Growing fennel

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Fennel dates back to Roman times.  Pliny (23-79 AD) wrote about it.  He believed serpents ate and slithered up against the aromatic herb because it improved their eyesight after shedding their skins.  He used the herb to treat 22 ailments.  Fennel was a staple in royal households in the 1300's and came with the Puritans to America.  Fennel was used as an appetite suppressor, to stave off evil spirits, its tea a treatment for weight loss, insect repellant, an antidote for poisons and mad dog bites.  The list goes on!

Fennel is grown like and resembles dill.  It has a licorice taste.  All parts of the plant is edible.  Fennel grows a large bulb at the base of its stem that is eaten as a vegetable, very popular in Italian cooking.  The tops are used to flavor dishes.  The seeds are used in seasonings and its oil extracted to used for its fragrance in soaps and perfumes and to add an anise flavoring to food, candies and liquors.  It is a very versatile plant!

Cultivated fennel grows to about 3' tall like dill, with long stems and lacy foliage.  Their flowers are tiny yellow clusters.  There are green and bronze varieties.  The bronze fennel is a striking plant.  Adds a bold accent to the garden.

Pic from davesgarden.com of bronze fennel

Like dill, it can be direct sown in the garden in mid-spring, 1/8" deep, 1-2" apart and thinned to a spacing of 6" after sprouting.  Can be sown 2-5 weeks before the last average frost date, but after danger of a hard freeze (28 degrees F) is over.  Plant in fertile soil, well amended with organic matter, and keep well watered for the biggest and sweetest bulbs.  It takes 7-10 days for the seeds to sprout.  I sometimes see fennel plants in big box stores and local nurseries.

Harvest when the bulb is about the size of a tennis ball.  Cut leaves 2" above the bulb.  You can dry the seeds and foliage to use as seasoning.  Depending on the variety, fennel is ready to harvest in 75-100 days from when the seed is sown.  Bulbs can reach 1 pound in weight and 1' tall.

Fennel flowers

You can eat either raw or cooked.  It has a sweet, anise type flavor.  To me, it has a licorice taste.  It is very common to use the leaves and seeds for season fish.