Agretti Adventure

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
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
Agretti planted out and properly spaced

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

6 comments

  1. […] Anyway, the tiny twigs only need scattering and covering with a thin layer of compost and then it’s all about water: lots of salty water to mimic the beachy riverside environment in which marsh samphire normally thrives. If it comes up it can self-seed year after year so becomes a permanent samphire bed, just needing some protection over winter. I really hope it works; samphire is so delicious, better in my humble opinion than trendy but not-as-tasty agretti which I grew previously. […]

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