My daughter came home with some sort of green leafage that she's grown in her school vegetable garden but she doesn't know what it is, neither do we.
It's quite bitter and slightly rubbery and thicker than spinach. Does anyone know what it is? Is it a salad leaf or something you cook?
Flummoxed.
tinyurl.com/nalkc33
tinyurl.com/pfyrxh7
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Watercress?
Looks fit for rabbit food!
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Not watercress I'm sure. For scale that plate is a dinner plate.
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I'd guess a variety of Rocket - so a salad leaf!
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>> Watercress?
Largest watercress in the world that then :-)
Looks like a variety of spinach to me too.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 28 Mar 14 at 12:31
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Quite rubbery though. Spinach is softer is it not?
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Herself after looking at the photo says it's 'not impossible that it's basil'.
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Easy to tell basil by the scent.
Basil doesn't taste bitter though
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Deadly Night-nurse? :-)
Not Basil, though. Could be spinach, I think.
Last edited by: J Bonington Jagworth on Fri 28 Mar 14 at 14:33
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I think it looks like a weed, Mrs UA says big watercress, I accept the CEOs decision. :-)
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Well I've just seen some very similar looking stuff at the local Farm Shop and that was labelled "Cress" , t'was next to the Watercress.
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Looks a bit big for watercress to me. But if it was basil you'd recognise the taste/smell I'd have thought.
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Basil is pretty easy to grow from seed, and reasonably quick growing as well. So it would be a good choice for kids.
I've grown it, but only when I got a free packet of seeds with something else!
Use it in a sauce to go with liver - very yummy.
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Another guess? Lamb's Lettuce?
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It's not basil or lambs lettuce. We have basil growing in a pot on the window sill. The leaves are quite thick as if it's something you cook. I'll get her to ask her teacher on Monday.
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It's Watercress
tinyurl.com/kd7bpfy
Last edited by: helicopter on Sun 30 Mar 14 at 14:36
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No way is it watercress, which needs specialised conditions to grow - i.e. running water in purpose-made beds. Not what a school would do.
My money's on lamb's lettuce/corn salad - Valerianella locusta.
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Still reckon it's Cress (not Watercress)
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Erm, I'm the salad king, we have salad 3 times a week, and I have furry ears as you've seen.
On Sundays with our Haddock and Spinach fish cakes we have a bag of ASDA watercress, spinach and rocket.
Now they all look the blimmin same more-or-less but - if I had to pick one I'd say the OP's leaves are green spinach.
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>> No way is it watercress, which needs specialised conditions to grow - i.e. running water
>> in purpose-made beds.
So it is said, but not in my experience.
20 years ago I threw a sprig of Tesco watercress into the pond. Now it self-seeds all over the garden in any damp spot. It grows in still water, in the stream, and out of water in damp soil.
It also grows on the compost heap.
In fertile conditions it has large leaves just like the illustration.
But I agree probably unlikely in a school demonstration. The taste should be the obvious decider. Watercress is unlike anything else, and very peppery. Basil tastes like, well, basil, and has a strong smell. Spinach tastes like school greens.
Lettuce doesn't taste of anything unless it has a healthy dollop of salad cream, which has to be Heinz.
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It's watercress.
I love watercress..
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I loves it as well [watercress] I wouldn't marry it though.
I haves a whole bag of it between two slices of my wholemeal bread, loads of cyder vin & black pep Mmmm.
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>> Lettuce doesn't taste of anything unless it has a healthy dollop of salad cream, which
>> has to be Heinz.
cobblerinos. Helmans mayo you east coast peasant.
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Salad Cream. Much less Fartening than Mayo don't ya know!!
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Mayonnaise or salad cream - both YUK!
Balsamic vinegar (di Modena), followed by extra virgin olive oil - the only way to go.
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>> Balsamic vinegar (di Modena), followed by extra virgin olive oil - the only way to
>> go.
>> Oooh! Get you....Virgin eh?
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">> Oooh! Get you....Virgin eh?"
Yeah - that's what I thought, but couldn't sum it up so well!
I'm with the salad cream lobby, although Mrs H - who has more middle-class pretensions, prefers mayo!
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Cold ham off the bone, cold tomato, a fried egg, proper chips. Salad cream, English mustard and brown sauce ( kept decently apart of course ) and crusty brown bread with salted butter and a mug of tea.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Mon 31 Mar 14 at 22:11
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I can settle this dispute.
Ian is from Kent, he eats mayo, I'm from the Fen and I eat salad cream, so it is just pretentious southerners who eat Mayo.
When he thinks I'm not looking he pinches my salad cream too!
Pat
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>> Peasants.
>>
Agree. If they're plucked properly of course.
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>>
>> you east coast peasant.
>>
west
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Has Enoughalready now got the definitive answer - from the school presumably - as to what was grown?
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No! She had strict instructions to ask a particular teacher what it is but came home with the lame excuse that she didn't see that teacher. I've sent her off again with a "don't come back without..."
Being 11 and far too unconcerned to bother, I'm not holding my breath. If needs be I'll drive up to the school, slam a bunch down on the reception counter and demand what it is they are trying to kill us with.
BTW. Mayo here.
Last edited by: Enoughalready on Tue 1 Apr 14 at 12:46
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>> Being 11 and far too unconcerned to bother, I'm not holding my breath.
May I say Enoughalready that you have a very mature prose style for one of your tender years?
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>>May I say Enoughalready that you have a very mature prose style for one of your tender years?
Must be the cigarettes. Now leave me alone, I have homework to do.
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>>Must be the cigarettes. <<
Wow, you'll do for me:)
We need more on here!
Pat
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We finally have an answer. Never heard of it before, it's some sort of edible weed that's good for you so some of you were close.
It's ....
Purslane!
Last edited by: Enoughalready on Thu 3 Apr 14 at 17:50
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My know-it-all wife has heard of it. Mind you she is a qualified Home Economist!
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Herself has heard of it too, but only just. She's more of a botanist though.
I know someone in Somerset who probably has a bed of it, and a special recipe or two. Her marrowflower fritters are fabulous...
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AC, or anyone else for that matter....
Try these. Pumpkin will do as the squash.
allrecipes.com/recipe/chilean-style-sopaipillas/
And then make some of this to dip them in....
southamericanfood.about.com/od/saladssidedishes/r/Pebre-Chilean-Chile-Pepper-Salsa.htm
Best TV / Beer / relaxing foodstuff ever.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Fri 4 Apr 14 at 01:33
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I hope I will try that because it looks very appealing FMR.
Thanks.
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>> Best TV / Beer / relaxing foodstuff ever.
>>
Kebab for me tonight, FM.
Let's just hear that once more. Kebab.
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Think I've even grown purslane...
Lived next door to a Cypriot family for several years. She barely spoke a word of English, but would push plates of food through the hedge towards me. Courgette flowers were my favourite.
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Alanovic,
You are a git.
Best Regards,
NoFM2R.
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Kebab = Death-on-a-stick.
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"Kebab = Death-on-a-stick."
Depends.
Doner -agreed; I won't touch that stuff with the proverbial barge-pole.
Shish - the opposite; excellent on barbecues or whatever.
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Filthy doners is where it's at. Any fool can grill up a bit of shish.
Of course, everything in moderation and there's nothing to worry about.
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My next day of meals in England....
Greasy Spoon, Full English Breakfast, Tea & Toast.
Pub, *huge* Ploughman's with several pints of 6X
Home, afternoon tea
Chippie, Fish & Chips with sausage in batter.
Pub, more 6X
Kebab.
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Nah. Too much sunburn for my balding ginger nut to cope with. I'll stick to the Costa del Caversham.
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