Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Blue sailors

Half-hidden in the tall grass along the upper dyke trail in Colony Farm, we found several stands of chicory.

Also called Blue Weed

Zooming in ...

or Blue Dandelion.

Zoom ...

or Ragged Sailor, for the fringed tips of the petals.

Zoom ...

Chicorium intybus

Chicory grows in this area mostly as a weed on dry roadsides; I have seen them along the dykes on Delta and Richmond shores and beside the highway in Powell River, their sky blue or lilac flowers inconspicuous from any distance, striking when you get closer. They were originally an introduced plant, brought to the New World in the late 19th century for use as a coffee substitute, animal fodder, and herbal remedies. They come from the Mediterranean area, where they were eaten as a green vegetable as well.

To make chicory "coffee", the taproot is cleaned, then roasted in a slow oven until it is dry throughout. Cool, and grind in a coffee grinder. Prepare like coffee, with about 1/2 tsp. per cup. It's a little more bitter than coffee, but it has no caffeine!

As a vegetable, (which I haven't tried, but I will), the young leaves can be eaten raw; they may be bitter, like dandelion leaves, in which case they can be boiled, changing the water half-way through the cooking, to leach out the bitterness.
 It was also believed to be able to open locked doors, according to European folklore. (Wikipedia)




1 comment:

  1. We have chicory all over, and I take far more photos of it than I could ever post. My mother called it blue devil, because once you get it in a field, it is the very devil to get out.
    I have posted a couple of photos of a pink chicory blossom I found the other day.

    ReplyDelete

I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

Also, I have word verification on, because I found out that not only do I get spam without it, but it gets passed on to anyone commenting in that thread. Not cool!

Powered By Blogger