The Joys of Pac Choi

We have eaten more pac choi this year than we have ever eaten in our lives! In fact, I believe that we are officially, "pac choi eating fools!" Due the large size and quantity of our pac choi harvest, we had to get creative in the kitchen in order to make use of this wonderful vegetable!

Damian holding pac choi

Beautiful bottom of pac choi

After looking for recipes online, we were a little disappointed to see that pac choi was basically only used for stir fry. We followed a few recipes and made the basic soy sauce sauteed pac choi and added pac choi to stir fry rice. Both were delicious. However, we wanted to take pac choi out of the Asian cuisine realm and have some fun with it. We decided it tasted like a sweeter and lighter spinach when cooked, so we chopped it, wilted it, and used it as if it were spinach in several newly invented dishes. We added pac choi to the following: pizza, ravioli, soup, quiche, etc.

Try it! You might like it to! Let us know if you are interested in experimenting with some pac choi because we still have some growing at the farm!

Pac choi stir fry rice with Korean BBQ rib

Pac Choi, chicken, mushroom, and cheese ravioli





Pac Choi, ham, mushroom, and onion quiche



Pac Choi, steak, and rice soup

Beg, Barter, and SELL!





We begged for the plants to grow and the weeds to go. We put a lot of time in planting, weeding, and protecting the plants from pests. And, it has payed off! We are proud of the beautiful Fall plants that are growing and everything we have tasted and created out from our veggies has been delicious.



We bartered a box of lettuce for eggs, persimmons, and kale



We got our first invitation to barter our lettuces for fresh eggs. I was excited about the opportunity tobarter with one of our blog followers and fellow Art Therapists, Rosemary. She has her own backyard farm in St. Louis city where she and her husband are growing everything from a fig tree, fennel, and 5' tall kale. She has four beautiful hens that lay eggs daily and we agreed on bartering two lettuces - romaine and red leaf- for a dozen fresh eggs. After touring her backyard farm, I also left with kale, persimmons, and baby onions. We have already made fabulous omelets with the eggs and I look forward to making my first batch of kale chips in the oven soon.  

One of Rosemary's beautiful hens

 

With regards to selling, we have been able to establish a relationship with a upscale local restaurant specializing in European cuisine. We met the executive chef and he was willing to purchase as much local and organically grown vegetables as he can. We were able to sell him our romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, and pac choi. Yay! Our farm is making money and we are feeding families at a local restaurant!



Boxes of lettuce ready to deliver

Amber boxing up the lettuce

Lastly, we also came up with a new slogan for our farm: "Good People, Growing Great Produce."