Growing lots of lovely, flavoursome leaves is the starting point for phenomenal summer salads, and picking them regularly while the leaves are young is the second key! But don’t forget that it’s those little added flourishes that turn a simple salad into a sensational salad…that’s why we add herbs and edible flowers…
What to grow:
Get a good mixture of different flavours and leaf shapes, and don’t just go for leaves – be sure to grow edible flowers and lots of herbs too. This is our ideal combination:
- Wild Rocket (punchy peppery flavour)
- Mizuna (looks great, tastes great)
- Frills Mustard (adds that mustardy heat)
- Red Veined Sorrel (for its sharp lemony flavour)
- Leaf Beet Bulls Blood (beautiful red colour and earthy flavour)
- Lettuce (choose 2 or three different varieties)
- Endives (lovely frilly leaves!)
- Chives (You can pull apart the flower heads and add them for a splash of pink and oniony flavour)
- Chervil (adds a slightly aniseed like flavour)
- Borage (pick off the blue flowers and add them for cooling, cucumber-like flavours)
- Calendula (pick off the orange petals and sprinkle them into salads – looks fab!)
- Violas (so pretty! You have to add these!!)
Harvesting:
Leaves are best picked while they are still young and flavoursome, plus they look so much better too. Try to pick the outer leaves of young plants regularly to keep the baby leaves coming through for a whole summer of salads.
Pick flowers in the morning, when they are at their most open (they do this to attract the bees!). You can pop them in a tupperware box in the fridge and they’ll stay pretty fresh looking all day.