picked our first coriander it doesn't taste!

[andy armitage]

Hi all we picked some to have tonight but it really tasted awful even a bit soapy it has bolted a bit and the seeds we planted were quite cheap ones, is it not the thing to grow?

[rustylady]

Have you eaten coriander leaves before? Where did you grow yours? I always find it smells/tastes slightly musty, even from the shops. Bolting shouldn't affect the flavour. Maybe you just don't like the taste of coriander. I find it best served chopped on top of curries, or chopped and mixed with green salad.

[andy armitage]

we cook with coriander all the time so are very familiar with the taste, it was just horrible we just grew it in a raised bed with a mixture of soil and manure, never mind it's just one of those things i suppose

[smallblueplanet]

I don't know if it makes a difference to taste but there are corianders that are grown for seed over preference to coriander grown for leaf?

We grow coriander and find it tricky to get enough leaf before it bolts, but as you know you can cook with all of it. Maybe someone like momol might have a better idea. But treat yourself to some seed for leaf and see if there's a difference, it might just be the variety you've grown?

[Finedon.Dandy]

Would it be better harvested in the morning?

[deezyb]

i find coriander a bit hard to grow to be honest! last year it was a disaster totally, however with a bit of luck, i've managed to grow 4 plants this year with some other seeds germinating as we speak!!! i just pick the leaves as I need them and I grow them in pots a bit more thickly sown than some would suggest! things seem average so far..! However I just pick at existing plants so that I can encourage growth...this seems to hep!

[BarleySugar]

Have you thought of trying Vietnames coriander? It doesn't taste quite the same, and looks totally different to normal coriander, but it's a good subsitute and much easier to grow. I bought one very small plant from the Garden centre and took cuttings. They rooted within 3 days just in water and now I have 4 large plants in 10 inch pots. Great in curries etc, I'm going to freeze a load for the winter, although the plants are perrenial, but frost tender, so I'll need to overwinter inside and I won't have room for all the plants.

[SandM]

I planted some seeds this year & have gotten 3 nice plants... I haven't cooked with them properly because they're too tiny, but so far they taste alright raw.

I used some alan titchmarsh organic seeds that they sell at homebase for like �1.75. i'm pretty new to gardening so i don't know what coriander seeds should be going for at the moment, but those have worked really well. lol.

ps- vietnamese coriander is really easy to grow, but SO different. I don't really think they can be interchangeable in the kitchen.

x
M

[percy charlie]

i grew some corriander from seed and it tastes lovely, i grew it in a pot on the window sill for about 2-3 months then planted outside its grow quite big now and still tastes the same, dont use manure on any of my herbs, or berry fruit except just a little for raspberries, manure great for rhubarb and i water regulary and feed every 3 weeks with liquid growmore as per bottle instructions. the seeds i used where by a company called ALEX and it tastes like the corriander you buy but fresher, is best picked in the morning the flavour is a little better then before the sun is on it all day. hope this helps

[mrs dog]

I'm going to try that with the vietnamese coriander, however I always find that coriander tastes better when its had a good baking in the sun. Don't feed the plants and only water when they look dehydrated see if that helps.

[Two_Sheds]

it really tasted awful even a bit soapy

you haven't been spraying against greenfly have you?

[minskey]

I grew coriander from seed two years ago & it was fab , lots of growth, nice thick row, It kept on going until last winter. I was delighted as I use it a lot. I kept the seeds from flowers which I let grow, some for cooking with the rest for planting this spring which I did & how dissapointing, scraggy plnts which keep bolting

[andy armitage]

not sprayed it for anything i guess we are just unlucky we have pulled it up and thrown it away but thanks for all your comments