Plant · P-333

Tatsoi

Brassica rapa var rosularis

Tatsoi is a flat, spoon-leaved rosette green in the cabbage family, grown for its raw or cooked leaves and for a texture no other winter green quite matches. It is strictly a cool-season crop with no heat escape - sown in fall, it keeps growing right through winter, and the cold actually sweetens the flavor, so the coldest stretch of the season is also the best eating. Left unharvested, the whole rosette closes ranks into a tight mat that shades the soil completely through winter, doing a groundcover's job while it is still in the bed.