are several types of mustard seed as i have mentioned before but am not sure there is much interest in this for seed. Dont know anyone besides me that grows any of this type of stuff for pickling spices.
Considering growing millet using a similar harvesting technique.