Re: [gardeners] Salad Greens

Margaret Lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 17 Dec 1997 14:19:10 -0700 

At 12:17 PM 12/17/97 +0000, you wrote:
>After making the earlier post I checked the mail box to discover a 
>Cook's Garden catalogue.  It's just about my favorite seed catalogue, 
>mostly because of the many varieties of salad green seeds they offer. 
>It is also the catalogue I'm least likely to buy my salad seeds from 
>because I don't know what to buy and what not to buy.  I could easily 
>spend over $100 just on greens seeds.
>
>Some of you have a lot of experience with the various greens for 
>salads.  I thought that since it's catalogue and ordering season we 
>could share our knowledge and maybe help out poor ignorant folk such 
>as me, myself and I figure out what to order.
>
>A couple of my favorite non-lettuce salad greens are arugula 
>selvetica and radish leaves.  Arugula selvetica -- the one with 
>small, deeply cut leaves often called wild arugula -- has a taste 
>that large-leaved cultivated arugula can't match.  It's peppery - 
>tangy, an instant pick me up for a simple sandwich or mixed green 
>salad.  It has a clearer flavor to my taste buds than does cultivated 
>arugula.  I find that cultivated arugula is not as spicy and has 
>"horse piss" overtones.
>
>Radish leaves were a mistake that worked.  I sent Ray out to pick 
>leaves for a salad and he picked radish along with the others.  It 
>took me a while to track down what tasted so good.  Radish leaves are 
>peppery and earthy but lack the tang of arugula. There's a hint of 
>radish flavor to them -- they almost make your nose tingle.  We were 
>eating salads for a while there that were almost half radish leaves.  
>(I also sauteed radish seed pods and they were hot and tasty.)
>
>The other thing I enjoyed greatly in salads were the thinnings from 
>the mustard family plants.  We had turnips, kohlrabi, mustards, 
>collards and a few others I can't remember.  When very young these 
>didn't have a lot of "mustardy" taste but provided some "tooth" to 
>the salads.  
>
>None of my mache seeds germinated.  I don't know why.
>
>Anyone want to share their experiences?  I'd like to know what you 
>consider a must have item (mine are arugula selvetica and radish 
>leaves) and what you wouldn't bother with.
>
>Liz
>
Liz, quick!  Ask Santa for a copy of The Salad Garden by Joy Larkcom.  It
went out of print, but is back in print, and it is THE best, IMO.  Margaret