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Kai Lan, a Chinese staple |
Exotic food plants can bring fresh taste to your table
You won’t see these in Tesco, but it’s easy enough to grow your own, says
Tom Moggach
THIS is week, it’s all about the weird, wonderful and unusual food plants – the stuff that you won’t find in Tesco.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against your everyday crops. But if you’re growing your own, it’s also fun to try something new.
Here are a few suggestions. Buy seed online (see below), as it is seldom stocked in garden centres:
Land Cress
If you love watercress, go for this. It’s got the same peppery kick, but is no hassle to grow. Land Cress is happy in semi-shade, so it’s ideal for slightly gloomy spots on your balcony or in the garden.
Sow now for a summer harvest. Keep well watered and pluck off young leaves to perk up salads and soups. Sow again in August for a hardy winter crop.
Salsify
This skinny taproot is a delicacy – subtle, sweet and faintly nutty. It’s big in Italy and France, but hard to find here. Scorzonera, a hardy perennial, is closely related.
The thin roots grow deep, about a foot or so. So don’t bother in shallow containers. Sow in open, light soil, thinning plants to six inches apart.
Like all good things, salsify takes its time and will be ready by autumn. To harvest, carefully lift from the soil, scrub and cut into finger-length chunks. Boil, refresh in cold water, peel and sauté in frothy butter for a bit of colour.
Kai Lan
Why don’t more people grow this? Kai Lan is a staple in Chinese restaurants and grocers. It has a superior taste to broccoli, and you can eat the whole plant. It’s also both quicker and easier to grow.
Like all the brassica family, it wants a firm soil. Sow from June to August, then thin to ten inches between plants. Kai Lan will be ready in around ten weeks. It’s a nitrogen hungry plant, so give it a feed. Stir-fry whole with garlic and ginger – you’ll see what the fuss is about.
Cardoon
A stunner of a plant, with large, silvery grey leaves. Grow it for beauty, then eat the stems in autumn. This edible thistle, closely related to the globe artichoke, grows large – around five feet high – so you need an allotment or large garden.
The stems are good to eat. A few weeks before harvest, wrap in straw then cardboard to help reduce their bitterness. Then strip off the skin and blanch until tender in boiling water with a squeeze of lemon juice. Try dipping into a rich, spicy tomato sauce.
Wild Garlic
In Borough Market, you’ll pay a fortune. Yet wild garlic (Allium ursinum), also known as ramsons, grows rampantly in the countryside. For an urban crop, buy some bulbs for a moist, shady spot.
Try Meadow Mania (www.meadowmania.co.uk). Beware – once established, it spreads. So try in containers, taking care they don’t dry out. Try stirring thin slivers into mashed potato. Or wilting a few leaves into pasta.
Cape Gooseberry
I picked one of these at a plant sale in Hackney. Also known as physalis or golden berry, this plant produces small, tart fruit covered in a papery pod – you may have seen them as garnishes on fancy cakes.
It’s happiest in a greenhouse, and should fruit in August.
TOM MOGGACH
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Your comments:
The Lenkiewicz exhibition is stunning from the remarkable St Eustace sculpture to the drawings featuring unicorns, tigers and Elvis! The skeletons and skulls were my particular favourite along with the octopus drowning the Titanic. The surroundings are fabulous; the Pite architecture lends itself so well to the mood. I admit I have a particular fondness for
the building having worked there for 26 years.
J. Trend-Hill
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