Chicory

In 1492 Blue Sailors sailed the ocean blue.

Around the big black cloud of Columbus Day there is an itty bitty silver lining: globalized food. India discovered peppers, Europe got potatoes, Italy fell in love with tomatoes, and the Americas got chicory (rice, wheat, etc). Some native-plant fascists will not recognize that as a silver lining.

Chicory is a twiggy, angular plant growing 2-5' tall. Chicory's celestially blue, edible flowers are spiky and round like a ship's wheel, hence the old-fashioned moniker "Blue Sailors." They are also members of the "floral clocks" club, open 7am to noon. Unfortunately, you won't find them now because you are probably reading this in the evening, if at all, and because the plant is currently winding down for winter.

Wild edibles, which are by definition edible plants lacking little copper labels, are frequently difficult to identify because their edibility is in a season when their identifiability is not. Leaves are edible before they flower, and roots are good after the flowers fade. A way to outsmart the crafty Blue Sailors is to identify when in flower, noting the precise location, and then return in fall for roots or spring for greens. Be 100% sure you've got the right plant.

Chicory is supposedly perennial. However, my experience on the Palouse would lead me to believe perenniality might be variable, unless I was supposed to roast the moldy root I pulled up this spring.

The young leaves of early spring, are oblong, and grow from a rosette. These frisky, edible greens should be tempered with leaf lettuce and honey-mustard dressing.

Because they are comparable to dandelions, I assumed fall was the time to dig chicory roots. Upon further research, however, I found the experts fiercely divided. Being a uniter, not a divider, I'll phrase it this way: experts agree that chicory roots should not be dug up during the frozen, dark winter (with exceptions). Spring is the best. Summer is perfect. Fall is the only time to get good chicory roots. Also, there's no time like the present.

Chicory roots are dug up easily, given moist soil conditions. You can find them behind dilapidated industrial buildings and alongside RxR tracks. I'm sure no one will suspect anything; you trespassing with your shovel behind the old grain elevator.

Roots dug from pre-flower chicory are juicy. Roots from post-flower stems are tough. Boil pre-flowered roots for 30-45 minutes and enjoy the juicy roots plain or in soups. For a coffee substitute, soak the whitish later season roots in water for a few minutes, scrub the dirt off, roast at 225* in your oven for possibly four hours, enjoy spicy potpourri of roasting roots, grind, and brew like coffee by percolating or straining through a filter. You might also mix it with roasted dandelion root or, famously in France and New Orleans, with coffee.

The French contend that it counteracts the acidity of coffee. Herbalists recommend it for detoxifying livers, and treatment of ailing spleens, stomachs, and joints. (Growing and Using the Healing Herbs by Gaea and Shandor Weiss.) A recent bee sting at our house might have been soothed by a poultice of chicory leaves, but for the churning arms and body which resisted it. Poultice: pour boiling water over fresh leaves, remove leaves, let them cool slightly, and apply to swelling.

The Blue Sailor's home port is the sprawling, ill-defined catch-all of origins: Eurasia. Cultivation of chicory stretches back 5000 years to Egypt with Romans copy-catting. It also has a history in Chinese medicine. (http://earthnotes.tripod.com)

The well traveled Blue Sailors, also called Wild Endives, are sold in France as Barbe de Capucin which surprisingly does not translate into "Cappuccino Barbie," but into "beard of a Capuchin monk," and no one really knows why (Eat the Weeds by Ben Charles Harris). Called "Succory" in England, it was used in love potions. (http://groups.msn.com/TeaCentral) "Noxious Invasive Weed" is a recent, American-made, USDA slur for the Blue Sailors, never applied to pilgrims and their descendants, of course.

Because I'm a uniter, let us all recognize, if not celebrate, Columbus Day by honoring the Blue Sailors as perhaps one of the healthiest and prettiest sailors to come to this "new" world in many centuries.