skirret

[fi]

i had a lot of confusion this spring unsure if my very small skirret seedlings had survived the winter. i was looking for carrot type foliage, however i think it is growing and has 7 leaves (not carrot like) and a thick white root. looks similar to drawings but i can't find any photos. if i can work out how to will put a photo on.

[fi]

[Vinlander]

Mature skirret foliage is somewhere between carrot and flatleaf parsley - noticeably coarser than mature carrots.

There is also a colour difference, but it's about 5 years since I lost mine so it's difficult to describe and varies during the season - but definitely slightly murkier than the clear grass-green carrots usually are this time of year.

Mind you, thick roots are not what I remember - what looked a similar-sized plant above ground would be 4 or 5 times thicker than the skirret below ground if it was a carrot...

Cheers.

[Digeroo]

I have never heard of skirret.  Is it particuarly nice. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sium_sisarum

Any veg fit for an emporer sounds good to me.   Seems you sow the seeds in September so might be a good for winter growing accoring to one source and march or may from another.

Can anyone give us some more information

[Vinlander]

I have never heard of skirret.  Is it particuarly nice. 

If you like all the other members of the family (parsnip, hamburg parsley, carrot etc.) then you will like it. Books say it is somewhere inbetween, but it does have something special.

The best way to eat it is as mash (more about this later) - you will probably find you prefer a potato/skirret mix better than skirret alone - try 50/50 and then adjust in the direction you prefer...

The problem is that the roots are pencil thin at best - sometimes multiple but still thin, not terribly smooth AND every one has a string in it - so mash is really the only sensible approach.

A lot of work to clean, a lot of growing space per Kg. On the plus side they are 100% perennial and cropping after flowering means more root for not much extra string. Unfortunately giving them an extra year only made me more thin multiple roots, not nice thick ones.

Apparently they used to be better but the best selections must have been lost, and it would be decades of hard work to breed back to them again...

[fi]

thanks vinlander and digeroo,  from the picture in Wikipedia the plant is skirret. the skirret is  unfortunately only just hanging in there as where it is growing is very dry.
first time i sowed skirret was a September sowing, which had sporadic germination and then failed. next was a spring sowing better germination, planted out in the autumn, but then neglected by me! amazingly some of the tiny seedlings survived the winter.
from what i have read it seems worth pursuing for a perennial crop. its mentioned in the forest garden book (no picture!) 'clump forming European perennial, formerly much grown in vegetable plots for its edible, sweet, bright white roots'
division from a good root stock sounds like the best way to grow good skirret, (if you can find any).  maybe in other parts of Europe seeds are available.