The Modern Victory Garden

Last year I planted a lot less cabbages and kale than I have in prior years.   I honestly have no idea why that happened really, it just did.   It must have been a function of trying to make room for other items I wanted to plant, but it was not a conscious decision on my part.   I came to really regret that so few cabbages and kales were planted last year (of all years!) because it turned out to be a “cabbage year” – a term Steve Solomon uses in his book “Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades” for those really damp, cloudy summers that can occur here in the maritime pacific northwest.   Brassica family plants (also known as cole crops) thrive in cool weather, are very frost hardy, and reliably produce high yields per square foot of garden space used - even in the wettest and coolest of conditions.   If you can keep the slugs under control, these are the perfect plant for the coastal pacific northwest vegetable garden.            

I was determined not to make the same mistake again, so the cabbage patch for 2011 is fairly good sized and includes several varieties to keep things interesting.   As it turns out, this spring has been shaping up to be quite cloudy and damp and if it keeps going on this trend, may indeed end up being yet another “cabbage year”.   Tonight after work, I ventured out into the rain to take a few pictures of the cabbage patch.   First up is a cabbage variety that I have not grown before called “Alcosa”. It is a savoy type of cabbage.   Savoy types have curly, ruffled, or deeply ridged leaves that are typically less tightly packed than red or green headed cabbages.   Savoy cabbages can be really pretty plants and have good utility because they can be thinly sliced for use in salads or used in any manner you would with a head of red or green cabbage.                      

Growing beside the Alcosa cabbages is Toscano kale, a Lacinato or dinosaur type of kale, which have savoyed leaves.   I love the ruffled, really dark green, long and narrow leaves of these plants.                   

Next to the dinosaur kale is a patch of Beira kale.   These plants are also known as Beira Tronchuda cabbage, portugese kale, sea kale, or loose leaf cabbage.   I grew these for the first time several years ago and was totally won over by this plant.   They give you the best qualities of both cabbage and kale.   The leaves are much like a cabbage leaf in texture and size, but you can harvest individual leaves - leaving the growing center to keep producing more leaves (similar to how you harvest kale).   The fleshy ribbed leaves are similar to cabbage or collards but sweeter, more tender, and more kale like in taste.           

Moving on down the cabbage patch bed, there are several of my favorite red (purple really) cabbage – “Ruby Ball”.   I have grown other red cabbages periodically but I keep returning to Ruby Ball.   The plants are just gorgeous growing in the garden with their large purple veined leaves and heads (once they form up) that are a beautiful deep purple.   They taste very good too!   My plants are just starting to form what will later be large round dense heads.            

The last of the cabbages growing this year is a small-headed (softball sized) variety called “Gonzales”.   I have not grown this variety before but I thought the smaller size would be more useful since there is only two of us now (since my daughter went away to college).   These plants are also beginning the process of forming the start of the central head.        

There is one more type of kale growing in this bed (my favorite variety) Improved Dwarf Siberian kale.   I harvested it quite hard recently so I did not take pictures of it, as the plants are looking a bit naked at the moment.   They are already growing lots of new leaves though, which is one of the great qualities about this variety – light sweet tasting leaves, lots of production, and very hardy.               

So that is the 2011 cabbage patch. If it turns out to be another cabbage year after all, I will at least be eating well from the cole crops.           

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener