Radicchio di Castelfranco (40-5)

This grows beautifully during the Mid-Sonora Desert winter for a spring vegetable. . It is a delicious addition to my salads and stir fries. Highly recommended.

It grows well in Southern California. I take off the outer leaves and thinly slice the inner leaves. Then heat a lttle evoo in a large frying pan, dump in all the radicchio and turn it in the pan until it reduces. Then cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. An excellent side dish. This radicchio is less bitter than most. I've read that it is a cross between red radicchio and Batavian endive.

We started seedlings in late summer last year for a fall crop which survived the season ending drought with a little help from drip tape and mulch. The plants took hot, dry weather and then a cool, dry fall. They grew beautifully and survived until thanksgiving. We started eating them when they were small and by the end of the season they were football size!

This one has to be the most beautiful. I grow allot of winter crops, the northwest has a great climate for them. I use this in salad blends and its like little jewels in the greens. Many are unfamiliar with this family of greens, but that was the same for arugula years ago. If ever there was a breakout italian green this would be it. Each head will have a different variation on the creamy leaves with splashes of red. One of my favorite winter salads has this radicchio and a red grapefruit. Plant in late summer or fall for winter harvest. Leave the roots in the ground and they will sprout new leaves in spring.

Grown this variety for more than 5 years. It's one of the easiest and most reliable. In fact last year I had a number of these sprout from an old compost heap.

Fantastic in salads, steamed when mature. Fabulous roasted and served with crab cakes. A crowd pleaser, I always have buyers for any extra on hand. If that weren't enough this is a stunning ornamental as well, I plant them with the smaller maroon grumolo types for contrast.

I grow in Central Virginia climate zone 7. These grow well as an early spring salad sowing if started in February and go into the ground in early March. The fall season is ideal here in Virginia for this variety. I sow in August about every two or three weeks right up to October. I start them in flats and keep them cool while germinating. Water water water after transplanting.

The September sowing can be harvested Thanksgiving through Christmas. Most years they winter over with crop cover just fine. Normally I remove the covers in mid February and clean up the beds. These make a beautiful ornamental in March when nothing is blooming. Sadly they got blasted this year by the Polar Vortex, but they rate on my “must have” list.