Description
MINUTINA (Plantago coronopus), also known as Buckshorn Plaintain or Erba Stella, is a unique Italian heirloom , grown in America since colonial days, when it was used as a medicinal for fevers. Also put up in fancy jellies. This cold weather salad green has a mild nutty flavor and crunchy texture. The small, narrow-leaved heads form full rosetted clumps. Best harvested before flowering begins, as the flowers tend to draw up the flavor into themselves, and if you cut down it will replenish until season ends. Of course, you can eat the flowers too and they make a decorative accent to salads. Harvest when young and tender at about 5". Easy to grow. Not a true perennial, but self-seeds handily so once sown you will have perenially. 50 to 60 days. 100 seeds.
GROWING TIPS: Sow directly in early spring as soon as soil can be worked, or in the fall. It thrives on cold, rainy early spring weather. It also is a good maritime plant. You can start indoors in an unheated greenhouse and transplant in spring, spacing 8" apart. Keep watered. Plantings in early April will produce delicious and tender greens until the end of June, when they will bolt.