If you don’t have time to garden–planting seeds, fertilizing, mulching, pulling weeds and harvesting, this story is for you.
There are a number of edible greens in Hawaii that grow easily with little intervention on your part. You can have fresh greens any time you want right in your own yard.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Brazilian Spinach or Sissoo (alternanthera sissoo)
One of the easiest to grow, as well as a living mulch or edible ground cover is Brazilian spinach or Sissoo.
Take a cutting or simple pull up and replant. It grows well in shade and sun. Sissoo will soon multiply and spread out but it’s not invasive.
The leaves are thin and dry and don’t produce the slimy or mucilaginous texture of other spinach-like greens.
Because it contains oxalates, it’s usually cooked by sauteing or steaming. Nutritional content unknown.
Newer leaves are more tender, the stems are not eaten but can be planted. This green is good in quiche, frittatas and can be blended with other garden greens listed here.
Edible Hibiscus (Abelmoschus maniho)
Another must have green is edible hibiscus. These huge succulent leaves are great for wraps, soups, or sauteed. The leaves are high in vitamins A, C and iron.
They are related to okra and have that same slime, so I don’t recommend them for eating in salads, but if you don’t mind go for it. The leaves thicken soups like okra. I like to saute with chopped garlic, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.
Easy to grow from cuttings, just cut a branch and bury in the soil and keep well watered until it starts to root. The bush tends to get overloaded and the branches will break off from the weight –just replant.
The large African snails like them and you can tell when they’ve been munching because the leaves will look like lace and the trunks will have chew marks on them. If this happens, go around in the early morning and while wearing gloves pull them off and smash them. The snails are carriers of rat lung so be careful and do not handle the snails or eat any damaged leaves.