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Wonderful Salad Plants There's more to salad than just lettuce! We've found quite a few other easy salad plants over the years that taste great and come when lettuce isn't available. Some suggestions? The endive is useful when the lettuce hasn't started yet, and the Land Cress makes an interesting all year round addition to your salads. The Salsola Soda is very nice raw in salads, and the West Indian Gherkin in the Cucurbits section is also a prolific salad-ingredient producer. (Of course, many of these can be used cooked too - in particular the orach, sorrel, and salsola are nice that way.) If you're having trouble deciding which salad plants to try, then its worth knowing that we also offer a collection of different salad seed packets all bundled together in one package. We've always been a bit wary of some of the 'unusual edibles' people would have you try, but all those we list here are genuinely nice and really deserve a wider audience. Liscari Sativa (Salsola soda) Salsola has a beautiful 'candelabra' shape and crisp, crunchy thin leaves. The whole plant is simply gathered in bunches when small and either boiled and eaten as a vegetable. Raw, it makes a really good addition to salads, slightly salty and crunchy. Our original seed came from Italy, but also popular in Japan where it is used for soups. An easy plant to grow, and a great addition to the vegetable garden. Delicious, it is rarely available commercially because good seed is so hard to find. Although the plants do get bigger later on, we think it is better to sow quite a lot and harvest young, so we give you quite a lot of seeds in the packet. Seed is only available from December to March each year (it does not keep) sorry, sold out until new crop in December 2010 Claytonia a.k.a. "Miners Lettuce' or 'Winter Purslane' NEW This is our exciting new salad plant for 2010; we think you'll really enjoy this one. It grows very quickly with minimal effort - you only need a few plants to get lots of salad ingredients. Claytonia is a really easily grown green, with rounded crunchy leaves, is an old favourite. Originally from North America but has been naturalised in Europe since 1749. The leaves and stems are great raw, & also nice cooked. To use it, pick individual leaves or whole rosettes. Very easy to grow, works really well in a tunnel or greenhouse. Order SaCL - 1g (hundreds of seeds!) £1.59 'Belleville' Leaf Sorrel We are always surprised how few people grow sorrel, and we would encourage you to try this rather fine vegetable. Very easy to grow, producing clumps of pale green leaves with a good sharp lemon flavour - great in salads, as a lettuce substitute in sandwiches (doesn't go limp) and also very good cooked in soups and sauces. One of the earliest green crops to start in spring and perennial - once you've got a clump going it needs no attention other than when you want to eat it. Hardy, early salad. Lemony! Hardy, early salad or cooking leaf green, very easy to grow. Order SoBE - 1.5g (lots of seed) £1.67 'Bianca Riccia da Taglio' Salad Endive (Chicorium endivia) Endive is in many ways easier to grow than lettuce. Pretty pale green leaves used just like oakleaf lettuce - this unique variety was bred specially for cut & come-again salad use, and does well in practically any climate. Good flavour, sow spring, summer or autumn. This is the left-hand (pale green) row in the picture. The right-hand crop is baby pak choi. Both were sown in Wales in March in a polytunnel and we really appreciated them in our spring salads! Rare oakleaf salad endive. Especially good for very early & very late sowings. Salad Endive: Order SaBR - 300 seed £1.48 Note: The Pak Choi on the right is on the Oriental Vegetables pages , and is another great salad addition. 'Fine Leaved' Shungiku for Salads We love increasing our collection of nice salad ingredients and have now added 'Shungiku' - otherwise known as edible-leaved-chrysanthemum. This is very popular in Japan and the far east - a really easily grown plant (related to the decorative Chrysanthemum we all know from the flowerbed) and we think it is great added to a mixed salad. Very quick & easy (30 days from sowing) and good for cut & come-again. Grow in Spring or Autumn (gets bitter in mid-summer), autumn sowings can survive for a while under fleece. You even get pretty little yellow flowers if you let it run to seed. Chrysanthemum coronarium. Tangy salad-addition. Order SaFL - 300 seed £1.38 'Mild' Cultivated Rocket If you don't know rocket, its a small salad plant with a unique taste - slightly peppery and reminiscent of sesame oil dressing. Very pleasant as long as its not too strong. Normally Ben can't stand rocket, but this strain, which is 10 times less strong than common rocket, is really very nice! He's even been spotted pulling off leaves and munching on them absentmindedly while weeding the seedbeds . . . Very easy to grow, sow Feb - Oct for continuous harvest. (Will need fleece protection in the winter) Order SaRO - 2g (lots of seed) £1.43 ~ ORACH ~ We think that Orach - also known as German Mountain Spinach - is another vegetable that should really be more widely known. It grows quickly early in the year, supplying large quantities of mild heart-shaped leaves with a pleasant flavour and texture. They are great as a major ingredient in salads, and it is really nice cooked . 'Magenta Magic' Orach A new orach variety found by plant breeder and collector John Navazio, this is really vigorous and has intensely purple leaves that look great in the garden and on the table. The disc-like seed is sown from late April onwards, for harvest over the summer. Plants grow to 1m tall (looking very pretty) , but are better picked when smaller as they are nice and tender when young. Deep Purple. Specially selected for organic conditions and growing by hand on small plots. Order SaMO - lots of seed [CO1] £1.74 'Green and Gold' Orach This is a bright and lively mix of two orachs - the Green Velvet and the new Golden Orach. Both are from salad breeder Frank Morton. Orach is really great in salads, and also cooked too. The disc-like seed is sown from May onwards, for harvest over the summer. Glowing green and gold leaves, with a good flavour. Specially selected for organic conditions and growing by hand on small plots. Order SaGG - about 180 seed [CO1] £1.69 ~ CRESS for salad or cooking ~ There are two types of 'Cress' that you grow at different times of the year. (A) Cold-resistant, Autumn-sown Land Cress: Land Cress Land Cress is mainly used in salads, but is also be eaten cooked as 'creasy greens'. This is useful all year round salad plant that forms small rosettes of lobed green leaves. The leaves have a crunchy texture, with a slightly spicy watercress flavour. Definitely a good addition to early and late salads! If given some protection (eg fleece), it will maintain supplies throughout the winter. We like to always have some on the go throughout the year. Slightly spicy salad for all year use, certified organic seed When? It can be sown at pretty much any time but is best known for its incredible cold-resistance. It is therefore best sown in August for supplies of greens over the winter. You can try in spring too if you like. Catherine says that this was her best salad crop this winter - it sat under 2 inches of snow without suffering at all, and is still thriving in Mid March. Order SaLC - 2g of seed - £1.39   Land Cress variety 'Belle Isle' (Barbarea verna) Land Cress can be sown at pretty much any time but is best known for its incredible cold-resistance. It is therefore best sown in August for supplies of greens over the winter. This particular variety is named after an island where some Portugese sailors were shipwrecked in the 17th century. They survived on the cress they found there and took seed home with them when rescued (Must be good, otherwise you'd think they would have tired of it by then, surely?) Spicy salad for all year use Order SABI - [CO1] - £1.39 (limited availability this year - order early!) (B) Spring-sown Garden Cress: 'Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled' Cress A fun summer crop that looks pretty in the garden and really lifts a green salad. This variety was bred for its uniquely ruffled leaves which also look lovely on the plate. It also gives a nice 'bite' to the flavour of a salad, especially with a garlic dressing. This species (Lepidium sativum) is the cress of 'mustard and cress' that you may have sprouted as a child. Spicy salad for summer use , certified organic seed Order SaWC - 2g of seed [CO1] £1.39 When? Sow from early to mid spring, or try early autumn under cover - summer sowings will run straight to seed. 'Persian Broadleaf' Garden Cress (Lepidum sativum ) This is again the cress of 'mustard and cress' - and is for summer harvest. We offer this one - an Iranian variety selected by Tom Dennison - because it has longer leaves than normal (2 to 6 inches) with indentations along the edges. Try it not only in salads and sandwiches, but also in soups! Spicy salad for summer use Order SaPB - 2g of seed [CO1] - £1.39 When? Sow in spring, or try early autumn under cover - summer sowings will run straight to seed.