- Perennial Vegetables
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- Perennial Vegetable Seeds
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- Turkish Rocket, Wild Broccoli, Hill Mustard
Turkish Rocket, Wild Broccoli, Hill Mustard
A native of the Eastern Mediterranean, it's basically a perennial Cima di Rapa or broccolini---you eat the immature flower stalks in spring. People who have pest problems with broccoli and other brassica crops love this plant because it seems to be immune to pests. Like many other perennials, it is slower to germinate and get established than annual garden crops. Packets contain 15 seeds.
Turkish Rocket forms a deep-rooted little rosette of leaves like a dandelion, but then sends up taller flower stalks with typical yellow four-petaled mustard flowers. You harvest these when the stalks are still soft and the buds are still closed. They can be used in stir-fry, steamed, put in soup, etc etc. The leaves are edible but many people find them bitter. As in many wild plants, this varies, and is also affected by moisture and temperature.
Don't let the stalk form flowers or seedpods--they will get tough and inedible, then scatter seeds profusely. The plant will be more perennial and taste better if you cut it back after spring harvest, so that it doesn't sap it's strength making seeds, and you don't sap your strength trying to control the seedlings. This plant is considered a noxious weed in some parts of the US and Europe. We can't ship it to Wisconsin.