Wednesday 23 November 2011

Rare Brassicas

I've been minus a camera for a bit but I now have a replacement. 12 megapixels, so I'm anticipating having to make reduced versions of pics for the internet, and the contrast is far better than the old one. No need to enhance it digitally! So here are some of the first pics, taken on a very dull day, and uploaded as they come.

This is Gloire de Portugal, a variety of couve tronchuda. It's a rare old Portugese cabbage type, loose leaved as you see. It's a dual purpose vegetable; you can cook the midribs as well as the rest of the leaf. They're good in stirfries. Harry Dodson makes much of the lack of cabbage smell when cooking it in 'The Victorian Kitchen Garden', but I tend to give everything minimal cooking, and it cabbage never smells when I do it! It tried to bolt during the autumn, possibly because of the drought. I picked off the flowering stems as they appeared. As you can see, it's a large plant. The only source I know of for (generic) couve tronchuda in Britain is Thomas Etty, and they suggest planting a foot or two apart. Two and a half to three feet would be more like it. Some plants have done well despite the drought, others poorly.

 'Spis Bladene' (not its proper name; it was written on the seed envelope, and means 'good eating') from the HSL. It's pretty stunted, no doubt due to the drought. They say it's a perennial kale, but I know no more than that. As I only have three small plants I'll probably cut it back when it tries to flower, see if it does regenerate, and plant more next year. With any luck, that might give me a better number of plants for seed saving.
Variegated Daubenton's Kale, looking rather tattered and squashed as the slugs like it, and it's had net draped over it. It's a perennial, non-seeding kale; I'm planning to take cuttings in the spring. I also have Taunton Deane, a similar, redder, variety. My one plant's rather small, slug-eaten, and thoroughly unphotogenic.

8 comments:

  1. NIce. I might be pestering you for cuttings of the Daubenton's comer the Spring :-)

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  2. No problem. I'm planning to take cuttings from the variegated one once things start growing. Apparently it's quite easy. Taunton Deane will have to wait till it's bigger. I've been promised the green version but I may not have cuttings till the year after next, depending how it goes.

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  3. No problem. I'm planning to take cuttings from the variegated one once things start growing. Apparently it's quite easy. Taunton Deane will have to wait till it's bigger. I've been promised the green version but I may not have cuttings till the year after next, depending how it goes.

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  4. I am growing a couple couve tronchuda plants this year for the first time. They are fall/winter growers in my climate, and I haven't tasted them yet. My hopes are high.

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  5. How did you come by the Taunton Deane?

    I have a few perennial brassicas but that one has as yet eluded me.

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  6. Goodlife from Allotments4all passed it on to me. I'll probably have cuttings at some point next year if you're interested.

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  7. Certainly interested, you may also be interested in some of the forms I have. You can message me at Homegrown Goodness ( http://alanbishop.proboards.com )to sort out the details. You may also find this thread interesting, it covers the work I'm doing in trying to produce more perennial brassicas :

    http://alanbishop.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=brassica&action=display&thread=4341&page=1

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  8. I've seen the thread, thanks. I'm known as RobertB there. I'm interested in any unorthodox brassicas; there's a lot more to them than the standard biennial types!

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