(Glebionis coronaria) Shungiku (春菊) is the Japanese name for edible chrysanthemum; it is also called tong hao (茼蒿) in Chinese and cải cúc or tần ô in Vietnamese. The English name is garland. In any language, it is a green with a strong, nutty, slightly bitter flavour, which is good raw or blanched in salads, stir fries and soup. It is quite cold-hardy, and the flowers are beautiful.
(Plantago major) (Not germination tested*) Diminutive herbaceous perennial. Native to Eurasia, but widespread in North America. The leaves are edible (young raw, old stewed) and highly nutritious.. The husks substitute decently for psyllium husk for mucilage production in low/no-gluten baking. Has been used medicinally. Plantain is tough – can take mowing, trampling, and compacted soils, so good for abused land. 5000 seeds/packet. *Wildflower seeds tend to have a high proportion…
(Lactuca sativa) A cold-hardy, slow-bolting lettuce; forms loose heads/ lots of close-set leaves which are light green with faintly bronzed margins as they mature.
(Cichorium endiva) Looks like a giant dandelion, but tastes much better! The name is descriptive; it is like a ‘little cardoon” and comes from Bari, Italy. Cold hardy and slow bolting annual; when it does bolt, the side branches can be eaten, sort of like a cross between escarole and celery. An interesting mix of bitter and sweet.
(Hablitzia tamnoides) A most interesting perennial green, because it combines a pleasant flavour and shade tolerance. Hablitzia (we always refer to it by its Latin genus name) is a vine, which sends out many shoots in the spring. You can eat some of the shoots or allow them to grow and pick individual leaves for eating. The taste is like mild spinach, and it can be eaten raw or cooked.…
(Cichorium endiva) Crisp, juicy heads have a pleasant touch of bitterness. Escarole is ideal for autumnal salads; as frost begins and lettuce quits, it takes over to extend the salad season. Cornet de la Loire develops large, upright heads when summer sown for fall eating, and loose leaves with no head when spring planted.
(Lactuca sativa) An oakleaf lettuce bred by Frank Morton from a cross between ‘Blushed Butter Oak’ and ‘Deer Tongue’. Excellent flavour and texture, and partial heading at maturity. OSSI Pledged.
(Brassica carinata) Also called Abyssinian mustard or texsel greens, this is a different species from our regular kales. It is more heat tolerant and has slightly thicker and milder leaves which stay tender even as the plant bolts, making it ideal for salads or for cooking. Its only downside is relatively small leaves, 3-4” long and wide. Ethiopian kale is also used as an oilseed; happily for seed savers, it…
(Lactuca sativa) A dramatically colourful lettuce bred by Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seeds, this is the result of a cross between ‘Flashy Troutback’ and ‘Emerald Oak.’ Slow to bolt and, if you can bring yourself to devour such a showy plant, delicious. OSSI pledged.
(Petroselinum crispum) Tightly curled, finely cut frilly leaves on strong stems. An excellent, productive and delicious parsley with impressive cold-hardiness; we have kept harvesting even when we have to dig down through the snow to find the plants! It makes an excellent winter salad when great quantities are paired with shredded kohlrabi (about 1/3 parsley and 2/3 kohlrabi).
(Rumex acetosa) A perennial with succulent leaves which can be treated as an herb; but we mostly like to add it to salads in more substantial quantities for its acidic, lemony bite. Produces leaves early in the spring, then bolts for seed, and then has a second flush of leaves in the fall, helping to extend the fresh greens season on both ends. Readily self-seeds, so if you don’t want…
(Chenopodium spp. [mostly C. album]) (Not germination tested*) Many people consider this a weed. It is admittedly self-seeding, prolific, and fast growing. But we love to eat it until we turn green and lambsquarters is an annual which is easy to kill by hoeing, so we look at it as a wonderfully easy-to-grow food rather than a weed! We basically always eat it blanched and drained to leach the anti-nutritional…
(Lactuca sativa) My mother likes red lettuce. Very red lettuce; the darker, the better, in her opinion. She insisted that we grow this one. A leaf lettuce with crinkled, deep red leaves, Merlot bolts slowly and is a beautiful addition to salads.
(Brassica juncea) A mustard grex from Annapolis Seeds, this is ideal for autumnal salads – more cold-hardy than lettuce, with a spicy bite and a fascinating range of shapes and colours.
[Beta vulgaris] – Also called spinach beet, this chard dates back to the 1700s. It has been our family’s main spinach substitute for years. It has nearly all of spinach’s advantages, with none of its downsides: nutritious, good in salads or as a cooked green, but with a slightly milder flavour and larger leaves. The crucial advantage is that the plants don’t bolt in their first summer, because, like beets,…
(Valerianella locusta) An extremely cold-hardy salad green which stays green right through the winter in our garden, corn salad’s main downside is that it has tiny leaves – not easy to harvest enough for a salad, especially if you’re rooting around in the snow for it! Piedmont has larger leaves than most – up to 4”. Corn salad readily self-seeds, so if you let it mature once you’ll have it…
(Brassica napus) Very similar to Red Russian, but with slightly larger plants. This kale is very cold hardy. We overwintered it in the garden, and cold did not appear to trouble it – though the deer did; if you have deer where you live, take precautions! I was intrigued by this kale because in the spring of its second year it bolts later than most kales, providing a source of…
(Sanguisorba minor) Delicate little green gives a fine, cucumber-like flavour to salads in spring – months before you could possibly have cucumbers. Cold-hardy, self-seeding and beautiful, this could also make an interesting ornamental for places where a small plant with subtle beauty of form is preferred to a splash of colour.
(Celosia argentea) Also called Lagos spinach, this West African cooking green is very similar to amaranth. However, unlike the leaf amaranths, it does not suffer from Phomopsis amaranthicola, a disease which in some parts of North America abruptly kills them in late summer. It is also beautiful; the popular ornamental flower cockscomb is simply a different selection of this species.
(Brassica rapa) Tat soi is a wonderful plant from East Asia. It is our family’s favourite cooking green for growing in the late fall and early spring because it thrives in cold weather and stays very short, ideally suited for overwintering in our cold frames. Instead of growing up, these non-heading relatives of pak choi/bok choy grow out, with spreading circles of small, tender dark green leaves. In a fun…
(Lepidium sativum) A garden cress with a powerful, distinctive bite, best described by comparing it to an alligator in a turbid river (not in a negative way, of course!). Bred by Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seeds from a cross between ‘Persian’ and ‘Curly’ cress, this is apparently his most popular introduction. OSSI pledged.
