Page 18 - Book-TradiAliCulture-Belgium

A lucky discovery, story

It is said that the « chicon » was born exactly at the same time as Belgium at
the time of the Revolution in September 1830. At that time, chicory was grown a lot.
When the revolution broke out, a peasant from Schaerbeek decided to put his stock
of chicory in his cellar. And to be well sheltered, he covered the whole with a small
layer of soil. Days went by, things calmed down. And when our man went back down
to his cellar, he discovered that his chicory had produced a strange white foliage.
That he will called witloof (white leave, literally translated). That would be the origin
of the « chicon ».

Officially, however, the
head gardener of the National
Botanical Garden, a certain
Frans Bresiers, is the inventor
of the « chicon ».
At the time, Schaerbeek was
located in the countryside
and the National Botanic
Garden (now in Meise) was in
the centre of Brussels, on the
area still called the Botanique
near the North Station.

In this garden, plants of all kinds were collected. The chief gardener, learning
that the chicory would produce white leaves, did a series of tests. He understood
quite quickly that if the « chicon » was white, it is because it had grown in the dark.
In fact, the absence of light prevents photosynthesis. Therefore, without chlorophyll,
the leaves are not green as in all the other plants but remain white.

The work of Frans Bresiers and of the National Botanic Garden will consist in
transforming these random (and therefore irregular) white shoots into a real
vegetable. Larger, firm, with tightly packed leaves, a bit less bitter too. All this is a
job of selection, then the development of techniques of forced crop. It would take
several decades for the first witloofs to appear on the markets in Brussels in 1867.

"Witloof" is the very first Flemish and popular
appellation. « Chicon » is an appellation we owe to

Frans Bresiers. In fact, it comes from the Latin
scientific name of the chicory "Cichorium" that gave
the word « chicon ».

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