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Post by littleminnie on Jun 15, 2012 18:32:32 GMT -5
I have 2 little patches of arugula. I got 1 bunch total from it before it bolted. They flowered heavily since I did nothing with them and now want to let their seed go soon. Is it a good or bad idea to let some go to seed?
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Post by 12540dumont on Jun 15, 2012 18:38:20 GMT -5
Right behind the Rainbow Loveliness, I let the arugula go to seed. I love it. Leo hates it.....It makes a lovely patch of arugula for me every Spring. Because, you can never have too much arugula. When it bolts, I put the flowers in my salad mix. Attachments:
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Post by littleminnie on Jun 15, 2012 21:49:14 GMT -5
You eat the flowers? Well honestly I don't eat any of it. I hate it and its smell, which is like rotten nuts. But I look at seed catalogs and have to get things. I like to try various spring crops to have more than just lettuce and spinach. However, lettuce and spinach is what people want, not baby bok choy, turnips, broccoli raab and arugula. I will devote more space to spinach next year. I had enough lettuce to be sure, but need more spinach and I cannot sell baby bok choy for nothing at market but it is so good!
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Post by steev on Jun 15, 2012 22:47:38 GMT -5
I'm wondering whether anybody makes arugula pesto. I like it, but it's hard to deal with. All at once there's lots and then it's past prime and too strong. Anyone tried drying it? What if arugula powder were added to pasta dough? Would arugula powder be good in sausage?
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Post by 12540dumont on Jun 16, 2012 0:50:38 GMT -5
I love arugula pesto. I love fava bean cream. Leo says it's the garlic... I put it on the pasta. This week my CSA got Huazontle, epazote, golden Purslane and Portuguese Stuffing Cabbage. They also got potatoes, garlic, mini bells, mustard, jam, carrots, eggs, beets, and turnips. At the market, we would mix various greens together and call them braising greens...greens you boil or saute. Arugula and other weird salad greens we would mix in with the lettuce and call it spring mix. Once folks try some of these things, particularly if they have ideas about nutrition...they'll buy them again. Purslane has more beta-carotene than spinach, as well as high levels of magnesium and potassium. And those braising greens...they're great in eggs. One of my farmer friends calls arugula...barf weed. She can't stand it. But she also doesn't like bacon or cilantro.  I don't think Arugula dries well. I grow both the regular and the Sylvetta. I'm sorry there's no tomatoes ready yet, because I do love arugula with maters. An arugula pesto sandwich with tomato...even the vegetarians start drooling. |
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Jun 16, 2012 7:26:50 GMT -5
I don't think Arugula dries well. I grow both the regular and the Sylvetta. I'm sorry there's no tomatoes ready yet, because I do love arugula with maters. An arugula pesto sandwich with tomato...even the vegetarians start drooling. That sounds Divine! Is the recipe on your blog? |
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Post by 12540dumont on Jun 16, 2012 14:50:56 GMT -5
The fava bean cream is somewhere on my blog. Basically, it's the same as below except the favas are lightly steamed, and shelled. I use the same for regular pesto. Which my family swears that I never make enough of. (I put 15 1/2 pints in the freezer and it was gone by January).
Arugula Pesto
2 cups of packed arugula leaves, stems removed
1/2 cup of shelled walnuts/pecans/pine nuts (whatever you have)
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, peeled, chopped and lightly sauteed
1 onion chopped and lightly sauteed
1/2 teaspoon salt
Saute the onions & garlic.
Toast the nuts in a pan over medium heat until lightly brown
Combine the arugula, salt, walnuts, onions & garlic into a food processor. Pulse while drizzling the olive oil into the processor. Add the Parmesan cheese.
Because the pesto is so dependent on the individual ingredients, and the strength of the ingredients depends on the season or variety, test it and add more of the ingredients to taste.
At the end of the season, I sometimes throw in a splash of vinegar.
Eat on a sandwich, top a pizza, one of my CSA folks serves it on potatoes....
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Jun 16, 2012 20:18:10 GMT -5
Thanks!  I can't see Bob eating Pesto, but then 20 years ago he wouldn't eat pasta with a cream sauce either. I might be pleasantly surprised. |
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Post by caledonian on Jun 17, 2012 17:59:06 GMT -5
If you don't like the arugula, and you're not planning on selling it at market - why let it go to seed?
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Post by ottawagardener on Jun 17, 2012 19:29:32 GMT -5
I'm a huge fan of arugula. Love it! I wonder if it's like cilantro/coriander?
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Post by littleminnie on Jun 18, 2012 18:42:17 GMT -5
To me it is. I hate both cilantro and arugula but want them for customers. When I pick them I hold them away from my nose.
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James
grub
Greetings from Utah -- James
Posts: 93
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Post by James on Oct 22, 2012 11:31:52 GMT -5
My reply is too late to do any good this season.
My thoughts on arugula. Plant some as it is a great decoy crop. The white butterflies love it. I save a bit of seed, but try not to let let it drop seed on the garden, as then it is a weed coming up all over.
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Post by diane on Oct 22, 2012 14:56:18 GMT -5
If you want to broaden your customers' appetites beyond just lettuce and spinach, I think you need to have them eat unusual items in a delicious ready-to-eat form. Are there food stalls at your farmers' market? Give the cooks some of your unusual vegetables.
I discovered cilantro in my breakfast soup in Thailand. I had no idea what it was, so I fished a bit of the leaf out, took it to a seed seller and brought some seeds home to Canada.
Arugula was a major ingredient in a fantastic salad in a restaurant near the Santa Monica pier. It also had sliced pear, spiced pecans and chunks of gorgonzola. I've been growing arugula ever since. It's best all winter as it is rather hot in summer.
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Post by steev on Oct 22, 2012 18:20:32 GMT -5
An arugula salad like that is one of our favorites. The trick is getting a mild variety and not trying to use that when the weather gets too hot, which makes it go very pungent/bitter. So far, I prefer "Apollo", which makes huge leaves (for arugula). I have wild arugula naturalized on the farm which is much too strong for my taste; the bees love its tiny, yellow-chartreuse flowers, though.
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Post by diane on Oct 22, 2012 19:24:45 GMT -5
The yellow-flowered wild arugula is in a different genus. It puzzles me why it is also called 'arugula'.
I was just thinking back to when I first tasted that arugula salad - it was almost 20 years ago, and the Thai soup with the cilantro was about 40 years ago. Definitely memorable tastes!
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I can't see Bob eating Pesto, but then 20 years ago he wouldn't eat pasta with a cream sauce either. I might be pleasantly surprised. 
