Monday, June 22, 2015

June 26


Chicoree is just going to flower in the ditches along the roadsides that have yet escaped the town’s cutting. There are only a few blossoms here and there, but this mini heat wave we’ve experienced will hasten their development. Soon there will be a dozen or so on the each plant, opening in the morning light to reveal their beautiful blue purple coloring and aster pattern, set within the corded array of its green stalks and leaves.

The chicoree is a true summer flower, whose color is nearly unmatched in its clean resemblance of a summer sky.

The root is evidently edible, at least dried and ground, it makes a coffee substitute. I’ve not tried it directly, but I have sampled the New Orleans version, which is derived in part from chicoree root. It is a unique and somewhat acidic substitute.

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