Sorrel De Belleville a small French cultivar with pale-green leaves to 8cm (3in) long. It is hardy, fast growing cultivar and well-proven to be productive under almost any conditions.
Very easy to grow, producing clumps of pale green leaves with a good lemon flavour, Sorrel is greatly appreciated in France, where it is grown in everyone's garden and is easy to find in produce stands.

Sorrel is practically speaking, an ‘herb-vegetable’ or ‘pot-herb’ as it can be cooked like a vegetable, while it has a distinctive lemony flavour like an herb. It can be harvested at baby leaf stage and is a great lettuce substitute in salads and sandwiches as it doesn't go limp. It is most delicious when cooked; the flavour is a delightful acidic, it is a fantastic partner to fish, veal, eggs, and potatoes in soup or gratin.

Sorrel is one of the earliest green crops and embarrassingly easy to grow, once you've got a clump going it needs no attention other than when you want to eat it.

Position:
Sorrel prefers a sunny (or partially-shaded) spot with a reasonably-fertile and moisture-retentive soil, but thrives even in heavy soil. It may need partial shade in very hot areas.
A week before sowing the seeds outdoors, fork and rake over the ground several times to establish a soil surface with a fine and level tilth - this should be free of all weeds and large stones - and scatter a general organic fertiliser over the site.

Sowing: Sow in Spring or in Autumn to overwinter

Sowing Indoors:
Use modular seed trays (filled with seed compost) and keep them in a greenhouse or cold frame until the seedlings are ready for transplanting outside.
Modular-raised sorrel seedlings should be moved from their trays to the vegetable garden in the late spring. Space 30cm (1ft) apart and plant to the same depth as in their original containers. Water well to help them establish.

Sowing Direct:
The tiny seeds are best sown in 0.5cm (1/4in) deep seed drills (rows).
Lightly water the base of the drill, sow the seeds thinly inside and cover with soil – and label the site so you know which crop is where. Space the drills 45cm (18in) apart.
Once the seedlings have germinated and they are large enough to handle, thin them to 7.5cm (3in) apart.
A few weeks later, thin the remaining seedlings again so there is 30cm (1ft) between each one.

Cultivation:
During the main growing season, the area should be kept weed-free and the plants watered regularly in dry weather. Remove any flower stems that appear, as this will encourage the growth of new leaves.
Clumps can be divided every couple of years.

Harvesting:
Once the sorrel plants have established, the young leaves are suitable for picking on a regular basis from March until Nov. They can also be gathered through the winter if the plants are covered with protective cloches from late-autumn to the early spring.
The tender, young basal leaves are the best ones to pick for culinary purposes as they are less bitter than the course, older foliage. To guarantee a constant supply of young leaves, lightly harvest the plants on a regular basis throughout the main growing season. For the best flavour, use them on the same day, although they can be frozen.
In the kitchen, break the stems off backwards before using. This will draw out any tough string that continues up the middle of the leaf.

Culinary Use:
If you've never used sorrel, begin by adding it to your potato soup or gratin. Just sauté three or four large handfuls of chopped leaves in a bit of butter until they "melt." The "melting" quality makes sorrel a fantastic central ingredient for sauces for fish and veal. Your guests will wonder what the mystery ingredient is that gives that sauce such an intriguing tang.

Nomenclature:
"French" or "garden" sorrel is one species of a genus containing many rather close cousins, also called "sorrel" of one kind or another--wild sorrel, sheep sorrel, grassleaf sorrel, indian sorrel, maiden sorrel, green sorrel, red sorrel, and many more. This species R. acetosa is also sometimes called "French sorrel", and R. scutatus is thus sometimes called "True French sorrel" to distinguish it.

Our modern word "sorrel" comes from the old French surele, which derived from sur, "sour". There are also many common English names for the various sorrels: little vinegar plant, sour grabs, sour suds, Gowke-Meat, sourgrass, green-sauce (a popular dish made with sorrel, vinegar, and sugar),

The sorrels are all members of the Polygonaceae (from the Greek for "many-kneed", referring to the characteristic stem joints) family, which does not include any large number of common edibles, though rhubarb belongs, as do dock and buckwheat.

Envoi:
Sorrel is another of those leafy greens (like spinach) whose culinary values depend in good part on their oxalic-acid content. Most people need not be concerned about that, but those with certain conditions - kidney disease, kidney stones, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, do need to be more than ordinarily careful about oxalic acid.