Get creative in the kitchen and the garden, and enter the Love the Garden competition for the best vegetable recipe! The prize is a meal for two at the restaurant of your choice in the UK worth £200!
Every two months Love the Garden will select a new seasonal vegetable to feature in their Vegetable Garden Competition. This month its cabbage!
If you’ve got a great recipe featuring that vegetable, then all you have to do to enter is post the recipe on your blog. Then email Love the Garden the link at entries@lovethegarden.com to let them know. All the entries will be listed on the vegetable garden competition page and the recipe with the most votes wins!
If you think you’d like to enter or even just vote you can read all about the competition here: http://www.lovethegarden.com/blog/cabbage-recipe-competition
To vote for your favourite recipe go to the vegetable garden competition page .
At the end of the competition the vegetable recipe with the highest number of votes wins a fabulous dinner for two at a restaurant of the blogger’s choice!
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Jealott’s Hill Research Research Station has been investigating the components of taste and flavour, and have now manipulated them to produce a milder tasting cabbage variety called Belada.
Researchers have discovered that using DNA marker analysis of seedlings enables them to select traits which influence glucosinolate levels and volatile metabolites that affect flavour and smell.
cabbage
Has this research has produced a cabbage which no longer leaves a smell in the kitchen after cooking, as well having a mild taste and flavour?
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Two of our 30 Elisa F1 cabbage have finally split.
cabbage-split
The cabbage have been ready for several weeks, with hard, compact, round shiny heads.
Mature-Cabbage-Elisa
Most F1s, including Elisa cabbage, have good standing – which means they stay in this firm state for many weeks. Even though Elisa is not generally prone to splitting, the long period of dry weather experienced when the heads were mature, followed by a heavy downpour, has caused the cabbage to crack and split wide open.
The main causes of cabbages splitting are:
- the pressure of excessive water when the heads are mature
- sudden heavy rain
- a growth spurt caused by water after a long dry period
Ways to avoid cabbages splitting
- choose a variety which does not normally split
- keep cabbages well & evenly watered
- mulch the cabbage so that they do not dry out & rain is slowly released to the soil
- after rain: either
cut the roots, by pushing a spade down either side of the cabbage, so that it cannot take up too much water
or, lift the head & twist to one side so that the roots break – but the cabbage will have to be harvested quite soon after this
split-cabbage
Harvest split cabbage heads as soon as possible because the open surface will allow disease to enter & the head will deteriorate.
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Mid-July and August is a good time to sow Spring Cabbage in the vegetable garden for harvest next Spring (April or May).
springcabbage
Plant Spring Cabbage seed:
- 0.5cm deep
- in a seed bed or trays of seed compost
- the seed bed should be kept moist
transplanting-cabbage
Transplant the spring cabbage plants to their final positions:
- 5 or 6 weeks after sowing
- into a deeply dug, well cultivated soil
- firm the plants well into the ground
- water well until they are established
- cover with enviromesh to protect against aphids, butterflies and birds
cabbage-under-enviromesh
cabbage-spring
The Spring Cabbage will produce:
- good firm hearts ready for harvest in April and May
- Spring Greens earlier in the year, before the hearts develop
SpringCabbage
TopVeg is growing the spring cabbage variety Offenham 2 – Flower of Spring.
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The deer have been eating the exposed green leaves whilst the snow was on the ground and they have done considerable damage in the vegetable garden.
sprout-leaves-eaten-by-deer
The deer have eaten the Brussels sprout leaves and some tops.
deer-damaged-sprouts
It is the Brussels sprout plants at the end of the rows which have suffered.
deer-eat-sprout-row
The cabbage had a better covering of snow, but a couple must have been sticking out far enough to be tempting!
cabbage-eaten-by-deer
The cabbages are now covered with a net just in case!
cabbage-in-snow
It is nice to see the deer, and so far we can afford to share some greens with them.
deer-full-of-garden
Do you know of anyone else suffering damage from deer in the vegetable garden?
The Primo cabbage seed has grown quickly and was ready to harvest 20 weeks after sowing.
PrimoCabbage
Primo is a summer cabbage which produces very firm, medium sized heads.
The cabbage is excellent quality and has a good, sweetish flavour.
Cabbage can be cooked in 3 ways:
- Microwave – place shredded cabbage in a microwaveable dish with 3 tablespoons (3×15ml) water. Cook on fullpower for 3 minutes, stand for 1 minute.
- Steam – place shredded cabbage in a steamer, cover & steam for 10-15 minutes until tender
- Boil on hob – place shredded cabbage in a pan of boiling water. Simmer for 4-5 minutes until tender. Drain well.
Serve cabbage with a dot of butter and sprinkle with ground pepper.
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Cabbage White Caterpillars
Cabbage White Caterpillars can devastate brassicas if they are not picked off or
sprayed.
broccoli-eaten-by-caterpillars
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Enviromesh netting has had a huge impact on vegetable gardening. Enviromesh Netting
guarantees gardeners quality vegetables. Return on effort is assured.
Gone are the days of caterpillar infested, dirty, distorted crops which
children dare not eat, for fear of finding a creepy crawly in their dinner.
Enviromesh prevents damage from:
* carrot fly
* aphids
* cabbage root fly
* cabbage white butterfly
* caterpillars
* birds
* rabbits
* deer
* wind
* hail
enviromesh-over-brassica
The enviromesh netting acts as a barrier:
* The holes in netting are small enough to keep the carrot flies and
other insects out.
* Rain can pass though the netting.
* Enviromesh can be watered through.
enviromesh-on-cabbage
Enviromesh netting is a form of biological pest control.
* No need to spray crops with chemicals as the netting keeps the
pest out.
Enviromesh Netting for the Vegetable Garden can be purchased from LBS
and costs £13.96 for 2.1m x 4.5m of enviromesh.
