Brassica nigra 'Black Mustard'

Brassicaceae: a robust, greyish annual to 2m. Often found on sea cliffs, river banks and waste ground. The flowers are 12-15mm across and yellow, blooming from May-August. The pods are flattened and pressed close to the stem. The leaves are pinnately lobed and bristly. Locally common in England and Wales, but they are scarce elsewhere. Native to Europe including Britain.

USES:

The leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, they hot in flavour. They can be finely chopped and added to salads or cooked as a potherb. The seedlings can also be used in salad when about one week old, adding a hot pungency to a salad. Immature flowering stems can be cooked and eaten like broccoli. Mustard seed is commonly ground into a powder and used as a food flavouring and relish. This is the black mustard of commerce, it is widely used as a food relish and as an ingredient of curry. The pungency of mustard develops when cold water is added to the ground-up seed - an enzyme (myrosin) acts on a glycoside (sinigrin) to produce a sulphur compound. The reaction takes 10 - 15 minutes. Mixing with hot water or vinegar, or adding salt, inhibits the enzyme and produces a mild bitter mustard. The seed can also be used whole to season pickles, curries, sauerkraut. Black mustard has a stronger more pungent flavour than white mustard (Sinapis Alba) and brown mustard (B. juncea).

Mustard seed is often used in herbal medicine, especially as a rubefacient poultice. The seed is ground and made into a paste then applied to the skin in the treatment of rheumatism, as a means of reducing congestion in internal organs. Applied externally, mustard relieves congestion by drawing the blood to the surface as in head afflictions, neuralgia and spasms. Hot water poured on bruised seeds makes a stimulant foot bath, good for colds and headaches. Old herbals suggested mustard for treating alopecia, epilepsy, snakebite, and toothache. Care must be taken not to overdo it, since poultices can sometimes cause quite severe irritation to the skin. The seed is also used internally, for its appetiser, digestive, diuretic, emetic and tonic properties.

GROWING INFORMATION:

An easily grown plant, black mustard is suited to many types of soils except very heavy clays, it grows best on light sandy loams, or deep rich fertile soils. Succeeds in full sun in a well-drained fertile preferably alkaline soil. Sow seeds in situ from early spring until late summer in order to obtain a succession of crops. The main crop for seed is sown in April. Easy.

HARVESTED: 2022*

APPROX. 300+ SEEDS