Root Vegetables a Gardeners and Bakers Dozen
After salad crop failures in Spain and shortages of courgettes, broccoli and other ‘long distance’ vegetables gardeners could to worse than focus on traditional and non-traditional root crops.
Chinese artichoke, Stachys affinis was popular in Edwardian times. It is a sprawling plant that produces knobbly roots for baking, mashing, frying or stir frying. Harvest as needed, after a long growing season, as they do not store well
Jicama or Yam bean have crunchy roots similar to dahlia tubers useful for adding to salads.Can only be stored for about a month.
Rampion have a strong taste, knobbly and fiddly roots and would be at the end of our list of experiments.
Hamburg parsley is popular in Germany with edible, evergreen leaves. Roots are upto 8inches long. Roast or use in stew.
Salsify and Scozonera look and taste similar and have been grown in the UK for hundreds of yaers . Salsify or Oyster plant, is biennial Scozonera is a hardy perennial that grows 3ft high.
Mouli or winter Radish cultivars of Raphanus sativus grow to the size of grapefruit. Round black are best for storing and all varieties red and yellow are prone to bolting unless sown after mid-summer.
Sweet potato Beauregard has been cultivated for UK growing and is available from Marshalls, Thompson Morgan and others. Protect from frost. Tubers tend to be smaller Sweet Potato ‘T65’. They have salmon-orange flesh and a sweet flavour.
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