The largest watercress grower in England eats the plant each day, as does his wife and children. He’s so passionate about the crop that each year, he arranges a watercress festival in the Hampshire village of Alresford. The company is also trialling ‘free watercress soup’ at an NHS hospital, and if it goes well, hopes the project will go nationwide. The MD says that this project could enable to company to use 90,000 KG of winter-grown watercress that would otherwise go to waste, and yet play a part in serving nutritious tasty food to patients, over expensive supplements. Try this 15-minute watercress soup (Salted Mint).
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people & pets (watercress is high in vitamin K so should be avoided for some medications). It’s also toxic to pets, as are many recipe ingredients like onions, leeks and garlic.
Watercress is one of Hampshire’s best-sold vegetables. It’s easily cooked so only add at the last minute, if making say a watercress soup. Also popular to grow in Dorset, it was first eaten by the Romans and was an ingredient in the first sarnie, invented by the Earl of Sandwich. It’s got a peppery taste (a bit similar to mustard) though this is less tasted when cooked.
It’s particularly good in stir-fries and is so popular in England, that one bag is sold every second. Watercress has always been popular – from the Roman times when it was thought to cure male pattern baldness to some even believing that it cured insanity. Others used it to freshen the breath after a meal.
Best enjoyed from April to September, choose strong green leaves for freshness and only wash and shake dry before use. Store in the fridge and eat within a couple of days (BBC says to store like a bunch of flowers, placed in a glass of water in the fridge). You can enjoy it raw in salads or cook with potatoes for soup or it’s also good in vegan omelettes or sandwiches. Rocket is a similar salad vegetable.
A former watercress farm that went out of business near Chichester, is set to become a glamping site (glamorous camping). But the good news is that the new owners plan to still keep a few watercress beds, so tourists can help themselves, when they feel the urge to make a salad or soup. And the other beds will still be retained, and turned into wildlife ponds.
M & S were recently criticised for selling a ‘posh’ egg and cress sandwich for £6. The company boasts that the high price is because it contains a ‘whole sliced egg’, fresh baby watercress and luxury mayonnaise in two slices of bread. It did not take long for social media comments to come through like ‘this country is finished’ and that ‘the word posh costs you 3 quid’. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is marketing gone mad: and people really have a responsibility to make their own sandwiches, to send a strong message that charging £6 for an egg sandwich is not the way to help our food security crisis.
how to grow your own organic watercress
Watercress is easy to grow in England, for a peppery herb that prefers a damp environment in the sun. It’s better to grow your own, as store-bought cress is mostly made up of rapeseed oil. You can grow it indoors in water-filled containers (avoid facing foliage to outdoor gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows). Also read how to make your garden safe for pets (including mulches to avoid). And read safe (humane) ways to prevent slugs & snails munching crops.
