When most people think of fennel, they tend to think of the big, bulbous vegetable fennel — like celery with a big aniseedy bottom. Known as Florence fennel, this is a different beast and requires good moist soil and careful growing.
The other type of fennel is the herb (Foeniculum vulgare), which is salad fennel or culinary fennel. The plant looks like an elegant cow parsley with a fine, spidery, aromatic leaf and produces the fennel seeds you cook with. Not everyone likes that aniseed flavour but I love it, and a few shreds scattered onto a leafy green salad is always a pleasant addition.
The wonder of culinary fennel is that it grows with no attention and, if allowed to drop its
