#culantro

We call Culantro by the name Recao at our farm because it was first introduced to us that way by Puerto Rican and Dominican friends who use it as a key ingredient in Sofrito. It is also called Sawtooth Herb and Ngò Gai in Vietnam. A friend - Becca @beka_bean - just sent this photo showing our seeds germinating on the left, and year-old seeds from a different source not germinating on the right. I thought I’d post this to give folks the same tips I gave her on germinating this very hard to germinate herb: We start our seeds indoors patted down on the surface of our potting soil 2-4 weeks before the last frost - we do not cover the seeds. We keep ours moist (but not too wet) and warm, allowing up to 25 days for germination. A heat mat can help things along!

We sent our seeds this year to the germination lab we usually work with, and received a result of 17% - not great. We realized we were getting low results on many herb seeds that require certain conditions, and sent them to another (slightly more expensive) lab across the country that was suggested to us by several seed growers since they tend to do better with high-maintenance seeds - and got a rate of 91% which better matches Becca’s results here.

Another note: Becca came to love this plant in Honduras and now makes Epis (green seasoning sauce, like Sofrito) with a friend from Trinidad (where this plant is called Chado Beni).

#recao #chadobeni #culantro #sawtoothherb #eryngiumfoetidum
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