Plant · P-284

Orach

Atriplex hortensis

Orach is a cool-season leaf green, closer in behaviour to spinach than to a summer crop, needing fresh sowings every few weeks through spring and autumn to keep leaf coming. Its real strength is tolerating alkaline and salty ground that few other food plants will touch - it will even draw salt out of soil and remove it when harvested. The bland leaf is traditionally paired with sorrel for acidity, and red-leaved forms are showy enough to plant somewhere visible. Left to run to seed instead of being cut, a few plants also feed and shelter birds.