Chinese Market Garden: Featured Vegetable #1

Perilla. It's quite a pretty name, and one I hadn't heard before. The name on its own reminds me of periwinkle and dancing.

Perilla ~ 紫苏 
Photo credit: Wikipedia 2012. 

At our last meeting, Chinese Market Garden committee discussed planting Perilla this season in the Chinese Market Garden. In Chinese, it is pronounced 'zisu', or 紫苏. It is part of the mint family, so it tastes and smells like a mixture of mint and fennel. Perilla is used as a common herb, usually fried with garlic and ginger to spice up any dish. It is also used in traditional Chinese medicine as an immune system stimulator and is said to ease cold symptoms. 


As part of the preparations for the 2013 growing season, the Chinese Market Garden committee has been meeting bi-weekly through the fall. The committee is made up of myself, the Orchard Garden Communication Coordinator, and 4 volunteers from Mainland China, all in the Master of Museum Education program at UBC. We are becoming experts in the field of educating in informal settings, such as a garden. Stay tuned!