Fennel is the slow one. Around three weeks from sowing to a usable harvest, against seven days for the crops most people start with. In exchange you get the only anise flavour in the catalogue and foliage that looks like nothing else growing in a tray.

What it tastes like

Anise — the liquorice note of the mature bulb and the herb, concentrated into something you can scatter. It is clean rather than sweet, and it works the way a fresh herb works: added late, in small amounts, changing the character of a dish rather than bulking it out.

The variety usually grown as a microgreen is bronze fennel, a dark, metallic-brown-leaved variant of the ordinary green kind. It is grown partly for how it looks, but the flavour is there too.

Growing it

  • Slow to germinate and slow after that. Budget around three weeks. If you are running one tray at a time, that is three weeks you are not growing anything else — plan it as a side crop.
  • Late is better than early. Unusually, letting fennel run a few days past the point where you could cut it improves it: the foliage develops into a finer, more feathery pattern that is much more attractive as a garnish.
  • Sow thinly and keep air moving. Three weeks under cover is a long exposure, and the same principles that prevent mould matter more here than on a seven-day crop.

How to use it

Fennel is a finishing herb. It belongs on the plate, not in the pan.

  • On oily fish. Salmon, mackerel, sardines. Anise against oily fish is a classic pairing and this is the most elegant way to deliver it.
  • In salads that need a note rather than a punch. A small scatter reads as sophisticated; a handful reads as liquorice.
  • As a visual garnish, which is a legitimate use on its own. The feathery bronze foliage does something no other crop in the tray can.
  • Not with the peppery crops. Anise and mustard heat argue rather than combine — our flavour profiles guide sorts out which families sit together.

Who should grow it

Anyone who cooks fish regularly, and anyone who plates food for other people. If your interest is volume and nutrition per week of growing time, fennel is a poor trade and there is no shame in skipping it.

Like sorrel, it is a supporting crop — grown in small quantity for a specific job, not as something you eat by the bowl.

Timing and variety notes in this article draw on Cooking With Microgreens by Sal Gilbertie and Larry Sheehan, cross-checked against our own trays.