A word about cabbages. That means I'm going to go on and on about them.
I feel the public is uninformed when it comes to cabbages. I say that because of some strange encounters I have had.
Once, I ordered Cole slaw at a restaurant and it was made of lettuce. I asked the young waitress if there had been some mistake. She said not. Apparently Cole means nothing to people. Cole crops are cabbages, not lettuces. Thinking that I could have been mistaken all these years, I checked it out. Cole are one of several Brassicas; broccoli is a cousin.
When I ran out of my homegrown cabbages, I bought another one at the little grocery store that usually has quite nice produce. The young girl at the checkout looked puzzled. "Do you like them?" she asked. I wanted to say, "No, I use them as doorstops, but they do roll a bit."
She looked even more blank when I said they were good as coleslaw and also cooked with various sausages.
I believe people are failing their children in the foods department. When I asked a check-out girl where the barley was, she asked me if it was a spice.
Having gotten those episodes off my chest, I shall go on about cabbage. Not only do I love them, but I love growing them.
Recently, I complained to Lissa that all I could find at the supermarket were rather small cabbages. I wondered if there had been some sort of untoward weather event that was responsible. Lis laughed and said that's because I grow cabbages on steroids.
The fun for me is to grow several varieties of cabbage, so I can have them all season long. The last ones to ripen are the Bravos, which are the biggest. I'm down to my last two quarts of sauerkraut, hence the big planting of Bravos.
There is something that appeals greatly to a frugal soul like me when starting cabbages. A package of cabbage seeds lasts years. Say a person plants two seeds to a pot and cruelly pulls out one seedling. Even so, a package holds 100 seeds at a cost of $1.75 at Pinetree Seeds. The initial investment of some shop lights over the seeds pays for itself over years, and the size bag of potting soil I buy lasts nearly forever.The inexpensive pots are reusable. Cabbages are as close to free as possible.
Here they are after more rain than they really wanted. One is a broccoli that got in while I wasn't looking.
My new Perma Bed took a few more. This one is an Early Round Dutch, which may be ready by dinnertime.
This year I'm growing: Bravos and Early Round Dutch . The latter are tasty but relatively useless as door stops.
