Kale specialist Molyneux Kale is trialling what it believes is one of the first UK crops of Italian chicory variety puntarelle.
The salad crop is one of 24 Italian chicories currently being tested by the producer in a bid to provide a UK alternative to imported salads during the winter months.
Grower Chris Molyneux, who is based near Ormskirk in West Lancashire, earmarked high-end wholesaler Natoora as a potential customer for the “hardy” crops, some of which have good frost resistance and grow well in winter.
“Natoora are quite keen on moving some because they buy some puntarelle already,” Molyneux told FPJ.
“If it’s a success, it could be an alternative to bringing in some of the Spanish and Italian salads… It's more hardy than standard lettuce.”
Bitter in flavour, puntarelle is typically eaten as a digestive in Italy, cut into long curly strips and served in a salad at the end of a meal.
This is only the first year Molyneux has trialled puntarelle and his other chicories. The grower has only planted “a couple of rows” for now, but he is confident of the products’ future sales potential.
“I’m really keen chicory; I think it’s definitely a growth area,” he said.
“People just aren’t trying it enough because of this perception about bitterness, but if you pick the right varieties, they’ve got potential.”
