Cress makes summer treat

Today we enjoyed home grown cress sandwiches in traditional English style with boiled eggs and mayonnaise.

The bread was crustless, of course, and cut carefully and the sandwiches were an unusual treat in the Spanish countryside. Some time earlier we had bought a cress kit in a bag, which included soil and seeds, and all it took was some sunlight and water for the seeds to sprout and grow quickly.

Harvest came today with carefully snipping of scissors, boiling of eggs and mixing with mayonnaise.

Many people will remember growing garden cress on blotting paper at school in early experiments in biology classes. This cress is not the big-leaved stuff that grows in water beds but, instead, consists of frail white stems with little green leaves at the top.

On June 2, 1953, the young Princess Elizabeth was crowned Queen and celebrations were held throughout Britain and in dominions and colonies around the world. Youngsters in Harringey, London, were given a special tea party to mark the occasion. Phillip, who was two, was one of the toddlers invited and the party is one of his earliest memories.

When he returned home, according to his mother, he was full of complaint. “Mum. They made us eat grass,” he protested. The grass was, of course, cress.

A few years older now, cress is a very special treat. The Latin name for garden cress is Lepidium sativum and it is related to the larger-leaved cresses. It is one of the most important of the mustard species. As garden cress can´t be dried it has to be eaten fresh – hence the grow-your-own packs. A hundred grams of cress contains 115 per cent of the individual daily requirement for vitamin C and many other good things.

Some people, it must be said, find the taste a little too strong and mustardy.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.