Unusual Vegetable Plants

Salsify - (Tragopogon Porrifolius) and Scorzonera - (Scorzonera Hispanica)

These vegetables have been around for centuries, but are rarely grown in the UK. Salsify and Scorzonera both look a little like a long thin Parsnip, (up to a foot or more in length) but Scorzonera has a black skin and both are said to have a superior flavour to parsnips. Salsify has the common name of the “Oyster Plant,” because it is said to have a taste reminiscent of oysters and the "flesh" is slightly rubbery.

As with nearly all  root vegetables they both need good, deep, stone free soil that has NOT recently been manured. The seed of both plants should be sown directly in the site where they are to be grown and you should not try to transplant young seedlings even when thinning. If plants are disturbed their roots will split and fork the same as other roots like carrots will. Both Scorzonera and Salsify have few pests, but they do need regular watering to produce decent roots to harvest.  Salsify and Scorzonera can both be harvested in late Autumn and stored like Carrots, but unlike most vegetables they can actually be left in the ground all over winter and dug up at any time as required until the Spring when they would start shooting again if left and go to seed.

Uses in the kitchen are really the same as most other root vegetables as they can be added to stews, baked or boiled and pureed. The "purists," believe the best way to serve them is to scrub them and chop them into 2 inch lengths before boiling in their skins for some 20 minutes. Then instead of peeling them the "flesh," can be literally "squeezed," out of the skins while still warm, much as you might peel a cooked beetroot fresh from the pan. The Scorzonnera should then be popped back into boiling water for a minute to re-warm it, before having a little melted butter drizzled onto it and then served hot.