Salad Rocket, Eruca vesicaria sativa (syn. Eruca sativa, E. vesicaria and Brassica eruca), is also rocket salad, arugula, roquette, rucola, rugula or just rocket. It’s only distantly related to wild rocket (see picture underneath this one), which does not have the same properties. It is closely related to both white and black mustard.
Salad rocket is a hardy annual, a native of Mediterranean parts of Europe, which can reach a height of 2 feet (60cm) in as little as 40 days. This makes it an excellent addition to the vegetable garden when yields are important – for example in early spring. Leaves are usually used in salad, though it can be cooked. The flowers can also be used, and have a similar taste to the leaves. The seeds can also be used to make a mustard substitute. In mild areas it can be raised from successional sowings for most of the year, even in the winter if cloched or otherwise protected.
It will grow happily almost anywhere, so long as it is not subject to maritime winds or full shade. However, as it’s a brassica it should not be grown anywhere that is infected with club root disease unless measures are taken to isolate the roots from the surrounding soil. As it grows quickly, a pocket of clean oil around the plant will achieve this perfectly well.
Although no longer used in herbal medicine, I’m including it here because it is an extremely useful addition to the diet for anyone on a low-sodium diet (low-salt diet), as it contains more than 13 times as much potassium as sodium, which means it will neutralize some of the sodium in the body. It’s also a very good source of folate. A cup of shredded salad rocket contains much more folate than the daily requirement, even for pregnant women whose need for this vitamin is higher than the norm.
As you won’t be surprised to hear, salad rocket should be grown organically to ensure that it is not contaminated by foreign chemicals. To find out more about growing organic salad rocket visit the Gardenzone.
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