Some years I don’t bother with European cabbage. My winters are short. The cabbage moths are active right into autumn, and back by mid-Spring. Cabbages take up a surprising amount of room. You harvest them once (unlike broccoli or silver beet) and then they’re gone. Chinese cabbages are easier and fill the same slot, sort of.
And then I have a cabbage year and remember why I love them and vow I will plant cabbages every year.
We’ve been eating pink coleslaw, with homemade mayonnaise, shredded cabbage, grated carrots and beetroot and finely diced red onion. We’ve been eating shredded cabbage sautèed very quickly in half butter, half olive oil till it gets little crispy brown bits. We’ve been eating mini vego Chico Rolls. We’ve been eating minestrone. We’ve been eating Okonomiyaki – Japanese cabbage pancakes. We’ve been eating soft boiled eggs chopped up in a bowl with diced cabbage and a little mayo for breakfast. I’m even thinking I might make sauerkraut this year.
Remind me next autumn that cabbages are so worth it.
Yum! I’m going to try all of those recipes. I sometimes do shredded cabbage and diced potatoes in olive oil and and garlic and butter. I’ve got two cabbage plants that the kangaroos ate at the end of summer when they were small seedlings, but the roots must still have been alive as both seedlings resprouted as twins and at the moment it looks like I might get two small cabbages from each plant!
Sauerkraut! I’ve been making lots of batches this year, experimenting with pineapple & turmeric and an apple/cinnamon/clove/ginger red sauerkraut.
Favourite is still the plain one with caraway. I’m adding it through everything from sauces, dressing, sandwiches, wraps, fried rice and mash. Anything that can do with a little bit of sour crunch gets hit and the kids love it, often just spoon feeding themselves straight out of the jar. This year, the chooks kept getting out and digging up and eating everything in sight, they’ve got a better lock on their coop, so next year will be a cabbage planting year. Which month do you plant them out?
Hi Marijke, I plant successive rounds, just a few each time, from March till June, sometimes early July.