Norabouna is a Japanese landrace perilla with deep roots in food security and everyday sustenance. This semi-wild member of the Brassica family grows 30 inches tall with tender shoots that emerge each spring, ready to harvest in just 75 days. Steam, stir-fry, or simmer these greens like broccoli or kale, or pick the leaves year-round for fresh greens. Hardy in zones 9-12, it thrives in full sun and moderate water, reaching mature dimensions of 30 inches tall by 18 inches wide.
Full Sun
Moderate
9-12
30in H x 18in W
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High
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Norabouna carries the quiet resilience of a crop that has sustained communities through lean times, yet it delivers genuinely delicious eating. The emerging spring shoots rival broccoli in preparation and flavor, while the leaves remain edible throughout the growing season, giving you multiple harvest windows from a single plant. Its reputation in Japan as a famine-prevention crop speaks to its toughness and productivity, but gardeners today grow it simply because it tastes real good and asks very little in return.
Harvest the tender spring shoots and prepare them steamed, stir-fried, or simmered in soups, treating them much as you would broccoli or kale. The leaves are edible at any point in the growing season, offering continuous harvests for fresh cooking or preservation. The dual harvest potential, both shoots and greens, makes this plant exceptionally productive from a single planting.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Start seeds indoors 4-6 weeks before your last spring frost in temperatures between 60-75°F. Transplant seedlings outdoors once they've developed true leaves and nighttime temperatures stay above freezing.
Transplant hardened-off seedlings outdoors after the last frost date when soil has warmed. Space plants 12 inches apart (24 inches between rows). Choose a full-sun location with well-draining soil.
You can direct sow seeds outdoors after the last spring frost, planting at a depth suitable for fine seeds. Thin seedlings to 12 inches apart once they've germinated.
Begin harvesting tender spring shoots once they've reached a harvestable size, typically around 75 days from planting or when shoots emerge in spring. Harvest shoots as you would broccoli, cutting them from the plant. Leaves can be harvested at any time throughout the growing season by picking individual leaves or cutting handfuls as needed. The more you harvest, the more the plant responds by producing additional shoots and foliage.
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“Norabouna arrived in Western gardens through Hudson Valley Seed's partnership to introduce this Japanese landrace variety. The plant's origins trace to rural Japan, where it developed as a semi-wild crop, prized precisely because of its low-maintenance nature and reliable productivity during times of scarcity. This is not a modern hybrid but a crop shaped by generations of cultivation and selection in Japanese agriculture, valued as a dependable food source that communities could rely on when other options failed.”