Chicory. The hardy bachelor's buttons of summer roadsides. It will wreck your sneakers.
Here's what happened. One day, after fishing, Steve and I drove past some chicory along the roadside a few miles out of town. They are just beautiful and one of my favorite summer flowers. I probably went on and on about them, and anyway, we decided to go back the next weekend to dig up their roots for a coffee substitute (the chicory seed I planted from the seed fair bombed).
So the next week we headed out with a couple of those small garden shovels (mistake #1) and drove to one of the areas of finds. After a small walk along some blacktop we started digging at the base of some chicory. The noses of our shovels started to bend. We went back to town to get "real shovels" and on the way found another chicory patch.
Back out we went to the closer patch that was growing in a roadside like all other chicory seems to do. We dug, and dug, and dug. The ground was so rocky and hard. Chicory loves this kind of forbidding land. Especially the kind next to strip clubs. Oh sweet mother, I just want some winter coffee.
Early on into the digging I had a couple hard jumps onto the back of the shovel blade with both feet (mistake #2). Bad form, I know. But with all my jumping weight I could barely get these sturdy roots dug up. Of course I was wearing sneakers (mistake #3). My left arch hurt after a couple good jumps. Later I found that I bruised my foot and cut through the bottoms of both of my sneakers at the arches.
So we hauled out two huge armloads of chicory. The plants were about 4' long. Imagine Diego Rivera's 1942 painting The Flower Vendor except we were in mid 90-degree Kansas heat walking through a ditch near a windowless building full of people getting lap dances.
Here is what I did to process the chicory roots for a ground coffee substitute:
I tested a tiny bit. Nutty, bitter flavor. Should be a real treat.
Image credit: Cale Ruiz
Here's what happened. One day, after fishing, Steve and I drove past some chicory along the roadside a few miles out of town. They are just beautiful and one of my favorite summer flowers. I probably went on and on about them, and anyway, we decided to go back the next weekend to dig up their roots for a coffee substitute (the chicory seed I planted from the seed fair bombed).
So the next week we headed out with a couple of those small garden shovels (mistake #1) and drove to one of the areas of finds. After a small walk along some blacktop we started digging at the base of some chicory. The noses of our shovels started to bend. We went back to town to get "real shovels" and on the way found another chicory patch.
Back out we went to the closer patch that was growing in a roadside like all other chicory seems to do. We dug, and dug, and dug. The ground was so rocky and hard. Chicory loves this kind of forbidding land. Especially the kind next to strip clubs. Oh sweet mother, I just want some winter coffee.
Early on into the digging I had a couple hard jumps onto the back of the shovel blade with both feet (mistake #2). Bad form, I know. But with all my jumping weight I could barely get these sturdy roots dug up. Of course I was wearing sneakers (mistake #3). My left arch hurt after a couple good jumps. Later I found that I bruised my foot and cut through the bottoms of both of my sneakers at the arches.
So we hauled out two huge armloads of chicory. The plants were about 4' long. Imagine Diego Rivera's 1942 painting The Flower Vendor except we were in mid 90-degree Kansas heat walking through a ditch near a windowless building full of people getting lap dances.
Here is what I did to process the chicory roots for a ground coffee substitute:
- Cut the roots from the plant and washed/scrubbed the roots well
- Peeled all roots, cut into smaller pieces as best I could, left peeled roots to sit out for a day to dry
- Roasted root pieces on a pan in the oven at 300 degrees, checking every 15 minutes or so
- Ground the roasted root pieces in a coffee bean grinder
- Stored in a half-pint jar.
I tested a tiny bit. Nutty, bitter flavor. Should be a real treat.
Image credit: Cale Ruiz