Perennial Plant Profiles...

Bunias orientalis, Turkish Rocket

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them? Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures. By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting. Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

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Genus Bunias
Species orientalis
Common Name Turkish rocket
Form herb
Habit running
Origin Europe
Light sun to part
Moisture dry to mesic 
Edible greens broccolis
Groundcover Yes

Leaves and young stems can be eaten raw or cooked. The young leaves have a mild cabbage flavor that goes very well in a mixed salad, though some people find them indigestible. The leaves are a bit hairy, which means the cooked leaves make an excellent vegetable. The leaves are available early in the year, usually towards the end of winter, and the plant will continue to produce leaves until late autumn, with a bit of a gap when the plant is in flower.

Flower buds and flowering stems can be eaten raw or cooked. A pleasant mild flavor with a delicate sweetness and cabbage-like flavor, they make an excellent broccoli substitute though they are rather smaller.

A very easily grown plant, it succeeds in any soil in a sunny position and also grow exceedingly well in the dappled shade, eg, a woodland garden. Plants are quite tolerant of neglect, growing well amongst long grass. The young spring growth can be quite badly damaged by slugs, though more mature plants grow away so quickly that this is not usually a problem.

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OUR FRIENDS AT PFAF HAVE AN AMAZING DATABASE OF SPECIES (UK BASED);

Bunias orientalis