by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | Mizuna has been cultivated in Japan since ancient times, but most likely originated in China. It is easy to grow in the garden, is prolific, and does well in cool weather. How can one say no to growing and eating it?

Mizuna, or Brassica rapa var. japonica, is in the brassica family, and is considered a mustard green. It is a perfectly textured green that doesn’t punch your tongue in that wasabi-ish, mustard-y way. It’s milder with a faint peppery-ness to it; the perfect addition to salads. It’s also a cut-and-come-again crop, so when you harvest, cut the whole plant about an inch above the ground and it will re-grow. Or simply pick individual leaves. It’s the gift that keeps giving with minimal effort, plus it matures so quickly – you can have a mizuna harvest in only a few weeks after the seeds germinate.

Culinarily speaking, mizuna pairs well with pretty much everything (try it in a salad with pears, walnuts and blue cheese). If you start growing some now in anticipation of the upcoming strawberry season, you’ll end up with an even tastier alliance.

How to grow? Happily, mizuna is for everyone. Do you have low light conditions? That’s OK. Do you only have a few shallow containers to work with? That’s OK, too. Mizuna is vigorous and grows in a variety of soil types. It can be sown as soon as early March, as it does best as a cool-season crop. Seed as late as September and cover for winter harvests. And, as we love to talk about planting successively – when you seed one kind of crop at several points in the season for a staggered harvest – we suggest you seed mizuna every few weeks for a continuous harvest. It tends to bolt quickly; so continuous seeding is a good idea. If you time it just right, you can have mizuna harvests all year round!

Bonus: Mizuna has few pests (just watch out for slugs). So what are you waiting for? Get your mitts on some mizuna!

THE VICTORY GARDENS ARCHIVE

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.