- Author: Mollie Jarrett
I'm always looking for unusual plants, vegetables, and fruit for my garden. Last fall, I found this intriguing winter salad green called minutina that looked like plugs if grass. I found out that minutina (Plantago coronopus), is an Italian heirloom green that has been grown in America since Colonial times. Minutina is also called bucks horn plantain (because of it's narrow cut leaves that resembles a stag's horn, or it maybe called Herba Stella ('Erba Stella').
It has been very easy to grow and our rainy cool winter and spring has been perfect weather for it to thrive. The leaves are crunchy and taste like parsley to me, but I've read that others report that it has a nutty taste, or that it tastes like raw spinach. The flavor is said to be best before it flowers, but if you don't catch it before you can also eat the flowers! I have eaten it salads and also include it in stir fry, delicious!
I may have a few transplants for the vegetable /herb sale at the plant exchange on April 29th. (UC Cooperative Extension, 501 Texas Street, Fairfield from 9am until noon.)