Field Notes: Arugula
If you have a brown thumb and a gardening dream, arugula might be the crop for you.
Or…
If you farm in Cary, North Carolina, and are trying to find crops that can withstand large fluctuations in temperature, arugula might be the crop for you.
If Jamie, our farm manager, had her choice, we’d grow more spinach than arugula. But over the last few years, spinach has proven to be more and more challenging to grow - it really hates temperature fluctuation, preferring a nice, consistent 50 to 60° environment - something we don’t have the ability to provide. If spinach had a zodiac sign, surely it would be a Taurus - change adverse and stubborn.
Arugula, on the other hand, is low-maintenance and easy-going. Temperature swings from 70 degrees one day to 30 degrees the next? No problem! The green is best grown in spring and fall (though its flowers are also delicious if you decide to let it bolt), and it’s quite low maintenance with a reliably high germination rate.
But take heed: fully mature, garden-grown arugula is a different animal than the mild, uniform leaves in the plastic clamshell you’ll get from the supermarket. Mature arugula is PUNCHY with bitterness. It is PEPPERY. And it is absolutely delicious, and versatile, with a bit of attention.
If you’re a fan of the stronger flavor (as we are), arugula makes a beautiful salad green. If you find the flavor too strong, consider our arugula pesto recipe. Now, there are a million arugula pesto recipes out there, but we tried a lot of them, and we tried several variations on our own, and we can say with confidence that this one is pretty delicious. Rice wine vinegar and a touch of honey make all the difference; they disarm arugula’s bellicose characteristics, but still leave enough punch to be defining. Get the recipe here. And what should you do with that pesto? Our first move would be to make a grilled cheese.
Or, if you have a food dehydrator, you can dry your arugula, as we did, into umami-rich, peppery herb.
Interested in planting arugula? Here’s a rundown of tips:
Variety: We don’t venture into multiple varieties of arugula, typically. We’ve seen great success with the standard arugula from Johnny’s.
We direct seeded our fall arugula in our hoop house, but it is cold-hardy so we could have just as easily planted it in one of our uncovered beds.
Pest management: Anyone who tells you that pests don’t like arugula is lying. Aphids hit our arugula patch hard this fall, so much so that it made sense to harvest it all at once rather than try a cut-and-come-again method. Don’t be afraid to make a bold harvesting decision, especially now that you have a solid pesto recipe to preserve your greens for future use.
