2025, Family, Food, gardening, Uncategorized

Brassica Blues

28 Comments

I was at home yesterday morning making a peach crumble preparatory to going into work, when Husband phoned from the office asking if I wanted to go to Taylor, a little town about 15 miles east of us to get four cabbage plants. I said I would. They had set the plants aside for us.

I started some Alcosa savoy cabbage from seed several weeks ago. We have grown them in the past and they are a lovely cabbage. We usually start seeds under our grow lights in the basement. For a variety of reasons we had the pots in a sunny window upstairs instead. The seeds germinated beautifully, but didn’t get all the light they needed and got too leggy. Many of them got bent or broken off. I planned to grow six cabbages. I ended up with three barely viable tiny plants and planted them on Tuesday. I think they will make it. They look much better now that they are deeply planted. We even have some nifty chicken wire cloches to protect them from bunnies. We had some lovely rain in the afternoon that really helped.

Husband has been worried and fussing over the possibility that we might not have our own garden savoy cabbage. None of the grocery stores here sell it, and none of the greenhouses sell the plants. He says we have a minestrone garden, as opposed to a salsa garden, and need savoy cabbage. I told him I found a place that will send us savoy cabbages in the fall, but he continued with the anxiety about the cabbage plants. When he phoned to say that Taylor Nursery had set aside a red cabbage and three regular green cabbage plants he would be content with, I agreed to go to ease his cabbage anxiety. He is excited to make coleslaw and borscht from these very vigorous plants. I just want the fussing to stop. I just hope he doesn’t get all fussed up about the collard green seeds he plans to plant. I am so happy he isn’t planting kohlrabi.

What is your favorite veggie in the cabbage family? Would you rather have a minestrone garden, a borscht garden, or a salsa garden?

28 thoughts on “Brassica Blues”

  1. I don’t even understand the questions… let me go find the dictionary and I’ll get back.
    And what’s wrong with kohlrabi? That’s good stuff. I miss planting that. Now you’ve reminded me.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  2. I think I might prefer a minestrone garden, but I have a salsa garden every year. There isn’t room here for a lot a big things like cabbage. It’s not big or deep enough for potatoes. Sadly, there isn’t room for zucchini or squash either. Fortunately there are farmers’ markets. I can’t really even grow onions here, so my gardens aren’t truly any of the above. I do grow some tomatoes and peppers. I can grow plenty of herbs, and I do. I tried green beans once, but they didn’t make it.

    You all were funny yesterday. I liked it all but WP wouldn’t let me say so.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  4. From what you’ve related here and on other Trails, I wouldn’t expect the fussing to stop but only move on to new anxieties. If you can fuss about a cabbage, there’s no limit.

    We eat a lot of broccoli, both plain and in stir fries and frittatas.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  5. I think my vote would probably go to cauliflower although broccoli would be a close second. In fact, we just had broccoli in garlic sauce from our favorite takeout place last night.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. What VS said about favorites.

    Husband has planted: tomatoes, onions, green peppers, so I’m assuming that’s the salsa garden.
    …and beets, carrots, parsnips, green beans, broccoli, potatoes, kohlrabi, and eggplant. (no cabbage)
    So I’m thinking we’ve got ’em all covered IF we’re talking about a beet borscht garden, not a cabbage borscht one.

    What I’d rather have is Renee’s husband to come and make the coleslaw!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  7. Broccoli–roasted of course. I guess our small garden qualifies as a salsa garden, or maybe a minestrone garden if that implies more Italian-type herbs such as basil, thyme, rosemary oregano. All we usually try to grow are tomatoes and the occasional red pepper. So I guess we prefer a minestrone garden

    But this year my wife bought a strawberry plant! Best of all, we got a ripe berry a few weeks ago. *yes, I know, amazing* It was delicious.

    Chris in Owatonna

    **BSP** My first gig at the Riverwalk Market Fair in Northfield this summer is on Saturday, June 7, 9 am to 1 pm, at Bridge Square in downtown Northfield. It’s a cool, right-size vendor and farmers market with a variety of quality goods, foods, and gift ideas. There’s always excellent music to enhance the mood. And if you’re hungry for breakfast or lunch, you’ve got several excellent restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops to choose from in the downtown area. I hope to see you there. FYI, I’ve scheduled at least four more Saturdays there, so if you miss me this week, check my website for future events. **END BSP**

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  8. I eat a lot of spinach and broccoli, from the freezer section. When I move to wherever, I will consider a senior living place. My back will push me beyond cleaning soon and maybe walking. So frozen is my future. I can find some good options. Standing and cooking is too much the last month.
    Clyde

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Every couple of months I go to a place in Robbinsdale called Pub 42 for what my girlfriends and I like to refer to us our Reuben lunch. We all get reubens, but each of us has a slight variation. Mine is of course, a Reuben with no corn beef, but extra cheese. They pile on so much sauerkraut and it’s my wonderful.

      Like

      Reply

  11. I’m an unabashed cabbage lover! I have never encountered a cabbage or cabbage relative that I didn’t like. Kale, especially the curly kind, is among my favorite vegetables.

    Actually, there are very few vegetables that I’m suspicious of, and in all likelihood that’s because I don’t know how to cook them properly. Okra falls in that group, as does bitter melon. I’ve had pickled okra that I absolutely loved, and I have no doubt that bitter melon has been an ingredient in food I’ve had at various Asian restaurants, but the results of cooking them myself have been iffy.

    Which reminds me of the first time I cooked corn on the cob. I boiled it for half an hour, and it was tough as nails. It’s a distinct possibility that is was field corn and not sweet corn as wasband and I had personally picked a few ears from the edges of a cornfield on the outskirts of Cheyenne. He was a city slicker, and I grew up where corn was thought of as feed for pigs, so what did either of us know about corn?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

      1. I usually cook red cabbage only once a year, for Christmas. A Danish recipe that is a traditional accompaniment to pork roast.

        Once in a while I’ll buy a small head of fresh red cabbage at the Farmer’s Market that I’ll incorporate into a raw vegetable salad or slaw, mostly for the color.

        Sauteed in butter with a Granny Smith apple, jalapeño pepper, and parsley is good, too.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

    4. I haven’t had okra very many times in my life, but the best was actually in Singapore. It was a vegetarian dish, and the okra was almost blistered. Of course the dish was so hot and spicy that we all had to keep our napkins handy to wipe our noses.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  12. Cabbage Anxiety could be a band name, or an element in a haiku.

    Green cabbage is my favorite cabbage family plant. In cole slaw with apples, or boiled and served with butter, salt, an pepper.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

Leave a comment