Plant · P-745

Chicory

Cichorium intybus

Chicory's thick taproot cooks up as a vegetable or roasts and grinds into a long-used coffee substitute, and its blanched crown can be forced into a tight white chicon for a fresh winter vegetable. Young leaves are good in salads before the plant flowers, after which they turn sharply bitter. It is also a standout pasture plant: its leaves carry more protein and less fiber than ryegrass, lambs grazing it gain faster, and compounds in the foliage cut worm burdens in grazing stock. It self-sows readily on open, sunny ground and bolts in sustained heat, so leaf quality is really a cool-season yield even though the root and forage value carry on.