The Brassica In Our Market Garden
From Tenderstem broccoli and Chinese cabbage to rocket, radish and cavolo nero, the Brassica genus is one of the largest and most varied of all vegetable families. Learn more about the varieties we grow in our Market Garden with this guide from our Head of The Market Garden, Jez Taylor, taken from Seed Magazine, Volume 05.
By Jez Taylor
Below is a selection of the brassica varieties I grow and rely on. I haven’t even touched on swede or kohlrabi, pointed cabbage or spring greens, watercress, wasabi, let alone the perennials like sea kale. I will eat brassicas daily for the rest of my life and I suggest you do too.
CAVOLO NERO
A dark blue, bubbled leaf sometimes called dinosaur kale. A cooking green that keeps its integrity and colour when added to soups, stews and pasta sauces.
HUNGRY GAP KALE
Traditionally a late winter/spring cattle food. The plants become very leafy as the new season sap rises in March, bolting to flower as late as mid May, which means that the supply of leaf greens can continue even during the ‘hungry gap’ period.
CURLY KALE
An incredibly versatile cooking green and useful in salads when the leaves are young. We even dig up the smaller type we plant in the spring and use it as a winter bedding plant in planters; they look like miniature palm trees.
RED RUSSIAN KALE
A fast-growing delicate blue/ green kale with beautiful pink veins and a wavy-edged leaf. Great for late-summer planting after potatoes or onions. The regrowth in spring is particularly useful in mixed leaf salads.
PURPLE SPROUTING BROCCOLI
‘Poor man’s asparagus’ (it’s much easier to grow than asparagus), is my hero crop of the spring. Modern varieties mean that you can harvest PSB all year round. In the Cotswolds where winter frosts can damage the flower bud at the tip of the sprouting stem, I prefer the varieties which go to shoot from the end of February, as the spring sap starts to rise.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS & KALETTES
These two crops bear their harvest ‘on the stem’. They need a long growing season (plant them in early June) to create a strong, woody stem on which they form and grow small buds that are harvested over winter. Brussels sprouts are best grown from F1 hybrid seed to ensure even-sized swelling/ripening along the stem. Kalettes develop just as Brussels sprouts but are open rather than closed tight. They tend to ripen from late January to mid March.
CHINESE CABBAGE
Also known as ‘Napa’ cabbage, this variety is fast growing so can be planted from late July into August. It’s the cabbage type needed for genuine kimchi, but is also really useful in a mixed salad. The leaves make great ‘boats’ for containing hummus and guacamole.
RED AND WHITE CABBAGE
These require lots of space and a long growing season, but they keep and store well. They produce dense, succulent heads that are ideal for slaws.
CALABRESE AND TENDERSTEAM BROCCOLI
Broccoli heads (horticulturally referred to as calabrese) are usually planted in June/July for cropping from August to November. The ubiquity of calabrese has made it less glamorous in recent times and I now prefer to grow varieties like sprouting broccoli, referred to as ‘Tenderstem®’. The varieties have been selected to give repeat harvests of flower bud shoots with long succulent stems. The more you harvest the more they produce.
SAVOY AND JANUARY KING CABBAGE
These are harvested when the head is less tight, meaning there’s a good proportion of dark to light green leaf.
RADISH
The fast-growing opportunity of the classic cherry-sized radish means I will sow them every fortnight from April to August. I find modern varieties such as ‘Rudolf ’ offer larger numbers of harvestable good-looking roots. Winter radish types such as Black Spanish and Rosa which are sown in August/September are particularly useful as they are less likely to bolt or become ‘spongy’ and can sit in the ground to be harvested through winter.
SALAD BRASSICAS
This group of leaves has made my career. In the 1970s organic growers made much of growing carrots and how much tastier they are from an organic system. These days many new growers grow on a small acreage and need to get multiple crops off each piece of ground, growing salad leaves like rocket , harvestable from sowing within a month, means 3-4 crops per season can be grown.
FRILLS MUSTARD
There are many colourful and spicy mustards available, all derived from oriental mustards that are traditionally used as cooking greens. Purple Frills and Golden Frills are quite skeletal in structure, but give a really classy volume and texture to a mixed leaf salad along with a mustard kick.
ROCKET
I grow ‘salad rocket’ as opposed to ‘wild rocket’. It is succulent, a bit spicy with a savoury sesame angle. The variety ‘Esmee’ has an oak leaf shape for a bit more character.
PAK CHOI
A succulent with cabbage flavour and a little heat, just as important for the juicy stem as the leaf. Tatsoi is a dark green colour and forms a rosette of spoon-like leaves. Pak chois are also ideal for stir-fries.