
Last year I successfully managed to grow a crop of rocket lettuce.
It wasn’t a big crop. It was garnish. Sandwich filling.
But I want a main salad this year.
I want to make rocket + pistachio pasta salad.
So during the summer I let my rocket grow wild. To let them flower and seed. It took ages. They turned out to be huge! 1.5 metres high.
I thought they’d be more, you know, lettucey. Bunchy.
But yeah, they turned out looking quite tall and weedy.
Which was rather unfortunate. Because if you want to survive in our garden, you probably don’t want to look like a weed.
Sure enough. My husband was cleaning out the yard.
He thought they were weeds. And all my precious seeds ended up in the weed pile against the fence. Oh well, such is life.
But 6 months later, the winter rain brought new life to our weed pile.
And amongst the nasty clovers, thistles and grass weeds…
there was a CARPET of lush rocket! I was thrilled!
They all looked so bouncey, fresh and WILD.
In my delighted morning blurriness, I stooped down in my pyjamas and began plucking the precious rocket. La la la. Then when my cradling arms were nearly full… I had to stop.
Is this stupid?? Am I picking weeds?!?
Am I about to serve my family balsamic vinegar and tossed WEEDS?
It seems kinda funny now, but I was really upset about it at the time. Appalled. Dismayed. And horrified. However, I wasn’t horrified enough to throw out the entire harvest there and then.
They sat in my crisper for a couple of days. Until I had the courage to eat a few leaves. And after an extensive Google search.
They tasted fine. Very much like rocket. But better! And now I’m wondering whether my family would notice a difference anyway…