Cabbage Harvest has Started!

[Stimw]

Cut my first cabbage today! A lot more to come.

 

[Chuck52]

Looks great! I've only managed to get one good cabbage crop in the nine years I've had a garden here. The worms have gotten the crop the few years bad early weather didn't. I keep meaning to try a fall crop because that would probably work better here in Missouri, and maybe next year I'll get it done. One problem is starting my own plants. I think I need better grow lights to get decent plants started....around here there are no sources for fall vegetable plants.

I'm a big fan of all the cole crops. I seem to be the only person in this area that buys rutabagas...at least I have to tell the cashier what they are every time. Last night we had rutabagas, cole slaw and brussel sprouts in one meal, and the slaw was flavored with horseradish! I may have OD'd on whatever the cole crops have.

Chuck

 

[jinman]

Wow! That's a pretty picture. Like Chuck, I love cabbage, rutabagas, and turnips. I probably couldn't eat rutabagas or turnips every day, but I could eat cabbage fixed different ways almost daily.

A side story. . . When I was a kid, I could eat raw cabbage, but I was very allergic to cooked cabbage. That allergy persisted until I was almost 10 years old. Since then, I never get enough cooked cabbage. Maybe it made me want it just because I couldn't have it.

 

[Bird]

Yessir, that cabbage does look good. If I've ever eaten rutabaga, I didn't know it and would have no idea how to prepare it. I really like brussel sprouts, but since my wife won't eat them, I rarely get them. But cabbage and turnips are another matter. We both like those; had cole slaw with the barbecued ribs day before yesterday and a potato/turnip soup yesterday. We both like cabbage raw, steamed, boiled, or fried. I even like saurkraut, which is something else my wife won't touch. And we both like turnips, steamed, boiled, fried, chopped in the greens, and in soup. In fact, I made a big enough pot of potato/turnip soup yesterday to have it again today.

 

[Chuck52]

Bird,

I usually just boil rutabagas and mash them with butter and salt, though I'm sure there are probably lots of ways to cook them. They taste a lot like good turnips, but are a bit sweet even without adding any sugar. My mom always used to add just a pinch of sugar to turnips as a seasoning, but with rutabagas it's not necessary. They're denser than turnips, too. I start craving them when the weather starts getting cold. Most of the local stores have them at least part of the time, though usually just a few at a time. I buy them at WalMart because they have them for .50/lb and that's about as cheap as you can find them....cheaper than turnips locally. Remember when turnips were what I guess I'd call "poor folks food", like beans and cornbread? We used to get them for next to nothing back home in Tennessee, and ate them (and beans and cornbread) pretty often while I was growing up. Now a small bunch, maybe 3-4 small turnips, is $1.50 at WalMart. And I saw Tyler Florence making a turnip puree on the Food Channel the other day. And of course grits are now served in fancy ways, too.

Chuck

 

[Bird]

Chuck, I guess turnips just aren't as popular as they were in the past. For the years we lived on our 10 acres, I planted some turnips in the Spring because we liked the turnip greens, with or without diced turnips in them. Then in the Fall, when the rest of the garden was done, I planted turnips again. Did you ever try turnips as french fries? They don't get crisp; just stay very limp, but they sure do taste good. And from the small number of turnips you see in the grocery store, they must not sell many. Day before yesterday, I got 6 small turnips (total weight 16 oz) in a little bag at Walmart for $1.54. I think my mother may have added a little sugar to the turnips, but I never have. I guess turnips are a different and distinctive flavor, but it's a flavor I really like.

I guess I need to try the rutabaga. Sounds to me as if it would be something I liked.

 

[mbrule]

Hi Guys,

I too planted my first successful cabbage this year. Long gone, eaten now! I would like to see interesting cabbage recipes, that you all enjoy.

Also, does nayone have any way to preserve cabbage so that it keeps longer. Seems that (here in New England) I end up with a whole bunch all at once, and then need to eat it or give it away.

 

[Bird]

We have cut and frozen cabbage before when we had more than we wanted to eat or give away at the time. Of course, when thawed later, it's only good for cooked cabbage, not cole slaw. For boiled cabbage, some like it still crisp, while others like it cooked until is soft and even turning pink. I can eat either.

I don't know how many different varieties of cabbage there are, but since most of the seed places I bought from had the Dutch Flathead plants, that's what I bought and used and had pretty good luck with it.

Thirty-five years ago, I was a shift commander in the city jail. The city jail was not known for great cuisine. But the employees could eat free on duty if they wanted to eat the same thing the prisoners got. One night a week, dinner (or supper) was boiled cabbage, butterbeans, and cornbread. I think most of the employees turned up their noses and sent out for hamburgers, but I found that to be a very satisfying meal myself.

 

[Chuck52]

Aside from sour kraut or various relishes, I can't think of any good way to keep cabbage except as Bird says, freezing it. I'd think the frozen cabbage would then be good in soups, and just as cooked cabbage. We eat a lot of stir fried cabbage, with onions and carrots and such. Kinda, more-or-less Chinese tasting, since we use soy sauce to flavor it. Frozen cabbage might work OK for that. I really like a simple cabbage soup recipe we found in a soup cookbook. Basically, you fry up a bunch of bacon, and then use the fat to saute onions, carrots and shredded cabbage. Then you add chicken broth and some potatoes and cook until the potatoes are soft, then add the crumbled bacon back in. It is a hearty cold weather soup that goes well with a good cornbread.

Chuck

 

[scgargoyle]

If you find rutabagas a little strong, boil them in broth, then drain and put butter and brown sugar on them.

I remember having home-grown cabbage as a kid, and it always had worms in it. When you boil it, the worms come out and end up in the bottom of the pot.

 

[jimmyj]

Mmmmmm, cabbages.....

I envy you with a beauty crop like that this time of year.

We gave up on cabbages due to worms and earwigs, but man I love the stuff.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Harvest season is over around here. I still grow a few heads but for more serious needs, it's just too cheap to buy Vs growing. It is one of the commercial crops around here and have no problem buying from a commercial farm. I can buy 12-15 lb heads for $1.50/ea. Same for large heads of cauliflower. Seem to recall the variety of cabbage is Krautmaker. Freezes quite well.

 

[Stimw]

I had problems with worms early on and I hit them with Liquid Sevin. 1 oz to a gallon mixed in a watering can. I think I saved all of the plants, a couple heads look iffy.
I have to use Sevin on cucumbers because the pickle worms will eat more than I do.
A friend gave me well over a hundred cabbage seedlings, I planted 4 more rows (see pic) and gave a bunch of them away to three friends. I will have a crop going into spring if global warming dosen't freeze them out.
I took some seedlings up the road to the lady who gives me a trailer load of horse squeeze every other week. She hadn't planned to put in a winter garden. She tilled her plot, I used my hiller/bedder on it and we planted 4 rows of the seedlings. All in about 30 minutes she had a garden! She is thrilled! She also planted the rest of the plot with other seeds the next day.

 

[Bird]

I usually just boil rutabagas and mash them with butter and salt

I'm obviously not the only one who had never eaten a rutabago. I bought one this morning and when the cashier (young lady) at the grocery store came to the rutabaga, she said, "What's this?" and when I got home and put it on the kitchen cabinet, my wife said, "What's that?" Anyway, I peeled, diced, and boiled it, then mashed it with salt & pepper and butter (margarine) and my wife and I found we both like it very well.

If you find rutabagas a little strong, boil them in broth, then drain and put butter and brown sugar on them

Not at all too strong to suit me, but I'll bet the brown sugar would be good on it. My wife mentioned it reminding her of sweet potato, which we normally eat simply baked, then mashed with butter, but her family always baked them with brown sugar and butter.

 

[Chuck52]

Bird,

Congratulations on joining the friends-of-rutabagas club. I just wish I lived closer to Hooterville, so I could maybe get a better price on their major crop!

I need to go check my little planting of rutabagas. I suspect the 9F temp Wednesday night may have finally killed them, but who knows? I've heard of people digging them out from under the snow. Anyway, last time I looked I only had one about the size of a medium turnip. I pulled a few that were crowding others and they sure were sweet. They'd already survived several frosts in the 20F range. I don't think I'm going to find many like the ones at Schnucks that are labeled as a Canadian product. Those things are the size of a cantalope.

Chuck

 

[jimmyj]

Mmmmmm, rutabagas......

Try using that word when you play a word solving game. Nobody can ever get it.

 

[Bird]

Those things are the size of a cantalope.

Chuck, is it safe to assume the big ones are still firm, crisp, and tasty? Walmart today was getting $.74 a pound for them and I purposely picked a small one just to sample. It was a .72 pound in size.

 

[jinman]

Here's a picture of me standing in front of my row of rutabagas back in 2007 when we had a pretty nice turnip and rutabaga harvest. I have purple-top turnips in my right hand and rutabagas in my left hand. I found out that turnips and rutabagas are a lot harder to give away than squash and tomatoes. I think we still have several frozen vacuum packages of both in the bottom of our freezer.

 

[jimmyj]

I sure envy the growing seasons that you folks in the south have. It all looks so lush.

 

[Chuck52]

Bird,

I can't say I've had many of the really big rutabagas, but I can say I've never had a bad one. They seem to be kinda like sweet potatoes....they can get huge and still be good.

I've got a bunch of itty bitty ones in my garden. I've pulled a few, and I think the cold finally killed them. They're about the size of baby carrots, but are really sweet, what there is of them.

Chuck