We ate all the outside leaves of the young pak choi, mostly in won tons but also in soups and stir fries. Then I left them to flower and the tiny, stingless native bees feasted on the flowers, giving us tiny amounts of absolutely delectable light champagney honey. (And we stole some of their flowers for salads too). Then I let them set seed before feeding them, mature seeds and all, to the chooks. Chooks fed canola seed lay eggs that have high levels of omega 3 and I would guess that pak choi seeds are likely to have the same effect.
Chooks in a permaculture garden are wonderful at this capture of yield from down the chain. Crop plants gone to seed, outside leaves, spoiled fruit, grubs and bugs, kitchen scraps, bones and offcuts, fish heads, yabby shells, water weeds that are themselves harvesting nutrient runoff – all rotated back through the system into eggs and manure that feeds the garden. It’s a neat example of one of permaculture’s key concepts: look for flows of energy and water and nutrients leaving a system, and try to design ways to cycle them as resources rather than letting them go as waste.
Many thanks for sharing going to try grow some in the green house over winter i think but i believe there quick crop ?
Hi Linda, yes, they are very quick. I can begin harvesting leaves in about 6 weeks from first planting seed.