I had a bunch of rocket (arugula for my american buddies) plants growing over the summer. Got a few nice salads, and made some spicy garlic bread by blending up the leaves into a paste with butter & garlic. Rocket-butter is 💯 on a steak btw.
The leaves were significantly hotter (as in, peppery) than ones you get from the shops, and I'm wondering why.
A clue came more recently: after letting all of the old plants go to seed, I cut them and hung to dry (they were pretty huge by this time), turned the soil and re-sowed. The second round took off quickly, and I noticed that the leaves had a much milder and more pleasant flavour this time.
So I'm wondering what the difference was?
- maybe it had something to do with the re-seeding?
- maybe the soil had mellowed by the time of the second batch?
- maybe it was weather related? (the second batch was in significantly cooler and wetter weather than the first).
If I had to take a guess I'd say that higher heat / dryer ground was the main influencer of the leaves. Will try again next time and see if I can repeat it :)