Hi, does anyone have any growing experience of Scorzonero?
Getting lots of comments and suggestions from people who have never grown the veg and even people who have not even heard of the veg.........as useful as a chocolate fire guard.
DIGMORE.
I grew it once & it tasted a bit like mud but without the texture. Didn't try it again!
I grew them a few years ago. Weedy things, difficult to clean; not worth the effort
Do you mean ScorzonerA. We grow it and find it very similar to Parsnip. In many ways you need to leave it to grow as a perennial to get the big roots.
Thanks a lot for the input guys. May just try an odd dustbin full.
Digmore.
Should have said that it is a perennial and we have a bed which we treat like Asparagus, digging up roots as we need them. Watch out for the seed heads, they do tend to spread themselves around.
I've never been able to get either salsify or scorzonera to a decent size.
Don't forget the leaves are edible as well as the root. When I grew it I found I really liked the taste but just so fiddly and difficult to harvest, the roots seem to go down for ever and like docks, they will regrow from bits of root left in the soil. I like the idea of a permenant bed for the stuff.
Very useful winter vegetable. However first year roots are in most cases small and weedy. We harvest them in their second year. Even if they flower their roots stay usable. This is very different from Salsify, which gets fibrous unusable roots.
Tops and flower buds are also edible and taste nice. I don't usually get all the roots out and break them, but it doesn't matter. I just wash the roots, then boil for about 20 minutes. After that I rub the skin off with my hands in a bowl of cold water. A few black bits left need scraping with a knife, but most of the cleaning is done with my hands, like cleaning cooked beetroot.
Then I cut them into inch long strips and reheat in a bit of butter, or olive oil and garlic, or put them into white sauce.
I love the flowers - bright yellow. Some flowers are double. Scorzonera look good enough for the front garden. As does Salsify with its blue flowers.
Quote from: galina on August 28, 2013, 08:55:10
Very useful winter vegetable. However first year roots are in most cases small and weedy. We harvest them in their second year. Even if they flower their roots stay usable. This is very different from Salsify, which gets fibrous unusable roots.
Tops and flower buds are also edible and taste nice. I don't usually get all the roots out and break them, but it doesn't matter. I just wash the roots, then boil for about 20 minutes. After that I rub the skin off with my hands in a bowl of cold water. A few black bits left need scraping with a knife, but most of the cleaning is done with my hands, like cleaning cooked beetroot.
Then I cut them into inch long strips and reheat in a bit of butter, or olive oil and garlic, or put them into white sauce.
I love the flowers - bright yellow. Some flowers are double. Scorzonera look good enough for the front garden. As does Salsify with its blue flowers.
You are making me think again Galena. I am a sucker for vegetables with nice flowers and winter veg options are limited.
I've grown it for some years in quite deep soil and as others say it grows in the same place and I dig some up when I feel like it. I cook and peel it more or less as Galina says, plus a squeeze of lemon. It has a delicate but distinctive flavour, not quite like anything else. I have never achieved the gigantic fat long roots I have seen in Germany and Belgium, but if you have the space I think it is worth it. Once established, it is no trouble apart from weeding and feeding. In my experience it is not worth digging up until it HAS flowered for one or two seasons.
I have just collected seed from mine as I want to establish it permanently in a bigger space on another plot.