Plant · P-287

Endive

Cichorium endivia

Endive is a cool-season salad green harvested for both a bitter outer leaf and a much milder, pale heart, which forms once the outer leaves are tied together to blanch it for a week or two. Its whole crop cycle runs through autumn, winter and early spring - hot weather turns it inedibly bitter and pushes it to bolt, so it is never sown for summer. The same bitter compounds that need managing at harvest are also a mild digestive tonic and a source of a fermentable fibre called inulin. Cut heads keep only about ten days refrigerated, making this a garden-to-kitchen crop rather than one for storage.