#waterspinach

073 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Kangkong King | KKK Original ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Crispy fried water spinach chips. This flavor is a bit sweet but still good. 😁 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #365leo2023 #KangkongKing #KKKOriginal #KangkongChips #WaterSpinach #WaterSpinachChips https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp4uqwTPyRx/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Water Spinach or Rau Muong is a cousin to Sweet Potatoes grown for its greens. My partner Chris told me he had a hankering today for sweet potato greens, and I didn’t feel like cutting back any of mine, so I harvested these instead. He’s bring home some sweet potato greens too from his farm, so we will mix them together tonight. In the spring, I buy Rau Muong bunches at the Vietnamese grocery stores and root them in soil-filled pots that sit in buckets of water. They LOVE water. So I plant them by our leaky faucet. @dinhteresting of @resilient_roots_farm taught us that soldiers in the American war in Vietnam would take sprigs as they’d move to new areas, and plant them in water-filled bomb craters so they’d have good food growing wherever they went. This is a food of resilience! #raumuong #waterspinach #ipomoeaaquatica https://www.instagram.com/p/B1xIHRFA49Z/?igshid=s1h0gs3bsrr

My extremely high-tech grow system (a shop light up on two bricks on my bedroom floor) is working surprisingly well. Left to right, the sprouts are purple-leafed mizuna, Chinese water spinach or kangkong, and perpetual spinach. There are a couple of those supermarket seed pods in there, but I can't remember what they are at this point. . . . . . . . . . . . . #gardening #indoorgardening #seedpropagation #mizuna #waterspinach #kangkong #perpetualspinach #gatorspinach https://www.instagram.com/p/B6E9nn3l2Iy/?igshid=1xys2scvimj9p

Water spinach will grow conceivably anywhere, but their current favorite seems to be the empty milkshake cups from Carl's Jr. I think the dome might create a bit more humidity for them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #waterspinach #kangkong #chinesewaterspinach #gardening #recycling https://www.instagram.com/p/B6_Frw2hILe/?igshid=yinar65ry01s

First blooms of the Rau Muong, aka Gazun, Water Spinach, Chinese Watercress, Ipomoea aquatica and so on. Inspired by stories of Vietnamese soldiers carrying sprigs of Rau Muong leaves to new areas where they’d plant them in watery bomb craters during the American war in Vietnam, we rooted bunches of these greens (from the market) and planted them in our wettest part of the farm. Thanks to @dinhteresting and @vietlead for sharing this story of resilience. #resilienceandresistance #seedkeeping #ipomoeaaquatica #raumuong #gazun #chinesewatercress #waterspinach

The wettest place on my farm aside from the creek: the leaky pump. Water Spinach, or #raumuong, loves it here. Last year I rooted two varieties from the Hung Vuong Vietnamese grocery store on Washington Avenue in Philly: the dark green broader leaf one (right) and the light green thinner leaf one (left). This photo was taken today. We rooted the dark leaf one, but the store didn’t have the light one the day I went. Luckily I was able to germinate seed saved from last year for this variety. I learned about this sweet potato cousin from my friend @dinhteresting at Resilient Roots Farm in NJ. She told us that the Vietnamese soldiers during the American War in Vietnam would plant stem cuttings in water-filled bomb craters as they traveled to new places. The plants would root quickly and there would be fresh greens to eat. Resilience. #raumuong #waterspinach #ipomoeaaquatica #ipomoea

A closeup on life at the farm right now: first, Ground Ivy and Hairy Bittercress flowers; next a grasshopper; then A SWEET POTATO SEEDLING FROM A TRUE SEED (I’m excited - my first time saving and germinating them); water Spinach or Rau Muong seedling (sweet potato cousin) from my watery patch last year. I started the water spinach from bunches of greens from the Vietnamese supermarket, and then saved their seeds and here we are. Your produce is alive!! #truesweetpotatoseeds #sweetpotatoseedlings #waterspinachseed #waterspinach #ipomoeabatatas #ipomoeaaquatica #groundivyflowers #groundivy #hairybittercress #grasshopper #seedkeeping #sexualreproduction

Water Spinach pollen on a q-tip. After hand-pollinating these Morning Glory relatives, I went out to pollinate their cousins, the Sweet Potatoes (purple flowers). Seemed like the honeybees were doing it just fine. I'd love any tips for getting true seed from both of these plants in Zone 7. Telsing? Are you out there? #waterspinach #sweetpotato #raumuong #ipomeabatatas #ipomeaaquatica #handpollination #morninggloryfamily #seedkeeping (at Delaware County, Pennsylvania)