Rio Vista farm grows chicory perfect for winter salads, appetizers

Back in the days of “going back to the land,” better known as the 1970s, many of us did try to fulfill the three pillars of eating well: Eat what’s in season, make sure it’s grown organically, and find a local source for it.

Well, you can’t get more local than if you grow it yourself. At the time, I was living in Pennsylvania, so there wasn’t much food in season in February in a place where the ground is frozen solid. We mostly ate what we canned, froze, dried, or stored in a cold room of the house. We made cheese from our goat’s milk, bread from grain we ground in a hand-cranked mill, winter squash and onions stored in the cold room, frozen black raspberries and wineberries from the abandoned meadows around us and sliced peaches from a local orchard, bacon and butter from a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer, and vegetables we grew and froze or canned.

And, in February, while the snow was flying and the car’s starter motor wouldn’t turn over, we had fresh salads of our own, home-grown Belgian endive. Wait, what? How was that possible in February?

Simple. We grew these big Belgian endive plants - a kind of chicory - over the hot, muggy summer, harvested the fat tap roots in October, trimmed off their tops, buried them two feet deep in a straw-lined hole in the garden, then filled the hole with straw and covered it with bales of hay to insulate it from the frost.

Then in late January, I opened the hole and retrieved the roots, put them upright in a tub of sand in the cool basement, watered them, and turned out the lights. In a few weeks, the roots sent up the familiar chicons, or endive heads shaped like spear points - beautifully tight, white and yellow, crisp, fresh, icy-bitter, and a super treat in the dead of winter.

Now here in California, almost all Belgian endive - also known as Witloof Chicory - is still grown in fields during the summer, but forced to produce chicons in large, climate-controlled facilities.

The only endive farm in the country is California Endive Farms in Rio Vista, founded in 1983 by Rich Collins. Before that, they were mostly grown in Europe and brought here in cold storage - or you had to grow them yourself, as I did.

Most of our locally-sold Belgian endive now comes from the Rio Vista facility.

A few years ago, Collins retired and sold the company to the Planasa of Spain, the largest endive grower in Europe, which was developed by Alexandre Darbonne, the grandson of one of Collins’ original partners from France.

“It made sense, because you have the support network with people who understand endive, a very unusual crop,” said Mike Reed, director of sales for California Endive Farms.

“It’s a very hard crop, and it takes a long time … from planting a seed to getting a finished product could be 13 or 14 months.”

The company grows three chicory roots - red, yellow and a new chicory variety called Coraline - at three different elevations from Southern Oregon to Susanville and Turlock, which provide the “chill hours” required for the plant to send the energy into the roots.

At the Rio Vista farm, the roots are held in cold storage - at 28 degrees - which allows the roots to continue to hold their energy for up to a year. “We’re basically tricking the root to think it’s winter,” he said.

The roots are awakened, a little bit at a time, by placing them in spring conditions, provided by a completely dark hydroponic facility warmed up to 55 degrees. It takes three weeks for the root to sprout a tulip-like endive head.

Not surprisingly, this strange but interesting crop was discovered by accident back in 1830 by a Belgian farmer who had grown chicory roots, probably to flavor his coffee.

“He went down to his root cellar and notices that this root is starting to grow,” Reed said. “It was a lettuce that he was able to have in the winter, so that became very popular.”

California Endive Farms, which produces 4.5 million finished pounds of endive a year, is also the largest organic endive farm in the world, Reed said. Product trends include an uptick in interest in pre-packed endive, which allows the endive to stay its true color and last longer.

With the rise of Paleo and gluten-free diets, the pretty, red and yellow endive spears have also become popular as cracker substitutes in appetizers. Americans like to throw them into salads or on the grill, with some oil and salt and pepper.

Though located off the beaten track, the Rio Vista facility offers tours on weekdays to groups of 10 or more, often to chefs and culinary students curious about how this niche crop is grown. (To reserve, call 707-374-2111.)

While the controlled environment provides endives pretty much year-round, the February crop is as “in season” as you’ll get, because now is when the roots naturally begin their growth cycle as we approach the spring months.

You’ll find the chicons available in some stores as light yellowish-green or red-streaked. Both colors taste about the same, but the red is slightly more bitter, since it is crossed with the red chicory family.

Being a form of chicory - related to those pretty blue wildflowers we see along roadsides across America in late spring and summer - Belgian endive is a cousin of the other members of the chicory clan: curly endive (also known as frisée), radicchio, and Batavian escarole.

All the chicories have an icy-sweet bitterness that contrasts beautifully with sweet, savory and salty flavors. Endive salads come alive when paired with apples, blue cheese, figs, pears, nutmeats and especially citrus wedges.

Although Belgian endive is low in calories - one head has just 17 calories, or one calorie per leaf - the leaves are nutritionally powerful. A head has 60 percent of the potassium of a banana, lots of dietary fiber, good stores of vitamins B, C, K, and folate, plus calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, and selenium.

The plant is also rich in kaempferol, a polyphenol antioxidant.

Many studies have described the beneficial effects of kaempferol in reducing the risk of chronic diseases, especially cancer.

Belgian endive is useful in many ways. Individual leaves make great scoops for dipping your favorite dips, such as hummus, pico de gallo, salsa, guacamole, and others. Slice a chicon into coins and they’ll fall apart into crunchy little ringlets for your salads.

The vegetable can also be cooked. Here’s a recipe you’ll find to be amazingly delicious.

A famous old dish involves parboiling Belgian endive heads, then wrapping them in ham, covering them with cheesy Mornay sauce, and baking them. That’s too old-school for my taste.

Here’s another way to cook this vegetable that I like much better. Braising Belgian endive transforms their bittersweet fresh quality into something deliciously savory and new - a great accompaniment to roast pork and baked apples.

Braised Belgian Endive

Serves 4

4 Belgian endive chicons

2 tablespoons canola oil

- Juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon sugar

- Pinch of sea salt

In an iron pot with a cover, such as a Dutch oven, place the two tablespoons of canola oil. Turn heat to medium high.

When oil is hot, but before it starts to smoke, lay the chicons in the pot for one and a half minutes, then turn them over for a similar amount of time on the other side.

They’ll spit and pop in the hot oil.

Add the lemon juice, generous pinch of salt, and the sugar. Turn the heat to low, put on the lid, and simmer for 30 minutes.

The following recipe is from Lia Huber of The Nourish Evolution in Healdsburg.

“These little endive spears are crowd pleasers,” she said.

“Packed with flavor despite their diminutive appearance.”

Endive Spears with Roquefort Mousse ?and Walnuts

Serves 24 (4 spears each)

6 ounces Roquefort cheese

1/4 cup cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons snipped chives

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

4 heads endive (96 leaves)

24 walnuts, toasted and broken into pieces

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a blender, blend until smooth. Chill for 20 minutes. Transfer Roquefort mixture to a pastry bag and pipe a teaspoon mound onto the end of each endive spear. Top each with a toasted walnut piece.

The following recipe is from Sondra Bernstein’s “Plats Du Jour: The Girl & the Fig’s Journey through the Seasons in Wine Country.”

Mixed Chicory Salad, White Balsamic ?Vinaigrette

Serves 6

For the vinaigrette:

1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

- Salt and pepper to taste

For the salad:

1 bunch mizuna, cleaned and large stems removed

1 head radicchio, cleaned and torn into 3-inch pieces

2 heads endive, leaves removed

2 cups arugula

1 head frisée, cleaned and core removed

1/2 cup fresh pomegranate seeds

2 blood oranges, cut into supremes

2 navel oranges, cut into supremes

To prepare the vinaigrette: Whisk together the vinegar and the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To prepare the salad: In a large mixing bowl combine the mizuna, radicchio, endive, arugula, frisée, pomegranate seeds, and citrus with the vinaigrette.

Toss well and season with salt and pepper to taste. Distribute evenly among 6 plates.

The following recipe is from Lisa Lavagetto, instructor with Ramekins Cooking School in Sonoma.

Frisee and Endive ?Salad with Warm ?Brussels Sprouts and Toasted Pecans

Serves 6

For vinaigrette:

3 tablespoons white-wine vinegar

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/4 cup minced shallot

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

6 tablespoons olive oil

For salad:

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 pound Brussels sprouts (preferably small) trimmed and halved lengthwise (quartered if large)

1/2 cup pecan halves, halved lengthwise

1 teaspoon salt

6 ounces frisee, trimmed and torn into bite-size pieces (4 cups)

3 Belgian endives (1 pound) cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices

For vinaigrettte: Whisk together vinegar, water, mustard, shallot, salt and pepper in a small bowl, then add oil in a slow stream, whisking.

For salad: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt butter in a large shallow baking pan (1-inch deep) in lower third of oven, about 3 minutes. Toss sprouts in pan with butter, pecans and salt. Arrange sprouts, cut sides down, in one layer and roast in lower third of oven until undersides of sprouts are golden and nuts are fragrant, 12 to 15 minutes.

Whisk vinaigrette, then transfer warm sprouts and nuts to a large bowl and toss with frisee, endive and enough vinaigrette to coat. Serve immediately.

Notes: Vinaigrette can be made 2 hours ahead and kept at room temperature. Brussels sprouts and nuts can be roasted 2 hours ahead and kept at room temperature. Reheat in a 400-degree oven until hot, about 5 minutes.

Jeff Cox is a Kenwood-based food and garden writer.