Fenkoli - Florence Fennel

Fen­ko­li – Flo­ren­ce Fen­nel
Fo­e­ni­cu­lum vul­ga­re

Api­a­ce­ae – hei­mo Sar­ja­kuk­kais­kas­vit

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Tuo­re fen­ko­li on hy­vin aro­maat­ti­nen vi­han­nes. Fen­ko­lis­ta ero­te­taan usein kak­si eri muun­nos­ta, jot­ka ovat maus­te­fen­ko­li ja sa­laat­ti­fen­ko­li. Fen­ko­lis­sa on kiin­teä val­koi­nen tyvi­osa, sel­le­ri­mäi­nen var­si ja il­ma­vat, har­so­mai­set leh­det, sekä pik­ku­rui­set kel­tai­set kim­puis­sa kas­va­vat ku­kat.

Fen­ko­li on pe­räi­sin Väli­me­ren alu­eel­ta, mis­sä sitä on­kin vil­jel­ty yli 2000 vuot­ta. Suo­mes­sa fen­ko­lia voi vil­jel­lä Ou­lun ete­lä­puo­lel­la, mut­ta tal­ven yli se pär­jää vain maan ete­läi­sim­mis­sä osis­sa.

Myös sak­san­ku­mi­na­na tun­ne­tun fen­ko­lin mie­to anik­sen­kal­tai­nen maku saa ko­kit se­ko­a­maan. Sii­tä voi käyt­tää niin var­ren, leh­det, ku­kat kuin sie­me­net. Nii­tä voi ri­po­tel­la ko­ris­teek­si ja maus­teek­si, mut­ta fen­ko­lia voi myös hau­dut­taa keit­to­ruo­kiin, raas­taa sa­laat­tiin tai lei­poa vaik­ka ome­na­pii­rak­kaan! Kas­via voi pa­kas­taa, kui­va­ta ja säi­löä öl­jyyn tai pik­ke­löi­dä. Kan­san­pe­rin­tees­sä sitä on käy­tet­ty tee­nä näön vah­vis­ta­mi­seen, vii­nan maus­ta­mi­seen, vat­sa­tau­tien tor­jun­taan ja laih­dut­ta­mi­seen, sil­lä sen aja­tel­tiin vä­hen­tä­vän nä­län­tun­net­ta ja pa­ran­ta­van ruo­an­su­la­tus­ta. Fen­ko­lin öl­jyä on käy­tet­ty pe­rin­tei­ses­ti ys­kän­lääk­keis­sä.

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Flo­ren­ce Fen­nel
Fo­e­ni­cu­lum vul­ga­re

The­re are two forms of fen­nel, the herb or leaf va­rie­ties grown for their le­a­ves, stems and seeds, and flo­ren­ce fen­nel (var. dul­ce) grown for its bulb like thic­ke­ned pe­ti­o­les (leaf stalks). Both are known for their ani­se or li­quo­ri­ce fla­vour. Leaf fen­nel will grow to over 1m tall and has fi­ner stems and le­a­ves than the shor­ter Flo­ren­ce fen­nel, which has thic­ke­ned stems and co­ar­ser dark green le­a­ves. The who­le plant is edib­le, but its best to choo­se the cor­rect va­rie­ty to suit your needs, for examp­le avoid using the co­ar­ser le­a­ves of flo­ren­ce fen­nel for gar­nis­hing or in le­a­fy sa­lads.

Flo­ren­ce fen­nel ta­kes 80-90 days to grow, the le­a­fy va­rie­ties can be har­ves­ted ear­lier by cut­ting the fo­li­a­ge as it grows. if seeds are re­qui­red then they can be col­lec­ted af­ter drying the ma­tu­re flo­wers. Flo­ren­ce fen­nel is not easy to grow due to the sen­si­ti­vi­ty to bol­ting (pre­ma­tu­re­ly pro­du­cing flo­wer stem), which gre­at­ly re­du­ces the qu­a­li­ty of the bulb. Bol­ting is cau­sed by long day length in ear­ly sum­mer and stress cau­sed by for examp­le poor plant qu­a­li­ty, dry con­di­ti­ons or in­ten­se weed com­pe­ti­ti­on. By choo­sing the best va­rie­ties, paying at­ten­ti­on to crop hus­band­ry and plan­ting as the day length shor­tens af­ter mid­sum­mer the chan­ce of suc­cess is gre­at­ly inc­re­a­sed but not gu­a­ran­teed.

Af­ter har­vest the le­a­fy fen­nel is tre­a­ted si­mi­lar­ly to dill, it must be kept cool and moist and used as soon as pos­sib­le. For flo­ren­ce fen­nel the le­a­ves and up­per stems should be cut away from the bulb using a sharp kni­fe, this will help to avoid ra­pid wil­ting and al­low the bulb to be kept for up to 1 week in a frid­ge. As with many ve­ge­tab­les and herbs, the fla­vour and frag­ran­ce is clo­se­ly lin­ked to vo­la­ti­le es­sen­ti­al oils and the lon­ger the plant is kept af­ter har­vest the more frag­ran­ce dis­si­pa­tes. This is par­ti­cu­lar­ly evi­dent in fen­nel, dill, pars­ley and many herbs, and is the re­a­son why the­se plants should al­ways be used as soon as pos­sib­le af­ter har­vest if you wish to get the best re­sults.

Ty­pi­cal qu­a­li­ty prob­lems with fen­nel are wil­ting and yel­lo­wing of ol­der and poor­ly kept le­a­ves, small nar­row bulbs or bulbs elon­ga­ted due to bol­ting. A good qu­a­li­ty fen­nel bulb should feel he­a­vy for its size, be bro­ad in sha­pe and have a cle­an whi­te co­lour.

For our Welsh spe­a­king vi­si­tors ´Mae ffe­nigl yn gwneud sa­lad hyf­ryd, wedi´u slei­sio´n de­nau gyda dre­sin vi­naig­ret­te cla­su­rol`.