Sow chicory and radicchio this summer to brighten your plate

Chicory produces bitter, tangy leaves – and is surprisingly easy to grow from seed

Now that we’re at the height of summer growing season, and tomatoes and courgettes are making their way from plot to dinner table, I’m reluctant to start thinking about the inexorable return of leaner months. Yet now is the time to sow radicchio and chicory seeds if we want their flavoursome leaves on our plates when the weather cools.

Last season – on the farm where I work – was the first time I’d truly experienced the glorious sight of these leaves growing through winter. If sown in trays around now and planted in the ground in a month or so, the crops will have plenty of time to develop a robust root system, a tight heart and a chubby head of greenery before the weather shifts and halts growth. The outer leaves are tough enough to endure a battering from harsher weather and they can develop a slimy exterior as they break down which, when peeled away, reveals the most divinely vibrant, crisp leaves that taste delectably bitter. The closer they are to the centre – where the sun’s light hasn’t reached – the gentler and sweeter their taste.