Garden to kitchen : Pakchoy

This year, I decided to try planting vegetables. I do not like planting flowers because I cannot eat them. I was inspired by my neighbour above us that planted pakchoy last year and gave us one pakchoy. Here in Sweden, it is very common for the people that live in apartments to rent a small plot, known as a colony, in a huge garden to plant anything they desire. To rent this small plot, one has to queue up and the line can be very long as most city folks love the idea of gardening. To get an idea of long, think between 6-10 years. The rent varies depending on the location of the garden. I just did a quick research and it costs about SEK2000 per year to rent a lot in Skarpnäck (located in the south of Stockholm) and SEK2100 to pay for annual membership fees. This does not include a cottage in the lot. I do appreciate the idea of giving city folks, who live in apartments, the opportunity to plant and work in the garden. It is an amazing concept! 

I do not have a colony lot but I have a balcony which is where my plants stayed during the summer and indoors prior to summer. We bought the vegetable seeds from an online shop. I sowed the seeds of pakchoy, salad, tomato, zucchini and various herbs in April. These pots were put indoors as the weather is too cold for them. April is a winter month in Sweden.

On 16 June, I harvested my first vegetable - pakchoy! I was so excited and happy when I harvested the huge green leafy vegetable. :) No chemicals used, just the soil and water. So excited that the vegetable goes directly from the balcony (garden) to the kitchen. 

Here are my photos and I will explain a bit although the photos are self-explanatory as I have the dates on them and the photos are arranged in a collage and one can easily 'read' from the photos.

We bought self-watering gardening boxes to sow the seeds. It was a sunny day in April when I decided to sow the seeds. I carried the heavy sack of 50 liter (17kg) soil and the self-watering boxes to the balcony. Distributed the soil into the boxes and poured sufficient water so that the yellow stick bounces up to the line. The soil absorbs the water by itself through the 8 holes in the box (can you see the 8 holes?). So, this was very easy for us when we are away for a few days. 

The seeds germinated on 20 April. I sowed them a week before. Germination requires wet soil and sunlight is not necessary. But as soon as germination starts, the fragile plant needs sunlight, warmth and of course, water. Pakchoy is an easy vegetable to grow and you can see that within 2 months, I have gotten myself a huge leafy vegetable. I placed the plant outdoors from June onwards and the plant had a growth spurt due to the direct sun and long daylight. I did not use much fertiliser and relied only on the water in the box. Once a while, I will pour some fertiliser if I had extra. :)

Unfortunately, I had only 5 pakchoy so it did not take long for me to harvest all of them. I sliced the vegetable into half, cooked pakchoy with butter or oil for about 5 minutes, pour a bit of sesame oil and soya sauce, put a lid on for 5 minutes, and ta-da, they are edible. And YUMMY!