Rather undeservedly, cabbages have a reputation for being uninteresting, but once you start to grow your own you will see them as nothing of the sort. The different sizes, shapes and colors are a joy to behold, and they will feed you all year round.
In the kitchen, you can use them raw in salad or coleslaw, as ingredients in soup, boiled or steamed in the traditional way, or lightly braised. Cabbage is much maligned. In fact it has probably had the worst press of any vegetable. Most of us have had it at school, boiled to disintegration and unrecognizable save for its pungent smell, but it is one of the most widely grown of all vegetables and has been in cultivation since the earliest times.
Many gardeners resent growing cabbages because they take up a lot of space – but think about it. Cabbages are totally hardy, and can face cold and exposure and still be enormously productive. They come in every hue of green and purple, with textures ranging from smooth and tightly layered to open and crunchy with wonderfully puckered leaves. They can be spherical, pointed, or open and flat.
And you can grow them for picking in every season. In the kitchen, cabbage can be double-cooked and fermented, as in sauerkraut, or thinly sliced and mixed with other raw vegetables for making coleslaw. It can be steamed briefly, or gently stewed with finely chopped garlic and onions and juniper berries (my favourite), or boiled with potatoes in the depths of winter.
Beginners think that growing cabbage is difficult, but that’s not so. And if you have limited space then just choose your favourite cabbage, not least because it’ll look impressive. Red cabbage takes a long time to mature, but it is versatile and beautiful. A big earthenware pot full of red cabbage layered with onions and Bramley apples and cooked with spices, wine vinegar and brown sugar is a rich and sumptuous dish.
Different types of cabbages
Cabbages are grouped by season of interest – spring, summer, autumn and winter. Hybrids between the types have produced some attractive and tasty cabbages. It is possible to grow cabbages in containers if space is limited, or if your soil conditions are not appropriate. Spring cabbages grow over the winter and give small, pointed cabbages or spring greens at the time of year when not much else is available. Summer and autumn cabbages include varieties that cope well with hot summer conditions, as well as the red cabbages, some of which can be treated as winter cabbages since they are suitable for lifting and storing over winter.
Winter cabbages include some quite ornamental varieties, useful for livening up the bare winter garden. They range from smooth, globular drumheads to crinkle-leaved semi-Savoy types, to hardy Savoys with their heavily textured leaves, which can be harvested through the coldest months. There are also white- and purple-tinged varieties, like ‘January King1, and some are suitable for lifting and storing.