Arugula is grown at the White House but, more importantly, at my house. Are you growing it at yours? You've probably heard about the victory garden the Obamas have planted in the White House lawn. They have planted a full-fledged jardin potager, i.e., a garden that supplies the table (stuff you can eat). Arugula came into my garden via seeds given to me by Dan Sanford (who is one of the morning patrons up at Java Jacks). I planted the seed early this spring, and we've been harvesting it for our salads all summer with great delight.
I've been in the gardening business for long years. I have two kinds of clients: those who like plants to look at and enjoy (women) and those who see the good earth as a source of food (men). It's a manly thing to grow plants you can eat. Men like growing things they will eventually find on their supper tables. I've known men that have said, "I don't grow flowers. I grow corn, tomatoes, turnips. I grow pecan trees, peach trees, walnuts and figs. This is manly stuff. Stuff to eat." I know that, in reality, this is an absolutely ridiculous distinction.
Nevertheless, this brings me to that ancient plant Eruca sativa or arugula, rocket or as the Italians call it, rucola. It has been grown since Roman times in the Mediterranean region — Turkey, Jordan, Morocco, Spain and Italy. In truth, the Romans have grown it, since there was a republic, since there was an empire.
The vegetable has been used immemorial. Rich in vitamin C and potassium, it has been cultivated all across southern Europe and northern Africa. This leafy vegetable is famed in Italy but is now grown throughout the world.
It reseeds itself freely, and in some areas is considered one of those benign weeds that is nutritious, tasty and freely available in our gardens, given to us by providence.
This leafy vegetable has a rich peppery taste and a strong flavor and is generally used in salads or cooked as a vegetable with pasta. In Italy it's used on pizza, as well — you know those romantic, gourmet pizzas cooked over wood fires and topped with goat cheese, slice tomatoes, etc.
Arugula grows best if the seed is sown in early spring or summer. In Texas it especially likes bright but shady areas that get full sun during the morning and protected from the fierce heat of the afternoon. But arugula is not fussy here in East Texas. It grows well, reseeding itself, growing year-round. I have a friend on the Upper Melrose Road, who has grown arugula for years right here in Nacogdoches.
The arugula in my garden is already going to seed. I will collect most of the seed but will let some of it fall where it will. Amazingly enough, it will grow in the winter months, reseeding itself for the summer months. Let me put it bluntly, arugula is semi-domesticated. It likes our gardens, but it has never completely taken to the idea that we humans have control of its fate. It's a weed you can eat.
You might want to consider arugula for somewhere in your landscape. It doesn't take much space. A few plants will supply your summer salads, bringing ancient spicy and nutritious "pepperiness" to your table.
There's all kinds of ways to use arugula in the kitchen. It's a potager plant. My wife continually uses it with salads of onions, Parmesan, tomatoes and olive oil. As I write this column, I'm looking forward to baking a pizza topped with goat cheese and sprinkled with arugula and cooked on a pizza stone in a good old American, charcoal-fired Weber grill.
East Texans, if the fancy folks up at the White House can have garden-grown arugula, so can you. It's just a matter of buying some seed and sowing it this fall.
