If you’re on the hunt for an unusual crop that adds a tasty accent to savoury dishes, then look no further than agretti, says Gemma Sturges – it’s the Mediterranean vegetable everyone is talking about
Gemma Sturges Gemma Sturges is Kitchen Garden Supervisor at Audley End House and Gardens, and an orchard tutor for The Orchard Project. She co-designed An Edible Garden Through Time at BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair 2023, winning Best Showcase Garden and a Platinum Award. @madamtuberist
Salsola soda has many common names, including agretti, roscano, barba di frate (monk’s beard) in Italy or the less exciting opposite-leaved saltwort in English. Whatever your preference of name, this wonderful gastronomic delight (it’s become popular with chefs) is a must-have in the veg patch.
It’s one of my favourite unusual vegetables to grow in Audley End’s Kitchen Garden and a talking point with visitors when they spot this needle-shaped, succulent edible. Agretti is a salt-tolerant plant adapted to grow in coastal conditions, but luckily growing in saltwater is not essential. Described by many as a ‘chivey samphire’, especially when eaten raw as a young plant, it offers a salty crunch to salads.
I think agretti comes into its own when the leaves are slightly mature, as bunches can be harvested as a cut-and-come-again crop, then lightly steamed or boiled and served with a decent drizzle of olive oil and a generous squeeze of lemon juice – simplicity is key. It’s great as side dish with seafood or folded carefully into lightly flavoured pasta.
Agretti has notoriously lousy germination rates as viability is very low (as low as 20 per cent). Sow into seed trays or modules, or outside direct into a prepared area. Soaking seed prior to sowing will be useful for improved germination. After germination, the needle-like leaves emerge looking a bit like rosemary, with very little in the way of a root system, but are very easy to handle if pricking out or potting to eventually plant on in a warm part of the veg garden.
Successful plants can be spaced at 30cm. Once established, I tend to nip out the central stem. Agretti will just keep growing, providing a luxuriantly shaggy production of tender leaves
