How to grow sorrels

Sorrel is a perennial leafy herb valued for arrow-shaped leaves with a sharp, lemony tartness that comes through raw in salads, and mellows once cooked into soups or sauces. It comes up early in spring, often before most vegetables are ready to plant, and keeps producing tender leaves through the season from the same crown. Because it returns on its own each year, gardeners often treat it the way they would a small perennial herb bed, planted once rather than worked into the annual rotation. The tartness comes from oxalic acid in the leaves, part of what makes even a small handful noticeable in a dish.

The hardest part of growing sorrel well is keeping it from bolting into seed. University of Minnesota Extension advises removing seed stalks as they emerge, just as a gardener would with rhubarb, to keep the plant productive. A second-year gardener who treats the planting as low-maintenance once established, the same assumption that works with rhubarb, often lets those stalks stand, and the plant redirects energy into flowering rather than new leaf growth. Extension also notes sorrel is not nearly as long-lived as rhubarb, so a stand left to seed out repeatedly declines within a couple of seasons, leaving a gardener replanting sooner than planned.