Growing Burdock, also Gobo (Japanese Burdock)
Arctium lappa : Asteraceae / the daisy family
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Not recommended for growing in USA - Zone 5a regions
- Easy to grow. Sow in garden. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed. Best planted at soil temperatures between 10°C and 20°C.
- Space plants: 60 cm apart
- Harvest in 17-18 weeks.
- Compatible with (can grow beside): Best grown in separate bed.
Burdock grows wild on roadsides and waste places and around field boundaries throughout Britain, Europe and North America, and is cultivated in Japan. Grows to about 2 m (6 ft) high.
Has dark green leaves with a long tap root.
Keep watch for seed heads as it can become an invasive weed. The prickly balls were the inspiration for the inventor of 'Velcro', George de Mestra.
Culinary hints - cooking and eating Burdock
Harvest in the first year when the burdock root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, and pungent flavour with a little muddy harshness that can be reduced by soaking julienne/shredded roots in water for five to ten minutes. Immature flower stalks may also be harvested in late spring, before flowers appear; the taste resembles that of artichoke, to which the burdock is related.
It is a key ingredient in the traditional Dandelion and Burdock beer.
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