It’s surprising what you can dig out of your garden at this time of year. Here you can see my recent Autumn salad harvest which includes: the blanched Endive, first Corn Salad, the last of the 4 Seasons lettuce and (amazingly) a cucumber! Not bad for a late October day. A couple of weeks ago I tied up some Endive in my first attempt at blanching - wow what a success that was? It not only worked but the plants have produced some of the best tasting Endive I’ve ever had. The shops never sell Endive by itself. Normally, the only place you’ll find it is inside bags of vacuum packed salad leaves. This has been my only experience of Endive and because of that I was under the impression that Endive was half white with green tips and tasted quite bitter. But my Endive is completely white, all the way through (after you have discarded the outer leaves), and it tastes divine! So sweet that you could eat a whole salad of nothing but Endive and not come across one bitter-tasting leaf. I’m so impressed with them that I’ll be growing more next year.
This is some of the Radicchio that I sowed back in June. It’s doing very well and turning a lovely shade of purple in the continuing cold weather. It needs a while to heart up a bit more before I harvest it. I’m guessing I will be tucking into it next month some time. I just thought I would show you how beautiful it looks in my winter garden. It really gives the whole garden a lift with it’s purple and brown leaves. As a first-time grower of Radicchio I don’t really know any recipes or good salad mixes that include Radicchio. My plan is to just chuck a few leaves into a salad and add some of my special ‘make any salad fabulous’ salad dressing - that always works! But does anyone here have some ideas on how I use Radicchio?
If your Endive is nearly ready, like mine, then it’s time to blanch some of the leaves so that they don’t taste too bitter. There are various ways to do this. Some people advocate using a plate. This is where you place a place on top of the Endive to block out the light. This works if you’re growing in your own garden however it might not be very helpful for allotment owners - if the wind doesn’t whip away your Vera Wangs then someone will. I’ve opted for the ‘tie it up nice and tight with a bit of old string’ approach. This works fine. You should have some sweet, blanched leaves in around a week. However, remember that Endive is not the type of leaf that you would make a whole salad out of - mix it with something that tastes a little milder.
