Sorrel is a humble and valuable garden perennial – everyone should have one (or five) in their edible garden.
While Sorrel is a common perennial herb found in many parts of the world, it is often undervalued within our edible landscapes. Sorrel is one of the everyday greens that I just love having in the middle of my veggie garden. It’s been a valued part of my garden for many years now, and I eat it just as much as any other leafy green.
Sorrel is a hardy plant that actually gets hardier the longer it stays in your garden. It has nice deep roots that grow down deeper, continuously collecting moisture and nutrients from the soil. This makes it a great, long-lasting green that won’t need to be replanted every year.
Cooking with Sorrel
When eaten, Sorrel has a lemony flavour because it contains a bit of oxalic acid. For this reason, I do recommend treating Sorrel more like a spinach and cooking it before eating (just to be safe) rather than consuming it raw.
You can use it in a huge range of sauces and soups or add into stews and egg dishes. There are a lot of meals you can add it into just as you would other leafy greens. My kids also love to rip off a part of the leaves and feed it to the guinea pigs. There are so many ways to use this green, which makes it a wonderful addition to every permaculture garden.
What perennials do you have growing consistently in your edible garden?
What is permaculture?
To learn more about permaculture check out my 4 part permaculture series and take a look at Our Permaculture Life youtube channel where I have uploaded over 100 films I have made in my permaculture garden and in conversation with others. Dive deeper into this blog too and you will find over 400 permaculture articles.
Now is such a great time to learn more about permaculture and consider making permaculture your way of life and livelihood too. To help with this, I offer two online permaculture courses:
- Permaculture Educators Program – Permaculture Design & Teaching Certificates
- The Incredible Edible Garden – permaculture gardening course
I also encourage you to support free permaculture education programs for women and youth in the global south through our registered permaculture charity, the Ethos Foundation.
