Topic: witloof progress

[Mrs Ava]

Okay, you might not find this terribly exciting, but boy am I!  What an amazing thing this salad crop is.  You bung the seeds in your plot in the spring and forget about them.  These lovely huge, almost dandelion type plants grown and flourish totally neglected until November time when you dig them out and leave them in a sheltered spot in the garden until you need them.  Then you cut off the leaves, trim down the roots and plant them in a pot, cover with another pot to block out the light, and leave them somewhere cool, and look, just look at this!  This is about a month, maybe 5 weeks.  I have already planted up another pot full of roots and already ickle bitty green shoots are coming!  These are going to be part of the salad that mum will serve Christmas night with left over cold meat and pickles.  :D

[ina]

Ohhhhh Emma Jane, they are wonderful! I'm so glad you put the picture on because I have been wondering how yours were doing. Didn't I tell you that you'd have chicons before x-mas? I'll be planting my second lot very soon, the last of the first lot will make a big salad for x-mas to take to a diner party.

As common as witlof is in Holland, how little it's known in England. When I posted my latest pictures, there were no remarks made except by you, that shows me that there is little interest to try it overthere. All I can say is: they don't know what they are missing.

Should you plan on growing it again next season and have trouble finding the seeds, I'll be glad to send you a packet, just pm me.
Thanks for posting the picture.

[Mrs Ava]

Thanks for that Ina, I will let you know if I have problems.  It is a shame more people don't give it a go, people here pay a lot of money for a bag of mixed salad leaves, and yet they are so simple to grow on your own.  I have been having it with my salads since I was a nipper because when daddy was in the army  (when I was little more than a twinkle in his eye)  he spent a couple of years stationed in Germany and whilst there he ate things that were considered specialist here, like the witloof, and when he came home, he carried on eating them.  He was cosmopolitan before his time!  :D

All I can say people is, if you like salad leaves, and you love those peppery, slightly bitter leaves, and you want to grow something that you can forget about for most of the year, then give a few plants a go.  :)

[TULIP-23]

Hoi there EJ en Emma Jane

Hoi Ina

My first attempt here on this fantastic site

Witlof  Yes we have plenty of it here in Holland but Ive never tried it

I`ll wait for instruction from Ina  on the best way to use
Cook or eat it or grow it.

Came over here nearly sixteen years ago. Would´nt change a thing.
Just returned to Gardening now before I go on Pension in another four years.

Incidentally Ina IK Woon in Uden Noord Brabant.

Thank you both forgiving me the chance to break the ice.
Success with the Witlof.

Greetings from Tulip-23 Mike

[ina]

Hello and welcome Mike,
You found the right place and it seems at the right time too since you said you just returned to gardening. Glad you joined us, nice people here.
I live in Hoorn, Noord Holland and have a 260m2 allotment. You've been in Holland for 16 years and never tried witlof? It's high time hehehe. Maybe you should first buy some witlof in the shop to try it, it would be a shame if you went through all the trouble of growing and forcing it only to find you don't like it. It's the kind of thing you either love or hate I think.

How do you eat it?
Either cooked or raw.
 
To cook, cut the chicons in 2cm slices (if there is a core in the bottom part, throw it away, it's bitter), cook about 10 minutes, drain excess water and mix some cheese and ham with it.
Another way is to wrap the chicons in ham, cook in the oven till a fork goes easily through (or par boil first), top with grated cheese , back in the oven until cheese is melted.

To eat raw, cut it fine, mix with the dressing of your choice, a boiled sliced egg with it is nice too.

To grow: http://www.tuinkrant.com/tkarchief/tk/68/witlof68.htm#Worteloogst%20en%20bewaring
If you have trouble with Dutch, let me know and I'll help you.

Why don't you come into the shed, introduce yourself and meet others of the gang?

[TULIP-23]

Ina
 Hartelijk bedankt. Gaat dat doen. Wel een keer proberen.

Fantastic English Were did you learn it.

Im really here to make new friends  possiblily Pen-friends

within the Gardening Fraterinity

To speak our Language is no problem to read our language
no problem to understand our language no problem

But the Grammer well What Ive learnt Ive learnt myself.
its difficult to place it in the right context
Had a short period at Leifgraaf Regional Opleiding Centrum
here in Uden for six months.

Great to meet you. Thanks again for your very warm welcome by the way my big Garden is 2/2.5 mtrs  wide by 5 mtrs long not too much really in the front of our Senior Woning. Take Care  Groetjes naar jou en de Familie