If I could, I would sell my rocket leaves. They are crisp, fresh, and delightfully peppery. But I have a slight problem. I have too much of them growing now. The reason why it is a problem is because I am running out of ideas on how to use them but also how to preserve them. The first thing that comes to my mind is some form of pesto. But in my opinion, fresh pesto is the way to go. I have also thought about making soup to freeze it for the winter.
I am sure this is a problem many people dream about having. I sure know I did as well! But now that they are growing so well, I wonder if I should have only sown half the seeds. The rest of my brain says no, what if half of the seeds did not grow? Alas, now I have enough salad rocket to last me the whole summer.
This is interesting because when I try to grow them in my home town in the summer, they do not want to produce leaves. They immediately bolt. The most apparent difference is that back home, we are (i) at sea level, (ii) have winter rain, and (iii) the humidity level is about 80%. In contrast, where I stay now, it is (i) about 1000 meters above sea level, (ii) summer rainfall, and (iii) the humidity is about 30%.
I do not factor in the different soil type because even though it is highly likely to be vastly different, I do get beautiful growth of my salad rocket in the winter time. So I am really dumbfounded to why the growth of the salad rocket in the summer here is so different to the ones back home.
The funny thing though, is the mustard plant that somehow travelled along, has bolted. This is exactly what happens to me back home in the summer: very little leaf growth and immediate blooming.
On the front of my other herbs, everything is growing so well. The amaranth is even growing new leaves where I cut them from with the previous harvest. I was in fact trying to clear the way a bit for the garlic chives, also growing well albeit a bit slow.
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The wild rocket and Swiss chard are also doing well. I have not yet harvested from the Swiss chard, but I have been harvesting regularly from the wild rocket.
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Alas, this is a nice problem to have, to have so much growing that you cannot consume it all by yourself. Do you have recipes for rocket leaves? How do you use it? If you had the problem of so many leaves, how would you have dealt with it? Please do tell me in the comments!
For now, happy gardening and keep well.
All of the writings in this post are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.