In the Garden: Salsify
Killgore Trout Apr 10, 2011 at 9:00 am PDT
One of my favorite plants in the garden is salsify. Many people have never heard of it before and I’ve never seen it in the grocery store but it’s very easy to grow and very delicious. Since it’s a root plant you’ll want to prepare the bed by digging down about 18 inches and breaking up the soil really well to allow the root grow without obstacles, rocks or hard lumps of compressed clay The young seedlings are almost identical to shoots of grass so removing all remnants of lawn makes weeding much easier. Planting in spring means you should be able to harvest by about October and throughout the winter. The plant is very cold hardy, drought tolerant and relatively pest free. Even the slugs don’t bother with it.
Here’s the leftovers in my picked over salsify patch.
Always try to leave a few of the strongest plants and let them flower so you can collect the seeds for replanting.
Most recipes for salsify make a big deal out of the fact that once the salsify is peeled it oxidizes quickly and turns brown. Most people dunk the peeled roots in cold water to prevent this. I don’t bother.Instead of peeling the skin off the root I just just use on of those plastic kitchen scrubby things. This knocks off all the fine roots and dirt and doesn’t expose the flesh to air so there’s no oxidation. It’s also much quicker than peeling. If the salsify does oxidize, don’t worry. It doesn’t effect the flavor and the flesh turns back to white/cream color when cooked anyways.
Here are a few recipe ideas…
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