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Sometimes even farmers find new vegetables to add to their gardens and to their daily diets.
Carol Ann Sayle, co-founder and co-owner of Boggy Creek Farm, a five-acre urban, organic farm in Austin, Texas, grew beets, potatoes, squash, broccoli and green beans, to name a few. But only recently did she discover the root vegetable scozonera, she wrote at theatlantic.com.
What's a scozonera?
The name comes from the Italian "scorza" meaning bark and "nera" meaning black. It's a dark-skinned root vegetable that's similar to salsify -- called the oyster plant as it allegedly tastes like oysters. (We have never actually tried that one either.)
Even Austin's local chefs couldn't say they'd tried scorzonera or had much experience with it, so she decided to grow the new root veggie just to see what it was like.
"Internet searches of scorzonera revealed that it should be blanched or boiled and then the skin will easily peel off. I chose to peel it in the raw state with a potato peeler and thought it was easy, maybe because it was so fresh," Sayle wrote at theatlantic.com.
"The black skin, however, will stain any cloth permanently, as I found out in our farm stand Saturday, when the pile of scorzonera left a brown patch on a light blue table cloth."
Sayle decided to try the scorzonera with a little bit of spring onion and some shelled snow peas. In a buttered skillet she sautéed little rounds of the scorzonera and the onions with some salt and then tossed in the peas at the last minute.
"I found them delightfully crunchy (not having been boiled first) and buttery," she wrote.
Sayle said she plans to grow scorzonera again next winter.
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5-11-2010 @3:26PM Paul Kachur said... I first ran across this veg when I moved to Germany, where they call it "Schwarzwurzel" (black root). I really like it, but it is a bit of a pain in the butt to prepare. I read that it is easier if you boil it first with a tablespoon of vinegar in the water and then wear rubber gloves.
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5-13-2010 @6:12AM Hugo Rune said... Schwarzwurzel, obscure vegetable, my arse,... I'm Austrian and here it is a staple at the "Heurigen", the traditional wine taverns. You get it cooked as a light salad with yogurt and parsley. Personally I like it, it goes rather well with a young white wine but really, its nothing to write home about. I've heard it called the most useless vegetable in existence because it has almost no discernible taste of its own.
5-12-2010 @4:26AM Julia said... I also learned about this vegetable as an expat living in Germany, where it's quite common in the winter. I agree that it's a pain to prepare though! If you peel it while raw, it excretes a latex-like ooze that stains everything (including skin and nails) orange-brown, and if you do enough of it, you end up with rubbery deposits on your hands that have to be scrubbed off. It does taste quite good though, sort of like artichokes maybe. I'd recommend showing some caution while eating it though, as it contains a lot of inulin (also found in Jerusalem artichokes), which, if you're not used to it, can cause extraordinary flatulence. We're a household that eats lots of beans without a second thought, but after gorging on a delicious scorzonera gratin as the main course of our meal, I ended up flat on the couch with my belly swelled like a balloon in a good amount of discomfort. I've read that if you build up a tolerance to it slowly it's okay, but now we avoid eating it as anything but a side vegetable, and then only when we have the patience to deal with the peeling.
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5-12-2010 @2:04PM Tom said... Boggy Creek Farm is a fantastic place, and definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Austin. They've got all kinds of veggies for sale on the weekends, and it's an easy way to kill an hour or two.
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5-12-2010 @2:07PM Rita said... I grew up in Belgium and this was a regular vegetable in my family. Peel and immediately soak in water with plenty vinegar (or use lemon juice), boil in vinegar water till soft (but not mushy), drain and add a white sauce to it. I managed to find it a couple of times at the Grand Central Station market in NYC, but alas not recently.
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5-12-2010 @2:26PM Dick said... The Teaser headline read: Farmer Discovers 'New' Vegetable. This would lead one to believe that the farmer accidentally stumbled over some rare and as yet undiscovered new vegetable, when in fact it's well known and eaten in many countries. Just another "journalist" who is desperate to have anyone and everyone read their poorly written and uninteresting garbage and will go to great lengths to accomplish this.
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5-12-2010 @5:13PM veganaz said... See the single quotes around the word 'new'? This indicates to the reader that the word should not be taken at its literal definition -- there is some kind of twist to the suggested newness of whatever is being discussed in the story. It's good to learn something new (no quotes) everyday before passing judgment on what you don't know.
5-12-2010 @6:35PM B said... I'm with Dick. Just another bad writer trying to get some attention! Dick thank you for demanding journalism excellence, something we rarely see anymore!
5-12-2010 @8:17PM orlenda said... well dick-I agree with you....I HATE how many articles on the internet are written by hacks who actually get paid to write this dribble. I did see the sing quotes around the word 'new' but i thought that maybe it was an acient veggie rediscovered or something. This is a poorly writeen article too as you siad...theres no real substance......feels liek it was just a bunch of quotes stolen from somewhere else.....
5-12-2010 @10:40PM BackYardSaladEater said... I have to try this. Eating 10 new vegetables I haven't heard of before was an item on the bucket list I made a couple of months ago. This will qualify. This reminds me of another fantastic black root that loses freshness so fast you will not find int stores - salsify. Last week I tried Italian Dandelion greens -- just too bitter for someone who eats everything.
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5-12-2010 @2:53PM JSIMANCAS said... that vegetable is so old we grow that in my country is brother or cousin of the "YUCA " or casava , wecall it baconera
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5-12-2010 @3:05PM chris said... Inreesting. Sounds like the preperation is similar to Fava beans
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5-12-2010 @3:25PM Republician said... Looks like yesterday's lunch
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5-12-2010 @4:04PM Tena said... I absolutely love all veggies, but I think I'll pass on this one.
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5-12-2010 @5:15PM Tammy said... I am going to have to agree with Republican's statement. It does look like yesterday's lunch. Lol. However I wouldn't be opposed to trying it if it were offered to me. I have found that just about any veggie sauteed is delicious, and this added in with some other ones mmmmmm.
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5-12-2010 @4:45PM Rev Dwain said... Someone said that this root tastes like a turnip, yet the writer said it tastes like an oyster? I will eat a turnip, but it is not a favorite of mine, but I dearly love oysters. Anyone who has eaten both should be able to tell the huge difference, so, DOES it taste like oysters or not? I will plant it in my garden if it does, and prepare for inconvienence of preparation. " New vegetable" to most I would think the writer ment to say?
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5-12-2010 @5:24PM Rho said... Rev Dwain:
The article was a bit confusing; the veggie that allegedly tastes like an oyster is salsify, which was mentioned because it is supposedly similar to scorzonera (in looks, as I understood it), the subject of the article. So, if you want to grow the vegetable that might taste like oysters, it is salsify that you want. Good luck and happy gardening!
5-29-2010 @12:00PM hendrika overkleeft said... This vegetable is in no way "new", we have been eating it in the Netherlands for over 50 years that I remember, most likely longer. It is good but a pain to prepare..big time.
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5-12-2010 @5:28PM Brian said... Your attack on the "desparate" journalist wasn't personal? If you don't like being insulted, try not insulting others......
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5-12-2010 @5:19PM Scootrbum said... really grasping for something to write.
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