Napa cabbage

Every autumn Korean families pickle hundreds of heads of napa cabbage for kimchi – the kimjang custom is on the UNESCO list.

A biennial of the cabbage family grown as an annual vegetable, forming elongated, compact heads of pale green, crinkled leaves with broad, white, juicy midribs. In its second year it sends up a flowering stem with yellow, four-petalled flowers. It grows fast and prefers cool weather, so it is grown mainly in spring and autumn, and in summer in the mountains. It has a delicate, slightly sweet flavour; it is eaten raw, cooked in soups and, above all, fermented.

Significance in the country

Napa cabbage is the main ingredient of baechu kimchi, the most important dish in Korean cuisine, served with almost every meal. In late autumn families and neighbours make their winter stocks of kimchi together – in 2013 the kimjang tradition was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Where it grows

Autumn and winter cabbage comes mainly from the plains of South Jeolla (including Haenam) and from Chungcheong, while summer cabbage is grown on high-altitude fields in Gangwon, such as Anbandegi near Gangneung and Maebongsan in Taebaek.

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