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Georgia Gardener

Growing Sorrel

17 years ago

Does anybody know when to plant sorrel? It's a perennial here, right? Is it invasive? What about red sorrel (the annual, that has edible pods that taste like cranberries)(Hibiscus sabdariffa)? Neither plant is listed in the Southern Living Garden Book and I usually take that to mean it doesn't do well in the South.

mj

Comment (1)

WestEnder
17 years ago
I am growing French sorrel, which is a perennial. I bought mine as a small plant and had it growing in the ground for about a year. It did well throughout the summer, and set some seed which I promptly cut off because I didn't want the plant to die or the leaves to become too bitter. Then I decided to move my garden so I dug up the plant and moved it into a large pot, where it is now doing very nicely. Last winter it provided fresh leaves all winter, and my only problem was finding someone who wanted to eat them. I now have a friend who likes sorrel, so that shouldn't be a problem. French sorrel is a very attractive plant and is not invasive, but I don't know about red sorrel. Edible pods that taste like cranberries certainly sound interesting, though.
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boil baking potatoes and an onion in good stock. Add spices and salt to taste (I like a little chili and salt). When cooked, blend the soup with one or two handfuls of sorrel leaves, stems removed. serve immediately. the secret is to blend instantly when leaves and soup are in the blender. then the soup will stay a bright green. if you wait, it will turn grey. Baking potatoes are much easier on your blender than waxy. Sorrel soup with waxy destroyed our previous blender. I also add tallow or olive oil to the soup when serving. This is served in April and for Thanksgiving here.
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You can grow sorrel in the garden, but it is a spring green, so you are not likely to find it in the stores now. Sorrel grows wild in many places in the US, you can find it in your lawn and garden all the time, maybe even growing out of that crack in the pavement out back, but you have to know what you are looking for. Another name for wild sorrel is "sheep sorrel" or "sour grass." There are actually two kinds of wild sorrel and they are not related. Sorrel soup was a popular peasant food, folks went out and foraged for it and were happy to have some fresh greens after a long winter. Spinach, chard or escarole with lemon are common sorrel subs. Sheep Sorrel There are lots of sorrels, but these are two of the most common ones you can find as weeds. There are other kinds with more lush leaves you can grow in the garden and maybe find in a few gourmet greengrocers places, but I imagine they would be few and far between. I've only seen it maybe once or twice, usually is some special novelty marketing item--gourment greens and all that.
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Wow, never saw aphids on sorrel, I grow sorrel for many years. Are they kept inside? Sometime aphids attack the plants they would not normally do if they are only source of food. For example, I had terrible aphids infestation once on my pepper starters inside and once outside under tulle cover. Aphids disappeared as soon as I took them outside in first case and removed the cover in second case.
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