This week saw the first major cutting of a new leaf we are trialing on our Clissold site – red veined sorrel. We thought we would give it a try this year after reading about it in Charles Dowding’s Salad Leaves for All Seasons – he calls it blood-veined sorrel. It turns out, as he said it would, to be less vigorous than the broad-leaved sorrel that we normally grow. And to be honest, both Ru and I are not terribly impressed with its flavour, nor its texture. However, it is a rather fine looking leaf…
…and, thrown in amongst the other leaves in our salad bag, I think it does rather well. Annie, one of last year’s apprentices who turned up this week for the packing (thank-you Annie!), singled it out from the trough as ’such a beautiful leaf.’
To quote Dowding, it has ‘powerful citric acid bite’ and so its rather low yields turns into a bit of a benefit, as you don’t need too large a quantity in your salad bowl. Like all sorrels, it is perennial, so if you are growing it at home, you won’t have to sow it every year, unless you want new tender plants…
