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Wonderful Salad Plants All the lettuces are together on another page. But 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. 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 Salsola Soda is very nice raw in salads, and the West Indian Gherkin in the Cucurbits section is also a prolific salad-ingredient producer. Of course, many of these can be cooked too - in particular the orach, sorrel, and salsola are nice that way. We've always been a bit wary of some of the 'unusual edibles' people would have you try, but those we list here are genuinely nice and really deserve a wider audience.     Liscari Sativa (Salsola soda) 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. Order LGSA - 5g of freshly harvested seed sorry - sold out now until new harvest in december 2008   '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! Hardy, early salad or cooking leaf green, very easy to grow. Order SoBE - 1.5g (lots of seed) £1.54 '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 non-bitter flavour, sow spring, summer or autumn. This is the left-hand (pale green) row in the picture. The right-hand crop is baby pak choi. Both 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. Salad Endive: Order SaBR - 300 seed £1.30 Note: The Pak Choi on the right is OvWP in the Oriental Vegetables, and is another great salad addition.   '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 10 times 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) £1.32 ~ 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 spinach-shaped leaves with a pleasant flavour and texture. They are great as a major ingredient in salads, or cooked like any of the other greens here. 'Magenta Magic' Orach A new orach variety found by plant breeder and collector John Navazio, this is really vigorous and has intensely purple leaves that look great in the garden and on the table. The disc-like seed is sown from May onwards, for harvest over the summer. Plants grow to 1m tall (looking very pretty) , but are better picked when smaller as they are nice and tender when young. Deep Purple. Specially selected for organic conditions and growing by hand on small plots. Order SaMO - lots of seed [CO1] £1.50 'Green and Gold' Orach This is a bright and lively mix of two orachs - the Green Velvet (pictured) 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 180 seed [CO1] £1.67 ~ CRESS for salad or cooking ~ Note: There are two different plants called 'Cress'. They have the same uses, but grow at different times of the year. 'Belle Isle' Land Cress - for WINTER HARVEST Land Cress is mainly used in salads, but is also be eaten cooked as 'creasy greens'. This strain has dark green leaves, and the story goes that it is named after an island where Portugese sailers were shipwrecked in the 17th century - they survived by eating the cress and still liked it so much they brought the seed back with them. 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 even maintain supplies throughout the winter. We like to always have some on the go throughout the year. Slightly spicy salad for all year use, certified organic seed Order SaBi - [CO1] £1.25 When? It can be sown at pretty much any time but is best known for its 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. 'Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled' Garden Cress - for SUMMER HARVEST 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 , certified organic seed Order SaWC - 2g of seed [CO1] £1.25 When? Sow from early to mid spring, or try early autumn under cover - summer sowings will run straight to seed. 'Persian Broadleaf' Garden Cress (Lepidum sativum ) - for SUMMER HARVEST This is again the cress of 'mustard and cress' - species Lepidum sativum, like the Wrinkled Crinkled above, and is again for summer harvest. We offer this one - an Iranian variety selected by Tom Dennison - because it has longer leaves than normal (2 to 6 inches) with indentations along the edges. Try it not only in salads and sandwiches, but also in soups! Spicy salad for summer use Order SaPB - 2g of seed [CO1] - £1.25 When? Sow in spring, or try early autumn under cover - summer sowings will run straight to seed.