Chicory is a perennial, cool-weather crop, with a tap root like a Dandelion.  It has a tart, bitter taste.  It spreads, but not thickly, and has a scraggly overall appearance.  Chicory can be used as a vegetable like lettuce, but is more often used for its root, which can be ground and roasted for blending with coffee.  Young roots can also be boiled and eaten with butter, much like parsnips.

The flowers of Chicory are a pleasant blue, and they close in the afternoons.  Harvest leaf Chicory as the leaves become adequately large.  To blanch the roots, harvest before frost and store in sand in a dark room.  

Chicory is an easy to grow plant with a long taproot that makes it somewhat resistant to drought.  It  prefers moderately rich, well-drained soil and full sun, and can be easily started from seed.