My Radicchio Passion

 Castelfranco Radicchio 💔

    My love for radicchio began on a sunny October day in Sacile, Italy.  My husband and I had just arrived at the apartment that would be home for the coming weeks.  We dropped our bags at the apartment and  walked to the grocery store.  The produce department was bursting with fresh, colorful vegetables of all kinds.  I began filling my basket.  "Don't buy all the vegetables," I whispered to myself, "don't buy all the vegetables,  don't buy ALL the vegetables . . . . buy all the vegetables!!!"

    Castelfranco radicchio is an easy radicchio to love.  It's mild flavor and striking colors make it a tasty and beautiful salad.  It is not readily available in the United States, but you can buy seeds from online companies like Seeds from Italy and Uprising Organics. 

    This type of radicchio is named for a town in Italy.  Castelfranco is a charming town, not too far from Venice.

 Growing

    Growing radicchio is not at all like growing lettuce.  The climate in central Illinois is different from the climate in northern Italy and much of the information I've managed to find is not specific to my area. 

    I've had the best success growing castelfranco radicchio in the fall.  I was impatient when my first seeds arrived in the early spring and my sources said that it was possible to grow it in the spring.  I tried spring planting two years, but both years the weather got too hot too soon. 

My next attempt was a fall planting and they fared better.  Last year I skipped trying to grow any in the spring and tried slot gardening in the fall.  Slot gardening uses different strains of the same variety, each with a different number of days to maturity.  I  had more radicchio than my family and I could eat.  It was amazing.  

    Here's how it worked.  I am in growing zone 6a.

July 24

I started Mirabella, Beatrice, and Lentiggini strains of castelfranco.  They are all castelfranco, they just have different numbers of days to maturity.  Each strain is ready to harvest after a different length of growing time.  Mirabella is the earliest.  I started these in a hydroponic seed starting system.        

August 7        

I transplanted the seedlings.

October 9       

My most mature plants looked like this. I waited. 

October 30 

       

By this date the weather had begun to cool and my most mature plants were looking like this.

This particular head grew so tightly that the inner leaves stayed white and did not turn yellow. 

 

Castelfranco radicchio keeps well in the refrigerator.  We were harvesting and eating this variety well into December.  Mirabella and Beatrice produced very well.  Lentiggini did not do as well and many did not mature before the weather became too cold.

If you want the low-down on all things radicchio be sure to check out  Radicchiology on the Uprising Seeds website.

Eating

    I love eating castelfranco radicchio with a scattering of thinly sliced red onions, salt, grated parmigiano reggiano  (or aged montasio cheese), olive oil,  and a high quality white wine vinegar.