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From the book All
Around the House, 1879
Chicory, "succory," or "wild endive," although it grows wild in
our country, is much cultivated abroad. The leaves, unblanched,
are bitter, but, soaked some hours in water, the bitter property
disappears, and it is used as a salad. When blanched it ranks,
with some, among the best winter or spring salads. It is easily
raised, and by packing the roots in a trench close together in the
fall, and in the early spring laying on some earth well mixed with
manure, the young leaves will push out finely blanched, forming a
very crisp early salad, much superior, we are told, to the early
tough green lettuces. Its growth is rapid, and it can be cut
several times in the year; or the roots may be laid in a warm
cellar in the fall, away from frost, and the tender leaves will
shoot out, nicely blanched, for an excellent winter salad. In
Belgium and the Netherlands the roots are scraped, boiled, and
used like parsnips.
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