[TTG]

Has anyone grown some of these? Scorzonera is a tough black skinned root vegetable I believe similar to salsify although not the same species. I've heard its main commercial production is in Belgium and neighbouring countries. I just wondered what it was like to grow and what it tastes like. I've heard you can boil it in the skin then peel it afterwards. You can peel first but it has a sticky latex type of stuff that forms once you peel it. Cooking it first stops this I have read somewhere.

Just thought I'd ask you lot as my Grow your own book from that GW presenter from Cornwall mentions it a couple of times. It looks interesting and a strange crop to grow. NEver seen it in the grocers.

[Cavolo Nero]

Im going to give this a go too - everyone whos had them seems to rave about them. Ive heard it can be quite hard to germinate, apparently the best way is to chit them on a damp kitchen towel before planting in april. 

[Kristen]

Didn't do much for me

Salsify definitely very easy to peel after boiling - the roots are so thin that peeling (using a peeler) before cooking wastes a lot of the root - and it bleeds "latex".

Boiled and then sautéed in butter was tasty, but the yield per unit area, compared to Parsnips, is tiny and I'm not sure I will bother again.  50:50

The Scorzonera I grew had no useful flavour at all, and were no easier to peel once boiled, so pretty disappointing - unless I did something wrong. I read that you can leave them until the second year, and the roots will fatten up, so I've left half of last year's crop for next year to see if I like it any better. The roots went down to Australia, and I'm sure they are going to come back up again (Dandelion family) - so maybe I will get a 100% crop next year!

[8doubles]

I found scorzonera easy to grow but a pain to harvest as the roots go down a long way and if you leave a bit it grows again.
Tastes ok for a dandelion but i can think of better veg to grow.

Worth a try in a deep container maybe.