Sunday, March 3, 2013

Saturday Spotlight - Golden Corn Salad

I'm belatedly joining Liz with a Saturday Spotlight post about one of my favorite salad greens that is in abundance in my garden right now.

Golden Corn Salad (aka Italian Corn Salad) is a very close cousin of mâche. Botanically it is Valerianella eriocarpa (meaning hairy seed) versus Valerianella locusta. It remains much closer to its wild form than does common mâche. I haven't found any selected or named varieties available in the US market, for that matter, I don't know of any US source of the seeds other than seed exchanges which is how I got my original seeds. It does not cross with the domesticated varieties of mâche which makes saving the seeds very easy. More on that below.


In appearance it differs from mâche in a few ways. The foremost difference is its chartreuse leaves which under certain conditions do take on a golden hue. It can get to be quite a bit larger than it's domesticated cousins, especially if it's not crowded. And the leaves tend to be more long and thin.


I think it is the culinary equal of any mâche that I've purchased or grown myself. It can be harvested and eaten as entire intact plants when it is young, which is what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. I've also grown the plants under far less crowded conditions and harvested large individual leaves from the plants on a cut and come again basis. It's much easier to harvest the whole plants but they do grow quickly so the harvest period is shorter. I suppose I could try succession sowing but I can never seem to get around to it.

My favorite salad is a simple one, I like to toss the whole rosettes with fresh blood orange segments, perhaps some avocado, and either toasted sliced almonds or toasted sunflower seeds. A simple dressing of good vinegar (my favorites at the moment are Spanish merlot or moscatel) and my favorite extra virgin olive oil from McEvoy Ranch or toasted hazel nut oil, and salt and pepper. Sometimes I make the salad more substantial by adding chicken or smoked trout or salad shrimp. Some preserved sweet peppers and/or cucumbers are also a nice addition. And my latest add-in was hearts of palm which turned out to be quite nice.


In my zone 9b garden I find that it is best to grow it for a winter and early spring crop, it fills the salad green gap that occurs when the lettuce is bolting or damaged by cold. The plants are unharmed by the occasional frost or freeze (down to about 25ºF here). This season I thickly broadcast the seeds and scratched them into the soil and let the rain do the watering. I am finding that I like the thick sowing better than a thin sowing, the competition seems to keep the plants on the small side. It also makes for easy harvesting, I just cut out whole clumps of plants at the soil line.


Seed saving is really quite easy. Let the plants bloom and allow them to turn brown and dry. Gather the whole plants together before the seeds start to drop and put them into a large paper bag. Leave the bag in a dry spot and the seeds will collect in the bottom of the bag - you can give it a good shake now and then to help. Don't worry if the seeds scatter themselves around the garden before you collect all the plants, the will volunteer but I haven't found them to be weedy. The seeds will not germinate in warm soil, my volunteers don't appear until late autumn when the soil gets cold. Any unwanted volunteers are easily removed or even moved, they do transplant easily. I like to let volunteers grow in out of the way spots in the garden so that I can leave them undisturbed until they go to seed.

If you want to read more about this variety here's a good article by William Woys Weaver  (who was my original seed source through the Seed Savers Exchange).

If you are interested in trying this delicious salad green yourself please let me know in a comment below, I've got some 2010 seeds to spare and will be happy to either arrange a seed swap if you have something I might be interested in or I can send some seeds for a small charge to cover shipping expenses.

10 comments:

  1. I'm in zone 9b, sunset 19 and am always looking for new salad greens. Not sure what you'd be interested in, I have some seeds from Perpetual spinach, which is popular in UK, really a form of swiss chard but cooks down almost exactly like spinach but is as summer hardy as chard. I also have some Moonlight runner beans, a commercial cross of french and runners. I have some crimson flowered broad beans in flower at the moment and setting pods that i'm saving for seed. Also Aji Crystal peppers. The rest is mostly standard stuff that i'm sure you already have.

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    1. The runner beans sound interesting, I think they would do well here in my cool coastal climate. I have crimson flowered broad beans too, don't you just love those beautiful blossoms, and the beans are tasty too.

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  2. I've never heard of golden corn salad before. I do like the green varieties though. I would be interested in some seed to give it a try here. I have lots of Beedy's Camden kale seed, as well as my Happy Yummy peppers (hot and sweet) if you're interested. I'd be happy to pay for shipping if not.

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    1. How can I resist Happy Yummy peppers? I sent you an email via your blog with my address.

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  3. I would love to give this a try, I have a couple of different seeds varieties to swap. I have rattlesnake bean and Australian Butter Bean (both Climbers)Beit Alpha Cucumbers which have been super productive. Otherwise I have many varieties of lettuce and if your not interested in those I would be happy to pay

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    1. Not to worry, your comment didn't disappear, I moderate all comments because of the interminable spam. You have my curiosity piqued about those butter beans - Liz's recent spotlight about her bush butter beans put me in a mind to give some yellow beans a try again and I do prefer pole beans to bush beans, they just seem to stretch the harvest out a bit more. My email is on my side bar and and blogger profile, drop me a line with your address and I'll send some seeds off.

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  4. Unfortunately I can't seed swap as Australian customs wont let me - to inport seed they have to test grow it for you and then they might let it in if you both pay them over $100 and they are being nice that day. I do like the sound of this corn salad though. I will seek out some seed as I would quite like to widen the variety of leaves i grow.

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  5. The golden corn salad sure is pretty, Michelle. The other variety, the dark green, shorter-leafed one, has naturalized all over the back of our property, so this time of year, there are mache salads whenever we like. It is such a tasty salad green.

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  6. Hi Michelle~
    Can't ever seem to get mache to grow but i wanted to let you know that the arugula you shared a few years ago is thriving! Naturalized all around the back garden, even in the lawn. Smells delightful when i mow that area ; )

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  7. I would love to try the golden variety. The containers look so bare in the winter and though we have mild winters with warmer days, we do get freezes at night. Please let me know how much to pay you and thank you for being generous and sharing seeds :)

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