GROWING MY OWN BELGIAN ENDIVE was a revelation, because, alone among the gardeners I knew, I was the only one harvesting fresh garden vegetables in the middle of January. It made my tired winter salads come to life. I sowed the seed in the spring, grew out the plants over the summer, and when the weather turned cold in the fall, pulled out the plants, trimmed the tops off the big roots, and buried the roots in a deep pit filled with leaves and hay to keep the roots from freezing. Then in January, when the ground was frozen solid and covered with snow, I opened the pit and took the roots into my dark basement, where I set them upright in boxes filled with wet sand. In about three weeks, I was harvesting homegrown, organic chicons. They had that icy-bitter flavor with a touch of sweetness that marks the chicories.