Radicchio: Yes, it’s a thing at the moment. It has its own newly formed association, an annual festival and even a poster and lapel pin for sale on Etsy. Yet many American gardeners have never tried growing this cultivated form of chicory.

Right about now is the time to get seeds and add it to the list of vegetables to sow around the solstice — as you would broccoli or cabbage — for fall-into-winter harvests, radicchio’s prime time.