One of the highlights of my trip to China last summer was a visiting Longsheng and climbing to the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. Scattered along the trail, alongside spectacular views were a gaggle of traditionally dressed ladies hawking souvenirs to sweaty tourists. While handcrafts aren't normally my thing I'm always tempted by culinary treats and grabbed a bag of dried chillies from an elderly saleswoman. These fiery little numbers have featured in a number of dishes and even in a blog post, but now they also feature in my garden. Some of the seeds I planted successfully germinated and last weekend I harvest my first crop of 'Longsheng, old lady chillies'.
Friday, 26 June 2009
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Update from the Garden
One of the highlights of my trip to China last summer was a visiting Longsheng and climbing to the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. Scattered along the trail, alongside spectacular views were a gaggle of traditionally dressed ladies hawking souvenirs to sweaty tourists. While handcrafts aren't normally my thing I'm always tempted by culinary treats and grabbed a bag of dried chillies from an elderly saleswoman. These fiery little numbers have featured in a number of dishes and even in a blog post, but now they also feature in my garden. Some of the seeds I planted successfully germinated and last weekend I harvest my first crop of 'Longsheng, old lady chillies'.
One of the highlights of my trip to China last summer was a visiting Longsheng and climbing to the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. Scattered along the trail, alongside spectacular views were a gaggle of traditionally dressed ladies hawking souvenirs to sweaty tourists. While handcrafts aren't normally my thing I'm always tempted by culinary treats and grabbed a bag of dried chillies from an elderly saleswoman. These fiery little numbers have featured in a number of dishes and even in a blog post, but now they also feature in my garden. Some of the seeds I planted successfully germinated and last weekend I harvest my first crop of 'Longsheng, old lady chillies'.
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2 comments:
Hi Andrew, Your rooftop garden looks fantastic! We just moved into a village house with a small garden. I brought a few seeds from overseas for Thai basil, chili etc, but would also like to grow Asian leafy greens and brassicas. Do you know where I could get veggie seeds in HK? Here is to a successful 2010 harvest!
Hey Heike
Where do you live? I'm in Yuen Long and in the town itself there are three shops that sell seeds that I know of. Yuen Long's an old farming area and there are lots of gardens around here so maybe this is unusual. The shops themselves sell a whole range of gardening/farming stuff. If the YL ones are any good for you I can shoot you their address.
While they do sell little packets of seeds - like they do in other countries - I find that most of the common seeds (eg. the greens and brassicas you're after) are normally sold on weight from big jars. If you speak Chinese is this easy, if not they may have pictures or you may have to translate what you need into Chinese.
Good luck with the garden!
Andrew
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