Brassicas

Cabbage 'Kalibos' is a pointed cabbage variety with distinctive red leaves. For late summer and autumn cutting. A delicious cabbage that has a high sugar content, making it the perfect variety for shredding raw into salads for superb sweetness, crunch and colour.

Savoy cabbage ‘Ormskirk’ is a very old heritage variety, it gives a fine head of cabbage, solid in the centre with deep blue-green outer crinkly leaves and a pale green centre. It matures from November and can be harvested through to March and beyond.

Cabbage ‘Red Drumhead’ is a popular deep red heirloom variety which produces densely packed leafy heads with dark red, solid hearts in late summer through to Christmas. This old hardy variety from the 1860s is easy to grow, stores well and is remarkably tasty and sweet.

Cabbage 'Violaceo di Verona' is a winter Savoy cabbage from Northern Italy. A cross between a savoy and a white cabbage, with dark green and violet leaves. Frost hardy and and long standing it can be harvested from July until mid-winter with successional sowings.

Cabbage ‘Wheelers Imperial’ is a traditional heritage variety that produces solidly pointed layers of dark green leaves which form compact, heart shaped heads. Although a Victorian variety, it remains one of the best varieties for autumn sowing to stand the winter for harvesting in spring.

It is very uplifting to go to the garden on a cold December day to harvest a perfect, intricately woven, beautiful white head of cauliflower. “All Year Round” produces good quality white heads and is an excellent all-purpose variety for successional sowing.

'Autumn Giant' is a well-known and respected maincrop cauliflower with large dense white curds which are thoroughly protected by the leaves. Sow in mid spring for an autumn harvest, or late spring, for a winter harvest.

Cauliflower Snowball is a superb heritage variety from the 1890's, this regular favourite has certainly stood the test of time. This easy maintenance variety is very suitable for the home gardener, the pure white, snowball-sized heads can be harvested when small or left to mature.

'Wong Bok' is a tender, sweet tasting, hearted-type of Chinese cabbage. Growing this fast growing cabbage is simplicity itself. Plant the seeds, stand back and once the secondary leaves appear you are a mere 30 days away from mealtime. This vegetable growing season promises to be very rewarding.

The thing I love about kale the most is not its superfood qualities, its lovely bright green leaves or the sweet cabbagey taste. I love kale simply because it is there when I need it. Kale Kapral is a medium early variety. Tremendously hardy, it will defy anything that winter can conjure up.

Kale 'Red Ruble' is a red, Russian-type kale that has been specially bred for the salad leaf market. Its beautiful wine-red serrated foliage makes a quick growing colourful tasty salad leaf. Grown year-round on a windowsill and picked young and small, they can be added to lettuces to make your own mesclun mix.

With deeply cut, slate green oak-like leaves ‘Red Russian’ is one of the tenderest and sweetest kales available. Sow under cover in autumn for baby leaves after four to six weeks, or directly outdoors for over-wintering. This hardy crop can provide nutritious leaves even in the depths of winter.

Some years ago, we knew kale as a hearty winter meal, suddenly its popularity soared and ‘Kale Madness’ erupted. Now available in all manner of shapes, sizes and colours. 'Scarlet Curled' Kale is a highly attractive and ultra-hardy variety, the leaves intensify in colour turning to violet-red after a few frosts.

Kale 'Thousand Head' is a plain-leaved variety which is extremely reliable and prolific. It is particularly winter hardy and consequently a popular product with growers in northern areas. There is none of the heartache of seeing all one’s hard work destroyed by a sharp and prolonged frost.

'Dwarf Green Curled' is a compact, hardy and easy to grow kale. It produces an abundance of tender and delicate, densely curled green leaves which can be harvested throughout the winter months. Kale is one of the least problematic crops, it will tolerate conditions that would make most brassicas keel over!