30 seeds
Sowing: from june to september to june, and february to march
Planting space: 60 cm between plants and 60 cm betweem rows
Harvest: 45 days after sowing, it will always start producing seeds when temperatures are over 20 °C
Juana Bravo Quelites
Juana Bravo Quelites: To introduce this extraordinary variety, a story needs to be told.
First of all, we haven't indicated the species as we always do, because it's unidentified; you'll soon understand why.
Juana Bravo Lázaro is an ancestral Purépecha cook from the small town of Hangahuan in the Sierra del Michoacan, Mexico. She is a living legend of a traditional cuisine that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for which she is the most important spokesperson. Juana travels the world, has more awards than any Michelin-starred chef, and yet she is uncomfortably kind and approachable. She has something extra: her cuisine is at times unrivaled, seemingly humble, with very limited use of spices, especially imported ones (no pepper, not even cumin), limiting herself to traditional herbs, mostly grown by her family. She also grows her own corn, which she then nixtamalizes and works with metate. When the masa (nixtamalized corn, ground and kneaded) becomes a tortilla in her hands, the sound is that of a song, and it's not a literary device; the sound of her clapping hands is a precise, consistent rhythm that all passersby recognize.
The streets of Hangahuan are made for walking and horses, there is no noise from cars, and this sound was the first I heard when I approached Juana's house for breakfast.
A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to spend a few days with her. In her kitchen, in the mountains gathering herbs, and in the artisans' house where, in the evenings, she teaches the younger generations how to weave on a traditional loom.
In Angahuan, little Spanish is spoken, people work hard, and on Saturday nights, well-dressed young people go out to meet on horseback. Everything seems built on humanity, not on pride. Peace reigns among the bumpy roads, and even the recent feud between Mexican drug cartels, whose epicenter is a few kilometers down the valley, seems far away. I tell all this because these seeds carry those feelings. Among the many quelites, this is the one that best represents not only Michoacan cuisine, but Juanita's genius. Its flavor, among the many quelites, is the one that best represents not only Michoacan cuisine, but Juanita's genius.
The Quelites seeds were donated to me by Juana Bravo during the IX World Forum of Mexican Cuisine, in Altomonte, Calabria in 2024.
we had the opportunity to grow it for two seasons.
It's a brassica with fleshy leaves. Its flavor is similar to that of mustard, but much more delicate and with a distinct presence of sulforaphane. It can be eaten raw in salads or mashed into quick sauces, but also in soups. I think it can make exceptional creams.
In the field: we've grown it in multiple cycles, both with summer sowing for short-day cultivation and in March for long-day cultivation. It tends to bolt when temperatures rise above 20°C.
The minimum temperature to which it has been exposed is -3°C, demonstrating good frost tolerance.
In dryfarming gardens, sown in February, it didn't require irrigation, but started producing seeds in April and thus benefited from winter and spring rains. Overall, it's a very easy plant to grow and extremely hardy.
It does not present self-seeding.