It’s been a great season. We’ve eaten cauliflower and cabbage and broccoli and kale and pak choi and daikon pretty well every day for the last five months. We’ve eaten Okonomiyaki for breakfast a lot of times, and Cheesy Broccoli Omelette has been a regular standby. We’ve discovered cabbage chopped very fine in the food processor, added to chicken and vegetable soup makes it thick and delicious and not like boiled cabbage at all. We’ve discovered Cauliflower Cheese Soup doesn’t actually need cheese, or perhaps just a sprinkle of parmesan on top, and that adding a leek makes it smooth and creamy just like cheese. We’ve had many many Roasted Cauliflower finger food dinners, occasionally alternated with Greek Crumbed Cauli or Broccoli Tempura. We’ve had coleslaw or Greens as Themselves as a side dish at one meal or another every day.
And it’s lasted well too. Here it is, nearly the end of Spring, just about to launch into summer. I’ve seen the cabbage moths around for a few weeks but the local predators have been knocking them off before they get a chance to lay eggs. But summer is here, all but, and it’s time to say goodbye.
There are many, many organic remedies for cabbage moth caterpillars (and the web moth caterpillars that will be next to arrive). There are nets and traps and fake moths and eggshells and trichogramma wasps and dipel. But the only one I reckon is worth the time and effort for results is timing.
From June till October, sometimes if I’m lucky like this year all the way through to November, I can grow brassicas and do nothing to control cabbage moths at all. From November till April or May, I can do everything in the arsenal and I still don’t get brassicas that can compete for a place on the plate with tromboncino and beans and squash.
It’s been lovely, but I need the space now for the capsicums and curcubits. So goodbye Brassicas, till next year. It’s been very nice.
What a wonderful harvest you’ve had.
And thank you for the recipes, the Okonomiyaki was a new and tasty experience.
I too love cabbage and have been cooking it in a large frying pan that has a lid, shredded with olive oil, diced potatoes, garlic, broad beans and bacon. Also loved your okonomiyaki can’t wait till next winter to do it all again. Sadly my cabbages and broad beans are coming to an end and there is nothing else to harvest, not even planted as we are still getting frost in the morning. I do have zucchini and bush beans seedlings in paper pots waiting to go out. I got the pots idea from your blog, they’re just the best idea. Thanks a million for all the great ideas.