Agretti is a reputedly delicious vegetable, similar to samphire in its stranded form.  Also known as salsola, it’s rare here in the UK but more common in Italy, where it’s seen as a fairly high-end ingredient served in good restaurants.

I bought a pack of seeds and noted the warning of poor germination rates and the seeds being fussy about needing low temperature to germinate (no problem in this country!). Without much confidence I sowed all the seeds in a tray. They look like the corky beetroot seeds and within days they were all sprouting.

Two-week old agretti seedlings

Today, just two weeks after sowing, I planted the shoots out into a raised bed.  About 150 of them in total.  Each should form a stalk with succulent deep green grass-like threads coming off it.  A dozen of them boiled and served with butter is delicious they say.  And would cost a fortune here, even if you could find anywhere serving it.  This is one harvest I’m really looking forward to.

Agretti planted out and properly spaced

UPDATE:  See how the agretti looked seven weeks later ..