Imagine a leafy salad green that tastes a little bit like lettuce, a little bit like sweet and sour sauce, and a little bit like horseradish. The older leaves have more of a peppery kick.

Come to think of it, I do have some seed for arugula, mustard, and horseradish sitting around. Maybe I should try some. Your description sounds like something I'd like...

When I grow arugula in spring, i always get frustrated when they bolted after the first few warm days in spring. The silver lining, however, is those beautiful and marvelously pepper tasting flowers. You can't get those flowers from the store. The shelf life is may be 30 mins! Straightly garden to table only!

Oh, that sounds tasty! Mine have never bolted, what with being kept indoors, but now I'm curious what would happen if I planted a few seeds outside once the weather finally cools off (highs are still in the mid-90s here). I suspect the snails and caterpillars would chomp them long before I got any edible leaves, but I wonder...

I grow some in spring and it is SO delicious while the weather is still cool. It gets too hot and bitter when it gets hot out.

I live in a very dry sunny place, and though I love to eat arugula back in the US, after 2 or 3 seasons I was convinced that arugula is just too hot and spicy here even in the cold season. Then I tried watering it more and found that worked perfectly. It's delicious and not too hot even in sunny weather, as long as I keep it watered consistently.

Arugula is very cold-tolerant so I like planting it over the winter in my solar greenhouse that drops below freezing for 2 months every night (and warm in the daytime). I find it very productive, very fast, and then it bolts and I pull it, making space for something else.

I'm talking about the large-leafed, annual, arugula with whitish flowers, Eruca spp and not about the small, perennial in mild winters, arugula with yellow flowers. That is also good, and I find it doesn't go too bitter ever, and is still good to eat when the flower stems come up; but the leaves are so small, it's not nearly as productive.