Red-veined sorrel

Another duplicate post from Places of the Spirit.  This post really belongs here in terms of theme, but it's nice to have all of the Inktober posts in the same place.   And my vegetable garden(s) are places of the spirit, too.

This was the inspiration in one of my front raised beds.

Red-veined sorrel

 

Inktober Day 23: A red-veined sorrel leaf

A delicious salad at lunch with a friend at Curaté a number of years ago introduced me to red-veined sorrel as a salad ingredient.  I'd only been familiar with it as a ornamental garden (it's also called bloody sorrel, an unfortunate common name).

But the small young leaves were delicious and a beautiful salad addition, with a nice lemony flavor.  It's quite different than French sorrel, which I've also grown. The larger leaves are still edible too, when cooked and it's handsome mixed in with other vegetables and herbs in my raised beds in the front garden.

So I've been growing it for some years now (it's perennial), replacing plants when deep freezes have taken out existing plants.  Cooler weather now in fall has brought a profusion of attractive leaves (removing the  bean plants that had been there all summer has probably helped, too!)

A young leaf was my subject for today's drawing.  I'll be rather glad to have Inktober behind me, but it's been quite fun and encouraging, nonetheless, to focus on improving my drawing (and inking) skills.