Salsify roots require to be prepared for use by scraping them, and then steeping in water containing a little lemon juice or vinegar. They are boiled until tender, and served with white sauce. To prepare them as the ‘Vegetable Oyster’ the roots are first boiled and allowed to get cold, then cut in slices and quickly fried in butter to a light golden brown, being dusted with salt and white pepper while cooking. Serve with crisped Parsley and sauce made with butter, flour, and the liquor from tinned or fresh oysters.
SAVOY—see page 38
Scorzonera hispanica
Scorzonera is not much grown in this country, but as it is prized on the Continent, it might be introduced to many English tables with advantage. The main point in the cultivation is to obtain large clean roots, for carelessly grown samples will be small, forked, and fibrous. Trench a piece of ground, and mix a good dressing of half-rotten manure with the bottom spit, taking care that there is none in the top spit. Make a nice seed-bed, and sow in the month of March in shallow drills fifteen inches apart, and as the plants advance thin them until they stand a foot apart in the drill. Keep the crop clean, and it will be fit for use in September. Lift as wanted in the same manner as Parsnips. Seed may also be sown in April and May.
To cook the roots they must first be scalded, then scraped and thrown into water in which there are a few drops of lemon juice. Let them remain half an hour; boil in salted water in the same way as Carrots until quite tender, and serve with white sauce. If left to get cold they can be sliced and fried in butter to make a good side dish.
SEA KALE
Crambe maritima
Many persons prefer Sea Kale to Asparagus, but the two differ so widely in flavour and general character that no comparison between them is possible. On two points, however, the advantage certainly rests with Sea Kale. It can be more easily grown, and, regarded solely as an article of food, it is the more profitable crop. This comparison has therefore a practical bearing. In forming a new garden, and in cases where it may not be possible to grow both these esculents satisfactorily, Sea Kale should have attention first, as a thing that will require but a small investment, and that will surely pay its way, with quick returns, to the general advantage of the household.
Outdoor Culture.—Sea Kale requires strong ground, fully exposed to the sun, and enriched with any good manure, that from the stable being undoubtedly the best. The most satisfactory way to begin is with well-grown roots, as they make a return at once with the least imaginable trouble. Let the ground be well dug two spits deep, and put a coat of manure between; or if it is a good substantial loam, plant without manure, and the results will be excellent. As the thriving plant covers a considerable space, and there must be a certain amount of traffic on the ground to manage it, there should be one row in the centre of a four-feet bed, with a broad alley on one side; or, better still, mark out a ten-feet space, with a three-feet alley on each side, and in this space plant three rows two and a half feet apart, and the roots one and a half to two feet apart. The planting may be done at any time after the leaves have fallen, late in autumn, and during winter and early spring. On warm, dry ground, winter planting answers perfectly, and enables the gardener to complete the task, for there is always enough to do in the spring months. But on damp ground and in exposed situations the best time to plant is the month of March. Put down the line, and open a trench one foot deep; plant the roots with their crowns two inches below the surface, filling in and treading firmly as each trench is planted. The precaution may be taken to pare off all the pointed prominent buds on each crown, as this will prevent the rise of flower-stems; but if this is neglected, the cultivator must take care to cut out all the flowering-shoots that appear, for the production of flowers will prove detrimental to the crop of Sea Kale in the following season. Our custom, when a plantation has been thus made, is to grow another crop with it the first season. The ground between the rows is marked out in narrow strips, and lightly forked over, and if a coat of rotten manure can be spared it is pricked in, and a neat seed-bed is made of every strip, eighteen to twenty-four inches wide. On this prepared bed sow Onions, Lettuces, and other light crops, and as the Sea Kale advances take care to remove whatever would interfere with their expansion, for the stolen crop should not stand in the way of that intended for permanent occupation. A crop of early Cauliflower, small Cabbage, or even Potatoes, may be taken, in which case there will be room for only one row alternately with each row of Kale, and perhaps one row also in the alleys.