picture by Rick Gush
Agretti , an unsung , delicious veggie , is mainly grown in southern Italy .
This week marks a milestone of some sort because I do n’t think I ’ve ever spell about a more isolated veg . Why it ’s so obscure , I ’m not sure , because it taste great and a wad of folk in Spain and England , where it is known as agretti , eat it with zest . Here in Italy , it mainly grows down in the south in Sicily , and then register up in the northern opened - air vegetable market place in April and May . Also known as Monk ’s Beard , we corrode it here in Italy as a steam vegetable either alone or as a bottom for fish . We ’re eat more this twelvemonth , and I am really enjoying it .
The preference is a bit surprising the first clip one eat this vegetable because it looks either like a smallonionclump or those grass plants veterinarians tell us we should grow for our CT , but it actually tastes like a more refined rendering ofspinachandchard . The botanic name , Salsola sal soda , gives a hint to the ability of the plant to grow in salty or sodium - rich conditions . There is also a Nipponese reading known as Land Seaweed .
I should have written about this craw last fall since that ’s when agretti seeds should be planted . This is a cool - time of year craw , so it prefers winters that are cool but not cold . The poor germination rate of the seed is legendary but , once it germinates , the plant grow very well with fewpests . Plants that are seed in the downfall can be harvested in the former part of the following bound , or while the clump still have long , slender leaves . Once the plant starts to branch it becomes very tough . The matured plants seed enthusiastically , so source for the following twelvemonth ’s crop is easy harvested from the small , shrubby flora . Oddly , this plant life is a cousin of tumbleweeds , made far-famed in Western movies .
The plants will stomach a piquant situation , but they grow better in a non - piquant garden . They like full sun but can grow under deciduous tree diagram . This is not a large growing industrial plant when it is harvest on a regular basis and kept at the small size of it used for eating . Because of this , it can be grown in relatively little garden infinite . There ’s not a lot of post harvest cleanup required or waste foliage to trim away , as the grass - like tufts that one harvests can be almost completely used .
Agretti is usually served as a vegetable bed for gist and fish dish , and pasta served with soft Malva sylvestris , and agretti is a very tasty dish that is frequently urge in cookery book based on southern Italy culinary art .
Salsola sodais often list as a moderatelyinvasive weed , but it ’s not illegal , and a few online seed dealers have number seeds for sales agreement in the U.S.
I know there is n’t a general chromaticity and cry out for Modern leafy green pick during the leaf beet and spinach plant season , but agretti does in fact carry its own in suppose company and by all odds adds something gratifying to the time of year ’s green palette .
Read more of Rick ’s Favorite Crops »
