Brushing the foliage releases the scents, so plant them close to where you entertain.
Most successful plants are what you think of as herbs: mint, basil, lemon scented verbena, sage.
Plant them right around the area where you sit and enjoy your garden so they act as a buffer zone between you and the insects.
- You need an armarment of plants between you and the invading hordes.
If you want to know more or if you have any questions about plants to deter mosquitos, why not email
realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.
VEGETABLE HEROES
Chicory! Cichorium intybus
Have you ever eaten chicory?
- What do you do with it other than give it to
your chooks? Apparently the leaf chicory is very good for
them?
Did you know that there’s actually two types of
chicory, both of which are considered a vegetable?
There’s the leafy type and the one where the
tap root is used more.
But let’s begin with some interesting facts.
- Chicory comes from the daisy or Asteraceae
family, and like dandelion, chicory has been grown since ancient times as a pot
herb.
- A pot herb is one you put in a pot along with
your meats and vegetables and cook together for a while-usually a long while.
Chicory is most likely native to the
Mediterranean region and it’s an interesting plant because it’s been used in
coffee substitutes and additives where the roots were baked and ground.
You probably didn’t realise that Chicory used
as a coffee substitute during the Great Depression in the 1930s and during
World War II in Continental Europe.
- Do you realise that if you’ve ever drunk a
coffee substitute, like Caro, then you’ve drunk roasted chicory root?
Some beer brewers even use roasted chicory to
add flavour to stouts.Some other beer brewers have added it to strong
blond Belgian-style ales, to add flavour to the hops, making a
"witlofbier", from the Dutch name for the plant.
- So how come chicory can be used as a coffee
substitute?
Chicory contains two polysaccharide, inulin and
fructose.
When these are roasted, inulin is converted to something
called oxymethylfurfurol, OXY-METH-OL-FUR-FUR-OL and this gives off that
coffee-like aroma.
- Did you know that the first person to grow and
process chicory in Australasia was Edwin William Trent (1839 - 1883)?
Eddy or Edwin, operated a steam coffee mill in
Nelson in New Zealand, and later moved to Christchurch where he established the
first steam coffee mill in Australasia in1863.
Did you also know that Chicory, or Cichorium
intybus, was grown as a crop on Phillip Island for nearly 100 years from the
1870s?
- If you’ve visited Philip Island you’ll see some
unusual small brick towers dotted about the island.These are chicory kilns, once used in drying
chicory dock – a parsnip-like underground root of the Chicory plant that was
grown widely in Phillip Island’s rich volcanic soil.
Are you thinking, I’m not going to bother
drying and roasting the chicory root, what on earth do I need to grow this
ahem, vegetable?
Here’s the reason: Chicory is actually a
nutritious food.
The leaves of the chicory plant can be eaten in
salads to add flavour and crunch.
They can also be lightly roasted in olive oil.
You can buy seeds of Chicory “Red Dandelion:
this plant has red stems with deeply cut frilly deep green leaves.
As a microgreen or ‘baby leaf’ this variety adds
great flavour to salads and it’s a colourful addition to any mesclun mix.
If you get the red variety, it’s one of the few
red leafy vegetables that keeps the crimson colour when cooked.
Chicory
‘Red Palla Rossa’ is a small
heading chicory, 8 - 10 cm across .
The bright red, very tight heads have prominent
white midribs. It has a slightly bitter, tart taste.
As a ‘baby leaf’ they add great flavour to
salads.
There’s also the coffee chicory plant or
Chicory Coffee 'Magdeburg' which also has the same botanical name of Cichorium
intybus.
So What Is Chicory Plant?
This chicory is also a frost hardy plant but with
a long taproot topped by a whorl of oblong, broadly toothed, milky-sapped
leaves.
The flowers are on top of 1 ½ metre tall,
zig-zagging flowering stems with a few sparsely placed leaves and lots of
sky-blue to purple flowers.
Flowering is mostly in summer and the 50
cent-sized flowers open at the beginning of the day but close as the heat
becomes intense.
Chicory plants flower for several months and
the flower looks quite a lot like a purply-blue dandelion flower.
Like dandelion, the seeds are spread by wind.
Also, like dandelion, the leaves are concentrated
in a whorl, just above the soil surface.
If you really wanted to you could dry and roast
the roots, then grind them for a coffee substitute.
The leaves and young roots can also be cooked
as vegetables.
The roots can grow up to 30 cm long and weigh as
much as 1 kg.
The one I have in my garden has been there for
over a year so I’m guessing that it’s going to have a heavy large underground
root.
Chicory is a hardy vegetable and frost tolerant
but does wilt a bit on hot days.
It’s a useful cool season crop to add interest
to winter salads.
To grow the leafy Chicory, for sub-tropical
areas, April to June is the time to sow, in Temperate areas March until May, for
Arid areas June to August, and Cool temperate districts, sow late summer to mid-autumn.
- In all cases sow the seeds directly where they
are to grow.
So to grow Chicory you need a well- drained,
deep soil.
Chicory will also grow on heavier soils as long
as they’re not likely to get waterlogged for extended periods.
- Are
you wondering if Chicory is just as weedy as Dandelions?
It’s unlikely to become a weed since plants
tend be short lived.
If
you’re growing the coffee chicory, the fleshy taproot of the first year’s
growth is dug up in winter, dried, ground and roasted.
(Roast
the roots on low heat (around 250 C) until crisp, then grind with a little
roasted barley (around 400F or so) for a wholesome coffee substitute.
It
contains no caffeine and just adds bulk to coffee, although its bitter flavour
can give bland coffee a bit more "bite".)
- Here’s
an interesting fact: Coffee is
readily available now in all types of strengths but until the 1960s, before
instant coffee was invented, coffee and chicory essence was a popular
alternative to using roasted coffee beans.
- Do you remember that thick black liquid with a
very distinctive attractive aroma and sold in squarish bottles with a blue
label? It was often drunk with sweetened condensed
milk.
Why
is Chicory, good for you?
One of the major functions of chicory is to
increase the body’s ability to absorb calcium.
The leafy greens of chicory are a good source
of calcium and vitamin K;
They also contain folate and like other green vegetables
chicory contains good amounts of
potassium.
Chicory is also good for the digestion, and the
circulatory system.
From an agricultural point of view, Chicory is
used as a short and medium term forage, and is an alternative to lucerne in
areas where soils may be too acid for lucerne. Tolerates a pH down to 4.2
AND THAT WAS OUR VEGETABLE HERO SEGMENT FOR
TODAY
