Laimis purchased a whole lot of organic dirt from the store across the street from the Dallas Arboretum.
They said that the soil had 3 different kinds of things inside it, for organic gardening, but when the truck arrived home I looked at it and had to squint... it looked more like mulch than something I'd picture vegetables growing in... but, I thought... what do I know... I just remember gardening from Poland and the dirt might be different.
Well... I guess I knew something after all, because after spending a whole lot of money on seeds and plugging in a few tomato plants, nothing grew past the 1 or 2 original inches of growth.
I finally talked to a neighbor who told me to take a trip to Rohde's! ...and so I did!
Turns out, all those pieces of wood inside the so called "garden soil" ate out all the oxygen and so the poor plants were basically suffocating! I picked up some organic fertilizer, which would put a whole lot of nitrogen inside the dirt and hopefully by next year I'd have a garden:)
I didn't remove any of the original plants because I wanted to see what would happen, and in no time what so ever, my tiny cucumber plant started turning into a large cucumber vine! The other ones were not so lucky!
But,! and this is the reason I was most impressed by Rohde's, I did see sorrel plants at the store and was just blown away! The last time I saw sorrel growing anywhere was in Europe! I picked up one (I didn't want to throw money out the window if the fertilizer was't going to help) and planted it in the newly doctored soil. It's growing!!
So, back to the sorrel! I know that in Europe it's the most common spring green laying around the kitchen, but why is it that no one seems to eat it here? I've never seen it at the grocery store. It has a lovely citrusy bite and it's excellent in a sorrel soup, or paired with fish or chicken.
You should always cook it in aluminum, otherwise you'll end up with an ugly color because of the oxalic acid in the plant. If you don't care about the color, cook it however you'd like... it's still going to have a great taste!
These are not my recipes, but here are a few:
Salmon in Sorrel Sauce
Butter-Braised Radishes with Sorrel
Cauliflower and Sorrel Soup
Have Fun!