Salsify Sandwich Island

Description

Salsify Sandwich Island

Salsify Sandwich Island. Grown for its long white root, this is a popular continental vegetable, often referred to as ‘vegetable oyster’ rarely seen in UK supermarkets. It has a very distinctive and pleasant sweetish mild flavour totally different from any other vegetable. Many prefer salsify to oysters. The soup from which gives off an odour and flavour exactly the same as oysters, and by some liked better than oyster soup. Produces large 8″ long by 2″ wide salsify roots with grass like leaves. Cultivation and growing requirements are similar to beetroot. Slice and fry or boil until tender or use in soups and pies, it is an ingredient often used in classic French cuisine.

Cultivation Advice

• Sow seeds in situ in Spring from the last frost onwards when the ground has warmed up.
• Sow 1cm deep in rows 30cm apart.
• Thin seedlings to 8cm apart.
• They take a long time to germinate – up to 21 days.
• Since they are a root crop, they prefer deep, stone-free soil.
• The seeds frequently fail if they are not kept consistently moist until the seedlings are established.
• Commence harvest in 16 to 25 weeks.
• The roots are hardy and can be left in the ground until April.
• As a biennial salsify flowers and goes to seed the second year.