Homiclub — Urban gardening, one pot at a time
Rakkyo: What Two or Three Pickled Bulbs Do in the Body
Rakkyo (yeomgyo) is the tart little pickle served beside sushi and Japanese curry — and a nearly hands-off perennial you plant in late summer and dig the following June. Here's how to grow it, why it tastes the way it does, and what the research on its fructans and saponins does and doesn't show.
Celery: Potassium in the Stalks, Flavonoids in the Leaves
Celery goes in the ground in late summer and thickens as the weather cools, but it fails in two directions: heat makes it stringy, and a cold snap makes seedlings bolt. Here's how to grow it, why the leaves are worth keeping, and what the research on celery actually covers.
Korean Angelica: The Root the Old Medical Texts Describe, and the Wrap Leaves We Pick Today
August is the last month to pick Korean angelica leaves, but the root's season is only beginning. A 17th-century Korean medical text and a modern lab report describe the same plant — and the places where they diverge matter more than the places where they agree.
If Blood Sugar Is Why You Came to Bitter Melon
Bitter melon's blood-sugar reputation rests on lab-isolated compounds and supplement trials, not on a plate of stir-fried slices. Here's what the research does and doesn't say, plus how to tame the bitterness and which seeds to leave out.
Okra: Health Through the Eyes of the Donguibogam
Okra reached Korea too late to appear in the Donguibogam, so instead of inventing an old remedy for it, we look at the plant the way the old texts looked at vegetables — and find that its slick mucilage lines up neatly with what modern nutrition says about soluble fiber.
The Korean Melon, as the Donguibogam Saw It
The Donguibogam recorded the Korean melon as cold in nature and sweet in taste: a fruit for quenching thirst and clearing summer heat, with cautions written right beside the benefits. Here's how that old reading lines up with what we know today, and how to enjoy your garden melons.
Cilantro, and What the Dongui Bogam Saw in It
Cilantro divides the dinner table like few other herbs, and the Dongui Bogam — Korea's 17th-century medical compendium — had plenty to say about it: warming the gut, cutting fishy odors, even coaxing out a rash. Here's how those old notes line up with what we know today.
A Yellow Sauce Mixed from White Mustard Seed — What to Serve It With
White mustard sown in an August gap will be ready by late fall, and its seeds carry a heat that only appears once they're crushed and wetted. Here's what's happening inside the seed, and how to turn it into the yellow mustard you already know.
The Hollyhock the Old Books Called Hongchokgyu — Between an Ancient Record and a Modern Analysis
A 400-year-old Korean medical text listed hollyhock as *hongchokgyu*, noting its resemblance to curled mallow — a family tie that modern analysis confirms. Here's where the old record and today's science overlap, where they part ways, and how to collect August seed for next summer's bloom.