Sorrel

Rumex acetosa

Garden sorrel is a hardy perennial leaf vegetable in the buckwheat family, grown for its narrow, arrow-shaped leaves and clean, sharp sourness. The name “sorrel” is also used for other plants, including French sorrel and sheep sorrel, so this page uses it for common garden sorrel, Rumex acetosa.¹²

The leaves are the main food. Their tart flavor comes from oxalic acid, which gives sorrel a bright, lemonlike edge and makes a little go a long way in a dish. Young leaves are more tender; older leaves can grow tougher and more bitter. The plant sends up reddish flower stalks, while its leafy clump can persist as a perennial in a garden, making it a dependable green in cool-climate herb beds.¹²

Sorrel has a long history as both a gathered green and a cultivated potherb in Europe. Garden cultivars enlarged the leaves and improved their texture; ‘Belleville,’ for example, was selected in France in the late seventeenth century and remains a familiar large-leaved type.¹ That combination of hardiness and vivid acidity makes sorrel an apt Northeast crop, and it is the leaf ingredient referred to in the notebook’s buckwheat pairing.¹²