Photo by Rick Gush
This chicory plant , the puntarelle , grows all over in more temperate areas .
This calendar week will start a series of blogs on the many varieties of edible chicory . presently grow more in Europe than the United States , chicory plant are chance plants for small farmers in Italy . This is because it ’s inevitable that a mart for locally grow chicories will turn .
The photo today is of my friend , Rosanna , showing the puntarelle type or , more specifically , thepuntarelle di galatina . The comestible parts of these particular chicories are the crisp minuscule light-green shoot bud that are in a mass in the center of the clump . They smack like a very crunchy lettuce or thinner , lighter - tasting cultivated celery . The Italians often call themchicorium asparago , because the individual dissipate sort of resemble the tip of an asparagus .
I ’ll take confusedness , but I do n’t remember the correct botanical name isc . asparago , but more likelycichorium intybus puntarelle di galatina . This is misleading because this plant is nothing like the wild , blue - bloom chicorycichorium intybusthat now grows along wayside in many temperate area .
There ’s a really good cause why chicories are n’t wide grown in the res publica : A lot of chicories demand to be drive in some way to produce the desired resolution . In the case of the puntarelle , the plants are field - uprise as a fall crop and then dug up at the beginning of wintertime . The plant CORE and roots , which are all a flake pear-shaped , are clip of its leaves and stem and then replant in boxes or other structures that are then kept in the wickedness for several month . During this fourth dimension , a fate of pale , new shoots , called puntarelle , arise on the plant heart and soul .
Any small farmer bid to crop an exotic crop such as puntarelle should take themselves to school on basic chicory - forcing techniques , such as those used to produce the classic red - leaf chicories of Italy and the crunchy , pale Belgian endives .
hale chicories are a new frontier for Americans , who have traditionally been generally less patient nurseryman . Fortunately , many of us are starting to realize how much sport it can be to develop some of the more demanding craw like the forced chicory root . Sure , there are a few niche shoes where the drop and wintertime conditions is nerveless but always a few degree above freezing . Puntarelle grown in these areas do n’t need the same type of forcing . These Clarence Day , the puntarelle we see in the market here in northern Italy come in from around Bari , which is further south on the peninsula . I ’ll bet gardener in San Diego , Calif. , could grow with child puntarelle most year .
I eat puntarelle as a salad ingredient . After I draw out the tender point , there are a lot of leafy vegetable to throw into the compost . For stateside agriculturist , I would suggest the chicory catalogna galatina seeds fromGourmet Seed , and thecichorium intybus puntarelle di galatinafrom the great French germ companyB & T World Seeds .
Read more of Rick ’s Favorite Crops »
