Last summer I had two young helpers at my farm. Before starting in with their assigned task of spreading compost on the garlic beds, I gave them a bit of a tour of the spring perennial garden. As a bit of a joke, I offered them both a sorrel leaf to taste, expecting them to pucker their mouths up in surprise at the sour taste. Turns out I was the one who got the surprise – they LOVED it, and proceeded to spend the next hour racing back to the perennial plot for their “sorrel fuel recharge” after every wheelbarrow load of compost was emptied. In fact, they loved it so much I dug up a plant to send home with them, which their mother assured me they picked right back to the ground all summer long.
Fresh sorrel leaves taste best in early spring, becoming increasingly bitter as the season progresses. (Its usefulness as a fresh green can be extended by cutting it back hard whenever it starts to send up seed stalks.) It is one of the first greens to come up in the spring, offering a welcome splash of early season brightness to meals.
Sorrel is undemanding to grow. It does well even in marginal soil and partial shade, and is almost entirely ignored by pests. The seed is easy to save – simply allow the seed to dry fully on the plant, then strip off into a paper bag or bucket. It’s also easy to propagate vegetatively by digging up a clump and replanting.
If you’re interested in giving sorrel a try, here’s a link to 50 Things to Do with Fresh Sorrel. Or if you’re hunting for your own ideas, other names for sorrel include spinach dock, soup weed, ambada bhaji and Sauerrampel.
~Angie Koch, Fertile Ground CSA, Waterloo, ON