arugula

My first farming experience was at a place called Springfield Wall Garden in Country Limerick in Ireland. I wwoofed (a kind of farmy volunteer program) there for 3 months. They grew mostly lettuce and salad mixes for restaurants in Limerick and Cork. It was pretty awesome. Mibuna Mizuna Mustard and Rocket (rocquet?) were the varieties we grew. I hadn't ever had anything from the mustard family prior to this but I liked the way these words rolled off my tongue. Up until this point, mustard was something one put on hot dogs and I didn't much care for it. I suspected all non-lettuce like greens tasted like endive which I had had once and thought was disgusting. But after my first peppery taste of rocket (arugula to you Yanks), I was hooked.

Yesterday the distributor we order from had sent arugula instead of lettuce with our order. I decided to keep the arugula and sell it anyway. The smell and taste of arugula seems, to me, to go naturally with Ireland. It's softly green and spicy just like Ireland. It's cool on your tongue at the same time, like rain (which there was alot of while I was there). And I always call it rocket, like I learned to do in Ireland.

Thinking about this, I googled Springfield Walled Garden, which looks like it's still around, although under new management from when I was there:

Here's some pictures. The owner, Emer, is different, but I'm sure that's the same greenhouse.
http://www.valskitchen.com/vals_kitchen/2009/10/week-4-at-organic-college-and-springfield-walled-garden.html

Here's a blurb from the Irish Times
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/property/2009/1119/1224259098278.html

The garden was in a real walled castle garden. Here's a picture of the castle http://www.discoverireland.com/us/accommodation/listings/product/?fid=FI_59562. I didn't get to live in the castle though.