Guest article by Peter Skold, Waxwing Farm, Webster, MN As a part of a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant we received, we have been exploring growing forcing chicories as a way of diversifying our farm’s season extension efforts. We learned that these crops can be successfully grown in this part of the country and have the potential to be valuable additions to any vegetable farm’s mix of winter crops. What are forcing chicories? Chicories are a family of crops that include radicchio and endive as well as other forage greens. Roasted chicory root has historically been used as a coffee additive/substitute. Forcing chicories are leafy vegetables produced by forcing certain varieties of chicory roots to grow without sunlight. This results in a leafy vegetable that contains no chlorophyll, giving the finished product a unique appearance and flavor. Photo 1: Forcing chicories grown on our farm, left: Tardivo radicchio, right: Belgian endive We produced two kind...
