Unusual vegetables
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Chicory – Catalogna Gigante di Chioggia (SM4.32) (Organic)
£2.60 – £6.72 Select optionsChicory – Catalogna Gigante di Chioggia (SM4.32) (Organic)
Leaf chicory best used as a delicious sautéing green.
Catalogna Gigante di Chioggia – also known as dandelion greens – is an open leaf chicory type which is similar to wild chicory.
The leaves make some of the best sautéing greens around, sweet with a slight bitter edge. They can be blanched in salty water to remove some of the bitterness if desired. Drain and fry up with garlic and chilli for a truly delicious side dish.
More forgiving to grow than some other chicory/radicchio types.
£2.60 – £6.72 -
Luffa – Luffa aegyptiaca (Organic)
£2.65 Out of StockLuffa – Luffa aegyptiaca (Organic)
Annual climbing plant producing cucumber like fruits that can be made into a natural sponge. It’s part of the cucurbit family originating in India and produces 30 to 40 centimetres long fruits. Whilst the young fruits are actually edible, the mature ones can be boiled or dried to remove the flesh, revealing the sponge like fibres.
Germination can be tricky, needs hot temperatures constantly between 24 and 30°C and a long season to make a sponge.
The Luffas should be ready to harvest in October, once the skin of the fruits starts to wither. Harvest and stack them up somewhere warm, dry and airy, making sure to turn them. The skin should reach a point where it can easily peel off leaving the fibrous inner. Shake the seeds out and give a thorough wash to clean it. The luffa is likely to have natural brown markings on it; shop-bought luffas are bleached. (Approximate seed count – 15)
£2.65 -
Chicory – Radicchio Treviso Late (SM4.75 – Forcing) (Organic)
£2.70 – £8.40 Select optionsChicory – Radicchio Treviso Late (SM4.75 – Forcing) (Organic)
A forcing chicory from Treviso for delicious winter eating.
This variety of chicory has been bred for forcing through the winter months (Tardivo means late in Italian), and produces totally delicious ‘chicons’.
To force chicory the plants should be left untouched in the field until winter time. When you wish to force them, pull up however many plants you need and replant the roots into a moist medium such as sand or spent compost. The plants then need to kept in total darkness for a few weeks and then beautiful chicons will grow from the roots.
They are generally eaten cooked in pastas and other dishes and were the first Italian vegetable to gain IGP, a European protected status for special food products specific to a place of origin.
£2.70 – £8.40 -
Chicory – Puntarelle (SM4.33) (Organic)
£2.70 – £8.40 Select optionsChicory – Puntarelle (SM4.33) (Organic)
An interesting chicory variety grown for its hollow bolting shoots.
Unlike other chicory varieties which are grown for their leaves, Puntarelle is grown for its flowering shoots. The young shoots form a ‘head’ at the base of plant and are julienned into thin strips which are then soaked in cold water to removed some of their bitterness. In the water they twist and curl into elegant crisp and crunchy shapes which are then served with a punchy dressing to make a lovely late autumn salad.
Shoots usually appear between mid-October and November.
£2.70 – £8.40
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