What will be First . . .

[digitS']

. . . out of Your Garden?

Here is mine:


. . . and, so it begins!!

The orache reseeds and the tiny plants have been out there all winter.

I almost like this veggie better than spinach! It is every bit as useful cooked and in a salad . I'll also sow a few seed early so it will be around with the lettuce.

Steve

 

[Greenthumb18]

I haven't heard of orache before, is it like spinach?
Looks quite interesting Steve, with its reddish leaves.
That's great to have something to pick that has withstand the cold winter.

 

[digitS']

They are very closely related to spinach, Greenthumb.

The flavor is almost the same, as well. It seems surprising to me that, after surviving subzero winter temperatures, the young plants grow quickly in the spring and are very tender.

That reddish purple also makes orache a colorful addition to the salad bowl !

Steve

ETA: I should say that they are also closely related to lambs quarters but much more tender . . .

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

I'm not familiar with orach either, does it have to be cooked to add to salad, or can you just eat the greens?

Something that withstands the cold, is this early, and tastes good you would think everyone would know about? :/

 

[journey11]

I'm going to tack some onto my Baker Creek order just for fun, just to try it.

 

[obsessed]

of my spring crop I have little lettuce seedlings popping out of the ground. and U just planted my tomatoes. Like every year I started a ton of tomato seedlings just to kill them. And so I must buy them from Lowe's or I would have had them in the ground a bit sooner. But Lowe's gives me nice big plants even if they do cost more its nice to take away some of the stress of growing seedlings. On a side not I have so far not killed my peppers. I have red habaneros, fish peppers, an Italian heirloom, jalapeo and poblanos that will go into the ground in a few more weeks.

My fall crop is still alive. I had 4 broccoli that I pulled in order to make room for the tomatoes. this was largely due to an extreme lack of planning and it seemed that there was a broccoli everywhere I could plant a tomato ( i had the blight or some disease last year). and since I have read that they don't like each other I pulled one in favor of giving the other on a early start. Too bad cause they were delish. Next fall I will try to do a better job of planing what goes where things go and try to concentrate broccoli into one bed only but I really didn't know they would live this long. The collards are still alive from the fall l which is awesome cause I would be starting the collard seeds now and now I don't have too! cause they are huge and giagantic and wont die.
such a long post to say I have letuce seedlings!

 

[digitS']

BetterHensandGardens, I have recycled that photo from an earlier year. It is a "what will be" situation. The plants are still very tiny and temperatures here are only getting just above freezing each day so they will stay tiny for awhile longer.

They are fine uncooked - remarkably tender.

I am very much looking forward to warm weather and ejoying the orache. I don't have asparagus. (And, have had to give up wild-harvesting asparagus along the river because of heavy metal contamination along the shoreline. ) I did not have orache back in those days so I don't know which would have come first - the orache or the asparagus.

I put together a Johnny's seed order again this year and completely forgot that they have something called "Magenta Spreen." It is another type of orache (which BTW, can be spelled with or without the "e"). Even just now, I was trying to find that Spreen seed in the Territorial catalog, not remembering that it is in Johnny's. In all honesty, I don't think it would be much different from what I've got.

Steve

If'n you'd like: you can click on that picture and listen to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong .

 

[Greenthumb18]

They are very closely related to spinach, Greenthumb.

The flavor is almost the same, as well. It seems surprising to me that, after surviving subzero winter temperatures, the young plants grow quickly in the spring and are very tender.

That reddish purple also makes orache a colorful addition to the salad bowl !

Steve

ETA: I should say that they are also closely related to lambs quarters but much more tender . . .

I'll have to try it ,something new to try.

Thanks Steve!

 

[chris09]

Steve,
Where did you get your orache seeds from?
Highmowingseeds, Local harvest, and Territorial Seed Company all have orache seed but was wondering where you got yours from.

Chris

 

[digitS']

Chris, I wish I could remember. At one time, I was a regular customer of Territorial Seed but the description and photo of their orach variety doesn't seem to be what I have. BTW - altho' this plant will grow to 5', I wouldn't be in the least interested in eating it at that stage. I will allow a couple "mother plants" to grow to their full size in an out-of-the-way corner so that they will reseed. The one in my picture was probably just a moment away from being snatched out of the ground and carried into the kitchen, however .

Fedco sells what they say is a mix of colors. After about 10 years in my garden, I no longer remember when or if the orach all grew as a single color. But, I have only been a Feco customer for about 5 years, now.

Johnny's sells orach by the quarter pound! I am sure that I didn't buy a quarter pound . . . altho' a couple of mother plants will probably produce that many seeds. I suspect, however, that I bought orach from Johnny's at a time when they sold it in a smaller packet.

Just doing a google search of the word (it seems that it's the British who use the "orache" spelling ) - I see that there are a few other places like Dianeseed.com and wildgardenseed.com that sell orach.

I haven't been a customer but both of these outfits have tempted me cruelly with their offerings for years . I mean, notice that Wild Garden sells 5 orach varieties!!

I came across this newspaper article while googling: Spinach's Brilliant Cousin, Barbara Damrosch. I will certainly agree with her plan to "sow them in succession every few weeks, eating the thinnings at baby size. . ."

olde Steve