Watercress is popular in salads and grown on a wide scale. In the wild it grows in shallow, fast-flowing streams and is an indicator of clean water.
Watercress is a hardy, perennial, European herb (Nasturtium officinale) which grows naturally in wet soil along and in spring brooks, ditches and pond margins and is cultivated for use as a piquant salad garnish, due to its interesting and pleasantly sharp taste. Its small dark green leaves have a sharp, pungent and slightly bitter flavour with a peppery snap.
An aquatic plant of the mustard family, watercress is best when it is fresh and crisp. The leaves can be used as a garnish or to spice up a salad, as well as in sandwiches, soups and a variety of cooked dishes.
Did you know?
Although historically watercress was grown all around the country, the vast majority of UK watercress production is just over the county border in Hampshire (known as the Watercress Capital of the World) and Dorset.
Watercress cultivation takes place in beds which have solid gravel bases and impermeable walls and the water comes from natural springs and deep boreholes. The plants are scattered in the bed by hand where they take root some ten to fourteen days later.
Did you know?
Watercress is available all year-round and customarily sold in small bouquets. Choose watercress with crisp leaves with a deep, vibrant colour and keep refrigerated in a plastic bag. Alternatively, watercress can be kept for up to 5 days, stem-down in a glass of water, covered with a plastic bag.
Hairspring Watercress started in 1870 and is still a family run business producing traditionally harvested and bunched watercress. The farm is on the site of geological fault line that passes through the area, with a natural spring emerging, and a borehole that provides a constant stream of the fresh spring water needed to grow watercress. Hairspring Watercress has been an Approved Grower under the NFU Watercress Association scheme for over 50 years.
Did you know?
In the early days the majority of the local watercress was sent by the train line that ran from Brighton to Portsmouth, with direct links to London. The more local village markets were supplied direct by horse and cart.
There are many types of water cress:
- Garden Cress or Pepper-grass (Lepidium sativum)
- Upland or Winter cress (Barbarea vernapraecox)
- Bitter-cress (Cardamine pratensis)
- Indian-cress (another name for nasturtium) or Tropaeolum majus
- Penny cress or species of Thlaspi
- Rock-cress or species of Arabis
- Stone-cress or genus Aethionema
- Wart-cress or species of Coronopus
Westerners eat watercress raw but in the East it is blanched, the moisture wrung out and then chopped and tossed with a light sesame oil dressing. The Chinese often stir fry it with a little salt, sugar and wine, or use it in soups.
Did you know?
Watercress must be harvested just before the flower buds appear or the leaf flavour will be inedible. If it’s not grown in fresh running spring water then it’s not watercress!
If you’d like to buy watercress locally it is now available directly from Hairspring Watercress farm gate at Hambrook. Just head up to the top of Hambrook Hill South and follow the signs, with freshly cut watercress direct from the farm!
- Find out more about watercress – click here
- View over 30 interesting watercress recipes – click here
- Buy fresh watercress from Hairspring in Nutbourne – click here
- Find out answers to common questions about watercress – click here