Saving bok choy seeds

Bok choy (or pak choi) is a great discovery for our Chinese food-loving family. The challenge is finding it just right. The stores offer huge, foot-long bok choys; the farmers markets on rare occasion offer small ones with more flavor, but they also aren't bred to sit on your refrigerator shelf.

So this year, we decided to try our hand at growing baby bok choy from seed from one of our heirloom catalogs. The problem? With our rainy spring, we started too late, and they bolted quickly.

It took a lot of research to find out anything about harvesting these seeds. If you're interested in saving seed, you have to wait until these little pods that form turn brown, then you can harvest them.

You'll want to split the pods in half - which you can easily do by hand - and both sides will likely have tiny balls of seeds covered with a small film. Reminds me of "ants on a log." Just peel the film back and dump into a container.

The seeds I've found are very prolific and easy to harvest, though it does take time. It's great if you love bok choy! In fact, once this heat wave passes, I'm excited about a fall planting.

Interested in trying bok choy? I have so many seeds that I'd love to share. Leave a comment if you are interested in some seeds!