2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Have you noticed that your friends in the country are blooming with delicious garden chicory? Ask them to collect seeds for you in a month. It will not only liven up your suburban area with its bright blue colors, but will also serve as an excellent addition to your usual diet. After all, you can make not only a fragrant drink from it, but also prepare original salads, as well as other interesting dishes. What other beautifully blooming, non-traditional for our gardens, root crops can you decorate your garden with?
From the flower bed to the table
Some plants from the Aster family can not only serve as a delightful decoration of the garden, but also become ingredients for delicious and very healthy dishes. These flowers include chicory, oat root (also known as the common goat), and scorzonera (or goat). These are biennials, which in the first year of development increase the rosette of leaves and form a root crop, and in the second year, in July, they release flowering shoots, and after a month you can start collecting seeds.
The roots of plants are used for food. In chicory, they have a spindle-shaped white color. The oat root is similarly elongated, similar to a carrot, and its color is slightly darker than the chicory root, and has a yellow tint. Scorzonera root is dark brown, almost black.
The color of the petals of these unusual flowers also differs. In chicory, they are deep blue, oat root blooms purple buds, and scorzonera has bright yellow flowers.
Chicory - both in the salad and in the side dish
Chicory makes a wonderful invigorating drink, reminiscent of coffee, but slightly sour in taste. It is made in industrial plants, but at home you can also prepare a healthy decoction from its roots. It is used in alternative medicine to treat gastritis, strengthen the nervous system, and hepatitis. It is a good tonic.
Chicory root is also good in salads. Vegetable peppers, carrots, onions, legumes, pickles, and even apples go well with it. Chicory root is added to the vinaigrette, stewed in vegetable oil, fried with eggs. Try stewed chicory as a side dish instead of the usual potatoes or cereals. Also, large root vegetables are great for stuffing with meat filling for baking in the oven. Are there any doubts whether it is worth sowing this amazing plant?
The agricultural technology of chicory differs little from the cultivation of other table root crops. It is sown in early spring in the second year after the introduction of organic matter by a multi-line belt method. The row spacing is made about 30 cm, and the interval between seeding is kept about 8-10 cm.
Oat root and scorzonera - fry, boil, simmer
Oat root is eaten boiled and fried. For the similarity in taste to seafood, the goatbeard is also called a vegetable oyster. In folk medicine, he found application as a choleretic agent. Due to its healing properties, the oat root decoction improves the activity of the digestive tract.
Soups and salads are prepared from scorzonera, it is eaten boiled and stewed. She has a slightly sweet taste. In terms of its dietary properties and useful qualities, the goat is superior to many other vegetables that are more familiar to our eyes in garden beds.
The cultivation of oat root and scorzonera is similar to the cultivation of carrots. Loose soil, deeply cultivated soil is suitable for them. From organic matter, it responds well to fertilization with compost and humus.
Sowing seeds is carried out by a multi-line belt method. The best dates for this are the first days of May. The row spacing is left at least 20 cm, the interval between plants is about 15 cm.
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