CHICORY



The chicory is also called "blue dandelion," and once you see the early leaves you'll understand why. They do bear a resemblance to its cousin, the dandelion. The early leaves can be eaten like dandelion leaves in salads.

Gather them early though. Once the flower stem appears in mid-spring, the taste turns bitter. Some people alleviate the bitterness by cooking them in two changes of water and eating them as a cooked green. But I'm pretty sure that will boil away all the vitamins too, so I've never tried it.

Many sources will tell you the flowers are also edible, raw or cooked. I've tried them, so you don't have to. They taste terrible. I suppose, if you had to, you could mix them in batter and fry them like fritters, but again I've never tried it.

The real treat though, is chicory coffee. gather the long taproots from late fall to early spring. Roast them in an over at 250 degrees for anywhere from 2 to 4 hours, until the roots are black, brittle, and rather fragrant. Grind them in a blender to the consistency of coffee, and run it through your coffeemaker at about 1 1/2 teaspoons per cup, for an excellent decaf coffee.

Most folks, however, mix chicory with their regular coffee to improve the taste (and to extend their coffee supply). Chicory coffee, sold in stores and over the internet at a suitably outrageous price, is considered a gourmet item. Save a ton of money, and gather the roots yourself.

Onward and upward,
airforce