What Is Deodeok?
Deodeok (Codonopsis lanceolata) is a special perennial climbing vine plant native to Korea and East Asia. In English, it is often called Bonnet Bellflower. It belongs to the bellflower family and grows naturally in deep mountain forests.
In Korean cuisine, Deodeok is a highly prized root vegetable. While the vine climbs and grows green leaves above the ground during summer, a thick and fragrant root develops deep under the soil. The end of August, it produces cute, bell-shaped flowers.
People mainly eat the root of the Deodeok plant. In Korea, it is cooked in many delicious ways:
In Korean cooking, we use deodeok in several ways. We enjoy it grilled, made into fritters, and prepared as deodeok-cheong, a sweet preserved food made with deodeok and sugar.
The plant is very different from vegetables such as lettuce or cucumber. Those crops can give us a harvest in the same growing season. Deodeok is a perennial plant, so we need to give the root more time to develop.
Why We Started Growing Deodeok
There is a very practical reason why we decided to grow Deodeok in our backyard in Calgary, Alberta: It is extremely hard to find fresh Deodeok in North America!
Even in large Asian grocery stores in Canada, fresh Deodeok roots are rarely available. When they do appear on store shelves, they are often imported from far away, expensive, and not very fresh.
There was also a personal health motivation. I have sensitive respiratory organs and often catch colds easily during the cold Canadian winters. In traditional Korean culture, people have long believed that Deodeok helps support throat and lung health.
While modern science studies active natural compounds in Deodeok—such as saponins and polyphenols—clinical medical evidence in humans is still limited. Therefore, we did not start growing it as a medical cure. Instead, our goal was simple: "If we cannot buy this precious ingredient, let’s grow it ourselves from scratch!"
Korean Deodeok and the Deodeok We Grow in Calgary
The deodeok we grow in Calgary is not a completely different vegetable from the deodeok grown in Korea.
If you compare a Deodeok root bought in Korea with one grown in a Calgary backyard, you will notice a huge difference in their physical appearance
In Korea, commercial Deodeok is cultivated in deep, loose, soft soil. This allows the main root to push straight down, creating a long, smooth, carrot-like shape.
However, soil in Calgary contains a high amount of heavy clay. Clay soil becomes very hard and compact. As a result, the Deodeok root struggles to grow straight down. Instead, it splits into multiple branches and develops many hairy fine roots.
Even though our Calgary Deodeok looks wilder and less smooth than Korean store-bought roots, its crunchiness and rich aroma are truly unmatched!
Why We Wait About Three Years
Growing Deodeok requires time, care, and a lot of patience. The journey from a tiny seed to a tasty dish takes about two to three years. Here is how the process works step-by-step:.
Every autumn, after the small bell-shaped flowers dry up, the plant forms small seed pods . We carefully collect these mature seeds by hand. And we plant the seeds in 30% of our garden bed. Next spring tiny green sprouts appear. During the first year, the plant focuses on establishing itself. Ground roots stay very thin—like cotton threads—and are far too small to harvest for food.
Because Deodeok is a cold-hardy perennial, it survives the freezing cold Calgary winters underground. When spring returns, the roots wake up and grow thicker vine stems above the soil.
By the second or third autumn, the root underneath finally grows large and sturdy enough for kitchen cooking. We harvest the mature roots while leaving smaller ones in the soil again for another year.
For us, about three years is the point when we usually find roots large enough for the way we want to use them in our kitchen.
We mean that we choose to wait about three years for a larger root.
When we dig up our deodeok in the fall, we often find roots of many different sizes. Some are large enough to harvest. Others are too small for what we want, so we put them back into the garden.
The three-year wait is therefore part of our own gardening routine rather than a strict rule that every deodeok plant must follow.
Our Fall Deodeok Harvest
Every fall, we clean up our deodeok patch and decide which plants are ready to harvest.
We start by cutting back or moving the vines so that we can reach the soil.
Then we dig carefully around the roots.
The roots can have many fine root hairs, and several roots can be close together. We try not to pull too hard because we want to keep the smaller plants in good condition for replanting.
Once the roots are out of the soil, we remove the loose dirt and lay them out so we can compare their sizes.
This is one of my favorite parts of growing root vegetables.
During the summer, we see the leaves and vines every day, but we cannot see what is happening underground.
Fall is when the hidden part of the plant finally tells us how well it grew.
Some of the roots in our harvest are large and thick. Others are much smaller.
We sort them instead of treating them all as the same harvest.
The Large Roots Go to Our Kitchen
The larger roots from our older plants are the ones we usually choose for food.
We enjoy deodeok in several Korean dishes.
One of our favorite ways is grilled deodeok. We lightly hammer the roots flat to soften the fiber, coat them with spicy-sweet seasoning, and grill them.
We also make deodeok fritters. The prepared root is coated and cooked until the outside becomes lightly crisp.
Another way we use our harvest is deodeok-cheong. We mix sliced roots with honey to store as sweet tea syrup .
These are simple ways for us to enjoy something that started as a seed in our garden.
That is one of the best parts of growing food ourselves.
Small Deodeok Goes Back Into the Garden
The most important part of our fall harvest is that we do not eat everything.
Young, thin roots are never wasted. We immediately replant them into refreshed garden beds. These small roots will stay underground for another season or two until they reach full maturity.
Some are young plants that grew from seed. Others are roots that simply need more time.
Before planting them again, we prepare the garden bed by removing weeds and old unwanted material. We also add compost to the soil.
Then we place the small roots back into the soil and cover them carefully. At this time, we also sow the Deodeok seeds that we harvested last year at a depth of about 0.5 to 1 cm.
This is how we keep our deodeok patch going from year to year.
Instead of starting over every season, we allow some of the younger plants to remain in the garden and continue developing.
Using the Dried Leaves and Stems
We also try to use as much of the plant as possible.
We believe in sustainable gardening practices. After harvesting the roots, we do not throw away the dried leaves and stems.
We use the dried plant material as a simple organic covering for the soil. Over time, it breaks down and becomes part of the organic material in the garden.
For us, this is a practical way to return some of the plant material to the soil instead of putting it all in the garbage.
The same plant that grew from the soil can eventually return to the soil in another form.
Preparing the Deodeok Bed for Winter
After the harvest and replanting are finished, we prepare the bed for winter.
We make sure the young roots are covered with soil and settled into their new location.
Then we spread the dried stems and leaves over the surface.
Calgary winters can be hard on garden plants, so we pay attention to the soil as well as the plants above it.
We do not expect the garden to keep growing through winter. Our goal at this point is simply to finish the season properly and leave the bed ready for spring.
When spring arrives, we will look for new growth and see which of the replanted deodeok plants survived the winter and started growing again.
Growing a Korean Root Vegetable in Calgary
Growing deodeok in Calgary has taught us to be patient.
In Korea, deodeok has a long history as a mountain plant and food crop. Here in Calgary, we are trying to grow that same species in a much different garden environment.
We started growing it partly because of its traditional connection with respiratory and cough-related use. But over the years, our reason for keeping it has become much simpler.
We enjoy growing it.
We like seeing the vines climb during summer.
We like finding the small bell-shaped flowers.
And every fall, we like digging into the soil to see how the roots have changed.
The larger roots become part of our meals. We use them for grilled deodeok, fritters, and deodeok-cheong.
The smaller roots go back into the garden.
The dried leaves and stems go back onto the soil.
Then we wait for another season.
That is our yearly deodeok routine.
It may take about three years for a root to reach the size we want, but that long wait is part of what makes growing deodeok different from growing many of our other garden vegetables.
For us, the harvest is not only the large roots we bring into the kitchen. It is also the young plants we save, the soil we prepare, and the knowledge we gain from growing the same Korean vegetable another year in our Calgary backyard.