Oseille Rouge - Red Sorrel - Such a Beautiful Thing!

I thought this would be a quick and easy post to write, but after trying to find the botanical name of this plant on-line, it proved to be quite a project.  The plant above, with its shiny crinkly green leaves and deep blood-red veining, were the happy result of a French seed packet brought back to me from Europe by one of David Kinch's cooks, J.P.   The seed packet says "Oseille Rouge" on it.  "Oseille," pronounced "Oh-Zehy," means "Sorrel" in French. 

I've been propagating it for Manresa and Chef Kinch for months now, and most of it doesn't make it big enough to plant out in the garden.  Not because it dies, or it's not the season, but because Chef loves using it small, straight out of the seed tray.  I insisted on saving some from the last batch to plant out in the garden, and this was the day to do it.  I had to choose a place that it could stay for years to come, because my knowledge of its supposed sister plant, green sorrel, is that it's a perennial, and will last for years well tended in perpetually damp soil.  Here's what regular sorrel, often called French Sorrel, botanical name, Rumex Acetosa, looks like:

I wanted to include the botanical name of the Oseille Rouge here, but like I said, when I started researching it, I found that there are as many different kinds of sorrel as there are paparazzi hounding Britney Spears. I spent way too much time looking at images of what purported to be Red Sorrel (none matched the plant I'm growing) and found out that the synonyms of Red Sorrel are as diverse as Bloody Dock, Sheep's Sorrel, Jamaican sorrel, Roselle, Rozelle, Hibiscus Sabdariffa, and Rumex Sanguineus.  Whew! 

I even went to the source, the seed company that packaged the seed, Graines Voltz.  They list it on their French website, but do not list a botanical name.  At least I know where to go when I need more of it.  The great thing about European seed packets is that you get a lot of seeds, much more than in our stingy American packets.

Regular green French Sorrel, is a fabulous herb/salad green.  It's one of the things that I have people taste when I'm showing them the garden.  They are amazed at it's very lemony flavor.  The Oseille Rouge is similarly flavored, but much prettier.

So alas, we have it, and you can eat it at Manresa, but if you want to grow this beauty yourself, you'll have to order the seed of Oseille Rouge from Graines Voltz yourself.  Good luck with the French translation!  If any of you know for sure, without a doubt, no foolin' what the true botanical name of this is, and where I can get it here in the States, I'd love to hear from you!  Update:  As you can see in the comments, we got it sorted out.  It is indeed Rumex Sanguineus, and it's available from Johnny's Seeds.  They call it "Red Veined Sorrel," but they also list the botanical name underneath it.  Here is a new shot I took of the babies that the chef likes to use:

Comments

[Love Apple Farm]

Drienie: I'm sure you could dry it to preserve it, but you may get a dilution on its flavor. Fresh is always better. Give it a try, though. I always encourage garden experimentation!

[Drienie Swart]

I am so glad that I discovered your site. I enjoy it very much. I do need help, is it possible to dry sorrel blood? I love the taste and would like to dry it and bottled it.

[c;linton]

I am so happy to find this post
1 I purchased some Red Sorrel from the local garden center this year. The clerk said it was one of her favorites. It started out as a six pack of little clumps of those beautiful little dark green with deep red leaves. I keep reading warnings about the oxalic acid content and to use it very sparingly but does anyone know if this variety has a lower acid content than most? It is such a beautiful plant. I want to use it liberally, mostly because I have so much of it. I planted in late March and now have six clumps that have occupied about 2x3 foot section of my raised bed. I cant use it quick enough! Any recipe suggestions would be wonderful?

[karen]

I got this plant from a lady by saginaw,mi. at a garage sale. She told me it was a Bloody Sorrel,so I got on the computer to find out more information on it.It looks just like the first picture at the top of this page. Are you sure that you can eat it ? Because I saw on a different site that you should not eat it or touch the leaves because you can get a rash, is this true ?

[Anna Thomas-Holland]

Is it possible to get a recipe for the soup please, as ours is rampant and I'm loathe to keep cutting it back and throwing the old leaves away as it is only the young ones that are preferred?

[carrie Moyer]

oooh this looks wonderful! Want to try it!

[Marie-Noelle]

Grows like weed in my garden (in France). It's ok in salads if very young, but using it at that stage means losing out on its flavour. Instead, we use it in its slightly older state and we make glorious soups with it, or it can be melted in butter and used as a sauce for poached white fish.

[Jennifer]

Dear Cynthia,
Blood Sorrel can be purchased from Mulberry Creek Herb Farm Huron, Ohio USA - Mulberrycreek.com

[Love Apple Farm]

Lana: I think it's the same kind, but you might want to double-check. There are so many different names for it. The kind they say will grow under redwoods is also what they call a weed. But hey, some weeds are better than others. I'm going to do a post soon on our edible weeds here.

[Lana Bryan]

I've read that red sorrel grows well under redwoods and plan to plant some under mine. Do you think it might be the edible kind? Bonus, if so!

[Love Apple Farm]

JP: You've got it! It must be Rumex Sanguineus. I ran across that in my initial search, but all I looked at were photos of the mature plant, which seemed much different to me than the young plants that we grow (we haven't let it get big yet). But I have been able to now see pics of young plants, and yep, you're right!

[DK]

So blood sorrel. We also found bloodwort, bloody wood dock and red veined dock as other English names.

[JP]

Hi Cynthia, nice post and nice pictures. The name for the red sorrel is Rumex sanguineus, it seems it goes by a different name in english (dock instead of sorrel).