Endywia Cichorium endivia L. is a leaf vegetable closely related to lettuce. The edible part is the leaves with a characteristic, slightly bitter taste, which exceed the nutritional value of the lettuce leaves, because they contain more vitamin C and minerals. Depending on the botanical variety, the shape of the endive leaves varies. Curly endive has strongly jagged, curly leaves, while the escarola has smooth leaves, sometimes slightly trimmed.
In our country, endive is a rather little known plant. The likely cause of this is the slightly bitter taste of this vegetable. However, let's not forget that the substances which give a bitter taste to the leaves of endive or chicory have an additional, he alth-promoting effect.
Eating endive leaves has a positive effect on our digestive processes.They also contain potassium, calcium and iron s alts, easily digestible protein and sugars as well as B vitamins and provitamin A. The content of vitamin C is on average 40-50 mg / 100 g fresh weight, while in lettuces it is usually up to 30 mg / 100 g. Endive is mainly eaten raw, so it retains its full nutritional value.
Growing endives is not very difficult, because it is very similar to growing lettuce. In many European countries it is grown mainly for late autumn and winter harvesting, as it tolerates frost well. The short growing season (approx. 90-110 days) allows for pre- or post-crop cultivation. It has quite high water requirements due to the relatively small root system.
Water deficiency adversely affects the yield and taste of endive leaves, which become more bitter. In turn, excess water can cause excessive disease, e.g.wet bacterial rot. The position, which should be bright and sunny, is also important in the cultivation of endives. Growing in shade, endive tends to form loose rosettes with elongated leaves.
Endive can be grown in spring and autumn, mainly from seedlings, but also from sowing. Due to the low thermal requirements, autumn cultivation is highly recommended. An additional advantage of late cultivation is that we can collect endives successively, as needed, even in December.
Spring cultivation can be risky,because endive, as an annual plant of a long day, sometimes breaks out prematurely into inflorescence shoots. Their appearance significantly reduces the nutritional value. Depending on the cultivar, the emergence of the shoots takes place between 11-12 weeks in cultivars more sensitive to the length of the day (starting from sowing seeds). More resistant varieties, such as 'Kalinka', 'Natacha', 'Excel', 'Cigal', create shoots in the 14-16th week of cultivation.
To remove excess bitterness from the endives, whiten them before harvesting. This treatment involves cutting off the light from growing plants. As a result, the content of bitter substances and chlorophyll in endive leaves is reduced. They become more brittle and delicate, with a yellow-green color. Bleached endives are unfortunately less durable and contain less nutrients.