Scorzonera, Hoffman's Schwarze Pfahl

Scorzonera hispanica. aka Black Salsify. This root vegetable has black skin and mild-flavored white flesh. Leaves provide reliable winter greens, and flowers in second year are edible. That's right: three vegetables in one! Hoffman's is known for good size, shape, consistency and flavor. From German seed company, Bingenheimer Saatgut.

Use:
A popular root vegetable in Europe as well as among gourmet chefs and permaculture circles in this country.  Also known as Black Salsify and Schwarzwurzel.  Valued especially as a winter staple. Holds its quality through winter when left in the ground even in the harshest northern climates. The long cylindrical black skinned roots have a soft white interior. When peeled and cooked it has a tender mild flavor that can take on the flavor of what it is cooked with.  If the skin is scrubbed and left intact, then cooked, it retains more of an oyster like flavor. It is eaten boiled, roasted, baked, steamed, stir-fried, batter-fried, and it is also an excellent addition to soups and stews. 

Leaves are eaten raw or cooked, they taste a bit like lettuce and may be blanched with straw for an even milder flavor.  Carol Deppe, author of Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, and Eric Toensmeier, author of Perennial Vegetables, both recommend the leaves as a perennial vegetable. We recommend it because it provides greens abundantly through our mild wet Pacific Northwest winters. The flower buds which appear in the spring after overwintering are sometimes cooked and eaten like asparagus. The plants flower profusely in the summer with very attractive edible yellow blooms followed by easy-to-collect, white stick-like seeds.

Scorzonera is native to Mediterranean southern Europe. It can be found growing in the wild from Portugal through to southern Russia. It became a widespread cultivated crop in Europe in the 1600's and it deserves to be more widely grown in the United States.

Cultivation:
Directly sow seeds in deeply dug soil in the spring at the same time as parsnips because a full season (100-120 days) is needed for roots to attain their characteristic large size. Germination should occur in 8-10 days. After a season well-watered and weeded, dig roots starting in October.  If the roots are too small after the first season they may be left in the ground for another season to size up with no negative effects on quality. Give the plants moderate fertility and deep light soil, as fresh manuring and heavy soil both can cause roots to fork.

Seed Saving:
Scorzonera is a perennial flowering in its second year, therefore select the best looking and best tasting roots for replanting soon after digging in the fall. A dozen or more plants is ideal to maintain genetic diversity in the population, but saving seed from less than that would be tolerable for a few generations if those plants are good ones.  The self-fertile flowers are  frequently visited by insects and cross pollinate frequently, so separate varieties by 500 or more meters when flowering. Each seed head ripens all at once and may shatter in the wind after a day or two.  Seed heads (capitula) ripen throughout the season and you must collect seed frequently, each or every other morning to avoid missing a lot. The seeds are benefited by extra drying on a screen after harvest for a few days. Seeds are usually only viable for 2 years but sometimes stay viable for up to 7 years.
 
2 ½ g packet ≈ 150 seeds.  $3.00