Vegetable Seeds : Salad Crops other than lettuce

There's more to salad than just lettuce! We've found quite a few other easy salad plants over the years that taste great and come when lettuce isn't available.

Some suggestions? The endive is useful when the lettuce hasn't started yet, and the Land Cress makes an interesting all year round addition to your salads. The claytonia is an excellent main ingredient for winter salads, and the West Indian Gherkin in the Cucurbits section is also a prolific salad-ingredient producer. (Of course, many of these can be used cooked too - in particular the orach, sorrel, and salsola are nice that way.)

People often get in touch wanting to buy seeds as gifts. We think the salads are ideal for this.
so we offer a Salad Collection gift pack with a nice selection of different varieties.

We've always been a bit wary of some of the 'unusual edibles' people would have you try,
but all those we list here are genuinely nice and really deserve a wider audience.

This is our exciting new salad plant; we think you'll really enjoy this one. It grows very quickly with minimal effort - you only need a few plants to get lots of salad ingredients.

Claytonia is an easily grown green, with rounded crunchy leaves. Originally from North America, it has been naturalised in Europe since 1749 but is still relatively unknown for some reason.

To harvest, either pick individual leaves or whole rosettes, it is very nice and crunchy with a good flavour.

Liscari Sativa (Agretti, Salsola soda) plant picture

Salsola has a beautiful 'candelabra' shape and crisp, crunchy thin leaves. The whole plant is simply gathered in bunches when small and either boiled and eaten as a vegetable. Raw, it makes a really good addition to salads, slightly salty and crunchy.

Our original seed came from Italy, but also popular in Japan where it is used for soups. An easy plant to grow, and a great addition to the vegetable garden. Delicious, it is rarely available commercially because good seed is so hard to find.

Although the plants do get bigger later on, we think it is better to sow quite a lot and harvest young, so we give you quite a lot of seeds in the packet.

Growing it is easy. Although germination is always a bit poor, because they are not 'proper' seeds, actually little plants rolled up in a ball, but don't worry as we give you loads of seed in the packet and you will definitely get some plants from it. Too much heat actually reduces germination - so sow early undercover (up to end March), or outdoors later in the spring.

'Belleville' Leaf Sorrel
We are always surprised how few people grow sorrel, and we would encourage you to try this rather fine vegetable. Very easy to grow, producing clumps of pale green leaves with a good sharp lemon flavour - great in salads, as a lettuce substitute in sandwiches (doesn't go limp) and also very good cooked in soups and sauces.

One of the earliest green crops to start in spring and perennial - once you've got a clump going it needs no attention other than when you want to eat it. Hardy, early salad. Lemony!

Minutina (Erba Stella / Buckshorn Plantain)
An incredibly easy green that produces all season, this is the domesticated plantain.

It makes a dense clump of long leaves that are forked a bit like the horns on a deer, hence the name. The plants get to a decent size - that's a pencil for scale in the picture.

They are very nice both raw in salads and cooked. Easy – so much so that one gardening advice column said if you can’t grow this, you should give up gardening.

Very easy, great plant .

Order SaMt - (lots of seed) £1.68

'Bianca Riccia da Taglio' Salad Endive (Chicorium endivia)
Endive is in many ways easier to grow than lettuce. Pretty pale green leaves used just like oakleaf lettuce - this unique variety was bred specially for cut & come-again salad use, and does well in practically any climate. Good flavour, sow spring, summer or autumn.

Plants pictured were sown in Wales in March in a polytunnel and we really appreciated them in our spring salads!

Rare oakleaf salad endive. Especially good for very early & very late sowings.

Order SaBR - 300 seed £1.63

Note: The Pak Choi on the right is on the Oriental Vegetables pages , and is another great salad addition.

plant picture 'Golden Frill' NEW from our 2012 trials

A whole new class of vegetable here – this is a unique salad leaf from a cross between a kale and mustard.

The plants make large but delicately lacey leaves with a golden-green colour, and a sweet, but only slightly spicy flavour.

It goes well in salads as the lacey leaves add a delicate bit of ‘zing’. Can also be cooked as a green.

Great new salad ingredient .

Order OvGF - approx 200 seed £1.74

When? Sow in early spring or after midsummer for best results

'Fine Leaved' Shungiku for Salads
Shungiku is the edible chrysanthemum. Originally from Japan, it is a very easily grown plant and we think it is great added to a mixed salad. It even makes pretty yellow flowers as well as tasty leaves.

This is very popular in Japan and the far east - and related to the decorative Chrysanthemum we all know from the flowerbed. It really is nice added to a mixed salad, and also shredded in with a stir-fry.

Sown in Spring or Autumn (leaves may go bitter in the heat of mid-summer), autumn sowings can survive for a while under fleece.

You get lots of pretty yellow flowers if you let it run to seed. Very quick & easy (30 days from sowing) and good for cut & come-again.

Chrysanthemum coronarium. Nice tangy salad-addition.

Order SaFL - 300 seed £1.52

'Magentaspreen' Giant Goosefoot NEW
New for 2013 – there’s really no excuse for plain old green salads now! This is a very attractive and easily grown plant, used both for salads and cooked greens.

This variety has bright green leaves, which are frosted with a sparkly magenta colour when young. It is very pretty in salads, or you can use it as a cooked green too.

This is quite easy to grow, but it needs cool nights to germinate. Therefore early spring sowings are fine under cover, but do later sowings outdoors so they don't feel too hot.

Order SaMG - hundreds of seed £1.61

'Tarateza' Iranian Cress
Tarateza is a wild cress (lepidum latifolium) from Iran, where it is collected and used in salads. It is very similar to the cutivated cress (lepidum sativum) that we know in Europe.

When they germinate, the tiny seedlings have 3-lobed seed-leaves. It grows well here and we like it a lot!

This is seed we grew last year in Wales, from the original seed we were given which had been collected in the wild in Iran.

Order SaTa - 1g of seed £1.69

'Mild' Cultivated Rocket
If you don't know rocket, its a small salad plant with a unique taste - slightly peppery and reminiscent of sesame oil dressing. Very pleasant as long as its not too strong.

Normally Ben can't stand rocket, but this strain, which is less strong than common rocket, is really very nice! He's even been spotted pulling off leaves and munching on them absentmindedly while weeding the seedbeds . . .

Very easy to grow, sow Feb - Oct for continuous harvest. (Will need fleece protection in the winter)

Order SaRO - 2g (lots of seed) £1.73

~ ORACH ~

We think that Orach - also known as German Mountain Spinach -
is another vegetable that should really be more widely known.

It grows quickly early in the year, supplying large quantities of mild heart-shaped leaves
with a pleasant flavour and texture.
They are great as a major ingredient in salads, and it is also really nice cooked .

Magenta Magic Orach

Orach grows quickly early in the year, supplying tender heart-shaped leaves, or delicious cooked. This variety has deep purple leaves that look great in the garden and on the table.

You sow the funny disc-like seed from May onwards, for harvest over the summer.The plants grow to 1m tall (looking very pretty) , but are better picked when smaller as they are nice and tender when young.

Deep Purple-red.

Order SaMO - about 150 seed £1.80

'Green and Gold' Orach

This is a bright and lively mix of two orachs - the Green Velvet and the new Golden Orach. Both are from salad breeder Frank Morton.

Orach is really great in salads, and also cooked too.

The disc-like seed is sown from May onwards, for harvest over the summer.

Glowing green and gold leaves, with a good flavour. Specially selected for organic conditions and growing by hand on small plots.

Order SaGG - about 150 seed £1.80

~ CRESS for salad or cooking ~

There are two types of 'Cress' that you grow at different times of the year.

(A) Cold-resistant, Autumn-sown Land Cress:

Land Cress
Land Cress is mainly used in salads, but is also be eaten cooked as 'creasy greens'.

This is useful all year round salad plant that forms small rosettes of lobed green leaves. The leaves have a crunchy texture, with a slightly spicy watercress flavour. Definitely a good addition to early and late salads! If given some protection (eg fleece), it will maintain supplies throughout the winter. We like to always have some on the go throughout the year.

Slightly spicy salad for all year use

When? It can be sown at pretty much any time but is best known for its incredible cold-resistance. It is therefore best sown in August for supplies of greens over the winter. You can try in spring too if you like.

Catherine said that this was her best salad crop in the very cold winter a couple of years back - it sat under 2 inches of snow without suffering at all, and was still thriving in Mid March.

Order SaLC - 2g of seed - £1.65

(B) Spring-sown Garden Cress:

'Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled' Cress
A fun summer crop that looks pretty in the garden and really lifts a green salad.

This variety was bred for its uniquely ruffled leaves which also look lovely on the plate. It also gives a nice 'bite' to the flavour of a salad, especially with a garlic dressing.

This species (Lepidium sativum) is the cress of 'mustard and cress' that you may have sprouted as a child.

Spicy salad for summer use

Order SaWC - 1.5g of seed £1.51

When? Sow from early to mid spring, or try early autumn under cover - summer sowings will run straight to seed.

~ CHICORY ~

This year we have added a whole range of new chicories that you can add to your salads for extra colour and flavour.
Chicory is very hardy, and quite versatile - it can be boiled, sautéed or used raw in salads.

'Puntarella di Galatina' Chicory
This ancient and bizzare heirloom from Catalogna is a unique variant of chicory. It makes a really big head of fat, bulbous leaf-stalks all clustered around each other, looking a bit like a pine-cone. There's nothing else quite like it.

If you harvest these bits carefully, cutting just above the ground, and leaving the base of the plant intact, then it often sprouts back for you to collect more later.

You can just slice and add to your salad, or cook the heads and serve as a green. But the traditional recipie for "puntarelle alla romana" is to take the bulbous shoots and slice them finely lengthways. Soak them in cold water and they open out to make little green flower-shapes. Then drizzle them with olive oil, vinegar, and shredded anchovies, served as a salad. Mmmmm...

Order SaPu - 2g (lots of seed) £1.49

'Frastagliate' Tall Leaf Chicory
The name of this versatile chicory means 'jagged leaf' or 'toothed' and it indeed has big clumps of tall bright green leaves with heavily indented edges. It is really easy, can be grown pretty much year round and is used both cooked and in salads.

Order SaFr - 2g (lots of seed) £1.49

"Capotta' Green Headimg Chicory
This unusual chicory has been selected to make nice round heads of closely wrapped pale green leaves, very much like a small heading lettuce, but of course hardier. Also known as the Mantovana Chicory.

The heads are harvested when about tennis-ball sized and should be self-blanching. If you prefer a milder flavour they are sliced thinly and soaked in ice-cold water for a while before use.

Order SaCa - 2g (lots of seed) £1.49

"Palla Rossa" Red Heading Chicory
This popular, tried and tested normal chicory has been chosen for its nice round red heads and bright white ribs.

It is a modern reselection of the traditional Palla Rossa variety - it starts out as an open shape but then heads up later into a tight ball.

Note that it is only a proper deep red colour in cool weather conditions, in the autumn. If grown in hot weather it stays green.

Order SaPR - 2g (lots of seed) £1.49

"Trieste Sweet" Sugar-Loaf Chicory
'Sugarloaf' types of chicory make an upright head much like a cos lettuce. It is therefore self-blanching , the pale inner heart leaves are less bitter.

Order SaTS - 2g (lots of seed) £1.49

Wonderful Salad Plants

~ ORACH ~