Cabbages

If you do, then come and see me, 'cause there's something wrong.

But no canola oil, please, or corn oil or cheap oil, because w- when we get a chance, read my article on canola oil on my website and the proving of the Brassica, which is the canola oil.

I mean, my gosh, even the insects won't eat the Brassica plant, and then they spray it many times anyway.

So organic everything, for two reasons.

Now you're gonna go, "Oh, I don't wanna spend the money," or, "Oh, I don't believe it's anything." Well, listen, I'm gonna tell you the truth.

You know, the other thing, Shawn, that, um, I'm gonna mention this because of my background in nutrition and s- nutritional science, but one of the things about maca as a plant is that it is a botanical cousin of things like cruciferous vegetables.

So not many people know that, but it's part of the Brassicae family, right? So brassicas.

And it's, it's not like a close relative of broccoli where it's, it's related closely, but it's, it's still under the same kind of, uh, the, the g- the genus.

So, um, when we look at that, uh, and I start thinking about all of the, the teaching that I do on metabolic detoxification, so what are the cruciferous vegetables known for? They're known for these compounds called glucosinolates, right? And glucosinolates can help with modifying some of how we change estrogen and just looking at hormone metabolism overall, because, you know, the liver has to process estrogen.

So in the deep dive, we discuss growing kale for seed.

We tackle the challenges of distinguishing between Brassica oleracea and Brassica napus kale species.

We talk about how to handle bird pressure, specifically pigeons, which is something that I haven't really had to deal with before.

And then we also talk about how to support the drying plants to make sure that they don't rot in a humid climate.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know about you, but we get around it, so basically we, generally we grow more, obviously we grow multiple years' worth of seed at a time, dry it down really well for storage.

And we have two sites, so I can grow one Brassica oleracea and one Brassica napus, and indeed one Brassica rapa and one Brassica juncea on each site because they are four miles apart.

Wind.

Before we plant anything, cabbage deserves a quick introduction to its relatives.

Cabbage belongs to the species Brassica oleracea, and this one species has given us an absurd collection of vegetables.

With kale, humans selected plants for large leaves.

With cabbage, we selected for tightly packed terminal buds and leaves.

Cabbage is generally biennial, meaning the plant normally grows vegetatively during its first season, experiences winter conditions, and then flowers and produces seed during its second.

So if you want cabbage seeds, you have to keep selected plants alive long enough to complete that cycle.

And remember our bizarre Brassica oleracea family? Your cabbage can potentially cross with other compatible members of the same species, including things like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi.

That means serious seed saving requires attention to isolation and what else is flowering nearby.

These are all basically the same plant.

They're Brassica oleracea.

That's the botanical name of the ancestor of all of them.

And from that, we got broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards.

Borecole.

Brassica oleracea variant.

Chou vert, French.

Grüne Kohl, German.

Sow the seed in April along with other cabbage which transplant and treat in the same manner.

Broccoli.

Brassica oleracea variant.

Broccoli, French.

Any of the smaller seeds, so the difference, a microgreen is just, like, the tinier seeds.

Tends to be mostly the Brassica family, but you could, so many things could be grown as a microgreen.

The shoots tend to be the, the larger seed germ.

Pea shoots, sun shoots, wheat grass, popcorn, buckwheat are all different ones I've tried in the past.

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Now, added to that, I've also been planting out some more cabbages in another bed down on the allotment.

Now, of course, being in Brassica, this needs protecting from birds with some netting.

Pigeons at this time of year really make some short work of the young loo.

So it's a bit of frustration, but we have to do it.