Mustard - Osaka Purple

Our favorite for eating and good looks. Steamed or stir-fried, even big leaves remain tender and mild. From seed to table in six weeks, Osaka Purple is frost- and heat-tolerant, so it can be grown practically all year. Be sure to tuck some in your flowerbeds. The purple rosettes are so beautiful they double as speedy ornamentals, filling in bare spots. We select for dark color as well as vigorous growth.

Culture: Growing these for seed last year meant we’ve had them coming up thick as a lawn this January beside the compost bays where we threw the stalks. They self-seeded in the hoop house too, emerging in November and growing vigorously all winter. They couldn’t be easier.

Saving seed: The plants need an extra two months and quite a bit of space to ripen seed. They’ll cross with any other brassica, so if you want seed you’ll have to be vigilant about wild mustards and any cabbage-family veggies that may try to flower at the same time.

Grown in 2009; germination tested November 2011: 100%
Packet = around 200 seeds - $3.