Thursday, February 19, 2009

Cabbage: The Unsung Hero

Cabbage. Not a vegetable I usually care for. I’ve never felt compelled to purchase cabbage. The very idea of cooking with it perplexes me. Where do I even start? Cole slaw? Yawn. The only memory I have of the shredded stuff is of grams topping off posole (pork and hominy soup) with it.

At first, I grew cabbage purely for novelty reasons; for garden kitsch. Then it became a challenge. The cabbage worm and his hooligan wigglers were real jerks but I wasn't going to let them take over my turf. It became my version of the $64.00 Tomato!

Finally! Here she is, Cabbage Copenhagen Market. I sowed these Botanical Interests seeds who knows when. The point is I got a cabbage.

I couldn’t stop eating it raw; mild, buttery and delicious. I didn’t make anything exciting with it last night. Atop homemade bread I topped a Smart Dog with a handful of cabbage, avocado, and tomato. I think I’ll make a variation of Rustic Cabbage Soup tonight.

Those cabbage worms were really onto something!

6 comments:

Randy Emmitt said...

Those cabbage worms are likely caterpillars for either the Cabbage White butterfly or the Checkered White butterfly. So think of it this way if your cabbage gets eaten you are just feeding the butterflies.

Rozmin said...

Ooh, I love cabbage! I have some recipes on my blog, if you're interested. I like it raw too, especially in a coleslaw with apples and an apple cider vinegar based dressing.

Anonymous said...

I thought for sure our cabbage would be just a bunch of worm holes when I cut it open because we had so many cabbage worms. What a nice surprise to find a beautiful, nice solid head. Glad yours came out the same. We only had six plants, but that was certainly more than enough, as is one! Thanks for the recipe link.

Just saw the blurb on your blog in Sunset magazine. Good to see there are other people gardening in Long Beach.

Anonymous said...

Adriana -- Were they hard to grow, other than the worms? I've only grown ornamental cabbages before, but do have a really awesome asian salad recipe that called for cabbage. It would be cool to make it entirely from ingredients I grew myself.

Randy -- I purposely don't try and attract butterflies for that exact reason! The reputation of butterflies has been forever tarnished in my mind because of what precedes them. GRRR!

Amey said...

hey! I saw you in Sunset Magazine! How awesome! I was so excited to see a blogger I already knew and read on there. And a vegan, to boot!

hoorah!

I must admit, I am a big cabbage fan. I like it raw, and I like it cooked. I love it in soups, and I love it in place of lettuce for salads and burritos and such. I especially like it after I read that women who eat cabbage 4x a week are 70% less likely to get breast cancer. Weird!

Adriana said...

Rozmin, I'm not fond of fruit and that's a good way to sneak it in my diet. Thanks!

Fern, the only problems I had were with the dratted worms. I’m growing a couple more in the shade garden and I have BT in one hand.

PS, I'm sitting here with a big tupperware full... Lunch!