On Day 3 of the 12 Days of Endive, Rachael schools us in the history of endive. This little vegetable has quite a storied past!
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I have been eating endives for a while yet never knew about the accidental discovery on how they actually became what we know of today. It does make sense they would come from the chicory due to its tart taste. Now another interesting thing to me is the fact that is happened in Brussels a city so very well known for the best French restaurants in the world (which always makes me chuckle as one would expect those restaurants to be in France.
I recently fell in love with endive, but never would have imagined that it was related to chicory in any way. Looking forward to learning more!
I learned that endive was nicknamed white gold when first introduced in Paris!
i love stories of happy accidents, and considering the endive story also includes a war of independence, what could be a more dramatic beginning to this delicious vegetable? i am SUCH a fan of endive!
I had recently learned of how the farmer accidentally discovered that his chicory roots would grow while he stored them, because I sort of knew about how the leaves could be edible during warm times, then the roots could be used to make a coffee substitute, but “chicons” could be forced from the stored roots (I believe I learned of this from a Canadian farmer that blogs).
So are chicons and endive the same, if not, what are the differences?
I didn’t know that only one farm grows endive though, so that’s what I learned ^_^
I learned that it’s called “white gold” in Paris, and it’s only grown in CA (in the US)