Salsify & Scorzonera

[Chickenlady]

I was a vegetarian for years, but never got over the flatulence problem!! I don't eat much meat now, but find I do have to limit the amount of pulse type foods I eat (if I want to stay married, anyway...too much information???)

[hedgewizard]

Chickenlady you might be deficient in an enzyme involved in bean digestion... don't ask me what, I happily forgot all that kind of stuff years ago, but I know it's possible. I never have any problem with beans but love watching the rest of the family squirm when we eat them

Lentils, now... I ate three side-portions of dhaal 'cos no-one else liked it. Never again. Ever wished you weren't in the same room as yourself?

[kevin m.]

Isn't the herb 'Summer Savoury' supposed to help with the problem of ahem, 'Wind Production'?
There has to be a joke about 'Greenhouse Gasses' here somewhere!

[ina]

Lentils, now... I ate three side-portions of dhaal 'cos no-one else liked it. Never again. Ever wished you weren't in the same room as yourself?

Was it the type with garlic? It might have been that as well as the lentils... Dhal is generally made with the red lentils, and they don't usually produce as much wind as, for example, the continental lentils.

Summer savoury is used with beans (but the green variety!) in Germany, where it is called "bean herb" (in German, of course!). We also use other herbs to avoid flatulence such as caraway in cabbage and neeps. You could always drink a cup of aniseed tea afterwards...

[hedgewizard]

Where's the fun in that?

[ina]

There's that point of view, of course... Depends on how much you like yourself, or your family and friends! I rather like the taste of caraway, for me it belongs to cabbage like in the UK mint sauce belongs to lamb (which in Germany nobody can understand - mint is drunk as tea, and that's about it!). Similarly I was always looking for the bean herb - until I worked on a germination trial which used summer savoury amongst other herbs. Bingo, I had my year's supply!

[Millymollymandy]

I put caraway seeds in (or on) my bread. I like the taste of it. Never thought about cooking it with cabbage - though I think that nutmeg goes nicely with cabbage. And fennel seeds are used in some Indian cooking with veg - particularly spinach dishes.

[Cheezy]

Bit out of date but, my salsify is well up an well I wondered when I can crop it.

I got my seeds from....yes you guessed it :

www.seedsofitaly.com

Any advice. I heard its like parsnip so you crop late autumn/winter?

[supersprout]

Hi cheezy, I grow both salsify and scorzonera.

I find salsify incredibly useful - depending when you planted it (Feb-July) you can crop from September through to May! If it runs to flower, you have lovely blue flowers to attract bees (and admiring glances) early in the year. Tastes nothing like oysters more like a delicate un-smoky Jerusalem artichoke to me

This year when I couldn't grow a carrot to save my life, salsify restored Morale

Scorzonera is a little more faff IMO too - digging up the root can be a challenge as it grows so long, and scrubbing whip-like roots isn't my idea of fun (you don't peel it cos most of the flavour is in the skin). The bonus with scorzy is the flower buds - if you pick them young and cook briefly in olive oil, you'll be in for a treat!

[hedgewizard]

SOLD to the man with the curly teeth. I'm going to try that next year!

[digiveg]

Me, too - until now I thought that scorzonera was some kind of medieval punishment in Palermo. I like the sound of the flowers, too.

[Millymollymandy]

I think I might be tempted too! I've had tinned salsify which is quite nice and anything that tastes like Jerusalem Artichoke would be great as long as it doesn't churn up your guts! Or does it?

[Millymollymandy]

See what happens when you can't scroll back to the first page? You just repeat yourself and end up talking a load of old rubbish.

So it does makes you fart. Oh forget it then!

[hedgewizard]

Done some more reading - you have to eat a little early in the season and build up to a full portion, to train your gut bacteria to digest the inulin without producing methane. It's the same compound that's in jersusalem chokes btw, so you could do the same there too.

[Wombat]

Well done hedgie!

Nev