Napa cabbage is a stocky barrel-shaped vegetable that can grow to eight or even 10 pounds. Its leaves have two textures, a juicy white center stem and delicate pale green crinkled edges.
Those different textures make for one very versatile vegetable. The leaves naturally have a cup-like shape, perfect for holding saucy fillings. The juicy thicker stem of the leaves can be cut and used like celery in cooked or raw dishes. The delicate ruffled edges are wonderful thinly sliced and turned into slaw or added to a salad.
Jim Fraser, manager of Elm Street Gardens in Sparta, grows Napa cabbage on the two-acre Hancock county farm. He’s bringing his cabbage along with mizuna, lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, Swiss chard, turnips and mustard greens to the Saturday morning Morningside Farmers Market in Atlanta.
Napa cabbage is a cool-weather crop. Fraser plants in September and again in March or April. Seeds turn into seedlings large enough to transplant in about three weeks. Once in the ground, the cabbage plants take two to four months to mature, depending on the temperatures.
Fraser decides when to harvest not by size or weight, but by squeezing. “The heads don’t all mature at exactly the same time. The harvest can spread out over several weeks. It’s like ordinary cabbage, you don’t decide to pick based on size. I look at how dense the heads are getting. You can squeeze them and see how much they give. That’s when you know to pick,” he said.
Napa cabbage isn’t the easiest plant to grow. Mitch Lawson at Rise ‘N Shine Organic Farm in Calhoun, where Fraser was assistant farm manager in 2012, jokes that Napa cabbage makes a great trap crop since it’s so appealing to insects.
Fraser agrees. “Yes, insects love it. If you grow it organically you’re always going to have at least a few holes. At some point the insect damage can get so bad you can’t market it. Most of the time you hope it grows fast enough to be well along before the bugs find it.”
Elm Street Gardens’ customers love it as much as the insects do, even with a few bug holes. “I think the best thing to do with it is to chop it up and mix it with other vegetables, throw it in a pan or wok and stir fry it. Of course it’s also the cabbage people use to make kimchi,” said Fraser.
A fresh Napa cabbage should keep in your refrigerator, well wrapped, for about 2 weeks. The sooner you enjoy it, the crisper it will be, so if you keep it around for more than a few days, plan to use the leaves in a cooked dish.
For sale at local farmers markets
Vegetables: artichokes, arugula, Asian greens, beets, broccoli, broccoli raab, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celery, chard, collards, endive, escarole, frisee, green garlic, herbs, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mache, mushrooms, mustard greens, Napa cabbage, onions, parsnips, radicchio, radishes, rutabaga, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, sweet potatoes, turnips
From local reports
Napa Cabbage Slaw
Hands on: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Serves: 8
The seasoned rice wine vinegar is a particularly nice match with the soy sauce and honey but use any vinegar you prefer here.
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons honey, divided
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole raw almonds
3 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 small head of Napa cabbage, quartered, cored, thinly sliced (about 8 cups)
1/4 pound mixed sweet mini peppers, cored, halved and thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
2 green onions, thinly sliced
Preheat oven to 300°F. Line small rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon honey, cayenne and salt. Stir in almonds. Pour almonds onto prepared baking sheet and bake 10 minutes, or until almonds are lightly toasted. Remove from oven and cool. May be made up to one week ahead of time.
In a small bowl, whisk remaining olive oil and honey, vinegar, soy sauce and lemon juice.
In a large bowl, mix cabbage, peppers and green onions. Pour dressing over vegetables and toss. Add almonds and toss to coat. Serve immediately.
Adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit magazine, September 2010.
Per serving: 304 calories (percent of calories from fat, 72), 7 grams protein, 15 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams fiber, 26 grams fat (3 grams saturated), no cholesterol, 212 milligrams sodium.
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