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There is a certain romance that surrounds Italian vegetables. British supermarkets have caught on and are doing their best to offer a wider range. In two Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) gardens, Italian vegetables were grown in the summer of 2002. A chicory and endive trial was run at RHS Garden Wisley by Trials Superintendent Jim England. At RHS Garden Rosemoor, Gardener Peter Earl produced a selection of Italian vegetables. The Wisley trial of endive and chicory proved that these Italian vegetables are well suited to the British climate. Chicories and endives grow best on a light soil with a reasonable amount of organic matter mixed in to keep the soil moist. The damp summer proved to be no problem for many of Peter Earl's Italian vegetables at Rosemoor. While some Italian vegetable cultivars are not well suited to the UK climate's wetter summers it seems hard to go wrong with endives and chicories. Jim and Peter recommend growing them, despite the problems with germination. INSETS: AGM-WINNING PLANTS;BLANCHING.

The article features the forage crop chicory. This broad-leaved perennial plant is deemed to be the a very good crop for sheep producers and that ongoing trials suggest beef producers could be the next to benefit from its impressive forage qualities. Sheep farmers attending a demonstration at Newton Rigg College, Penrith, Cumbria, were the first in Great Britain to inspect forage chicory that had been incorporated into grass seed mixtures to provide grazing for ewes and lambs on an evaluation trial last year.

This section offers news briefs on the livestock industry in Great Britain as of July 2007. According to EBLEX, perennial chicory plays an important role in improving grazing performance as well as offering a reliable yield on drought. ABN sponsors the 2008 British Pig and Poultry Fair to be held at Stoneleigh Park in May.

Presents the result of a study conducted by Spiridoula Athanasiadou on the effects of chicory plants on lambs. Findings that chicory plants can lower the fecal egg counts of lambs; Outcomes of feeding ewes with chicory plants; Comparison of lambs reared by ewes which grazed on chicory plants with lambs reared by ewes which grazed on grass or clover swards.