Take a look at me now

In the middle of winter cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli and kale are happy to sit out in a frosty field waiting for a little warmth to start growing again. 

For market gardeners planting brassicas in autumn is like putting money aside for spring, a blessing in a time when there’s not much else to harvest.

This Tuesday just gone was the equinox – with temperatures warming and days lengthening (also known as photoperiodism) brassicas are now feeling the urge to flower (also known as vernalization).

This means that all over Victoria farmers like Joe Sgro in Colac, Joe Valente in Mornington and our own farmer Rachel down at Joe’s Garden are in a race to get their winter cabbages, cauliflowers, kales, bok chois and broccolis harvested before they bolt.

Needless to say, if you’re a sauerkraut maker or just love a brassica bargain this is your time to shine.

I’ve always had a fascination for brassicas – in 2017 I made a pilgrimage to the temperate highlands of Sumatra to visit the Giant Cabbage of Berastagi – a monument erected by a local water corporation as a tribute to farmers who grow huge numbers of cabbages for export across South-East Asia.

Unlike the Big Banana or the Big Pineapple the Giant Cabbage of Berastagi (that’s it in the picture above) somehow failed to capture the public imagination, apart from mine. which seems to be the case in Australia for brassicas generally.

Perhaps it’s because brassicas are ubiquitous – endemic to every continent except Antarctica and also occasionally traumatic, particularly during childhood dinner times. 

But if you take a closer look brassicas play an important role in our lives and are actually an amazingly diverse family of vegetables.

For instance farmers and cooks throughout the ages have found ways to make  every part of a brassica edible.

We eat brassica roots – turnips and radish, we eat stems – kohlrabi, leaves – kale and asian greens, we eat the buds – cabbage and Brussels sprouts, we eat their flowers – cauliflower and broccoli and brassica seeds – canola and mustard. We even use brassicas to dye our clothes blue – with woad (no, I’d never heard of it either).

Brassicas grow through the winter when most veg have long finished, they can be fermented, pickled, eaten raw or cooked or turned into the world’s most popular vegetable oil.

I mean is there a more practical, flexible and accommodating vegetable?

There are in fact a few countries that appreciate brassica family.

In South Korea where Napa cabbage is revered, every autumn, families gather for kimjang — the communal preparation of winter kimchi which is eaten with every meal.

In France, mon petit chou or my little cabbage is a popular term of endearment.

And in Germany, the surname of Helmut Kohl, the country’s longest serving chancellor (1982 to 1998) who oversaw the end of the cold war, the fall of the Berlin Wall, reunification and the establishment of the European Union, is German for cabbage.

I could go on, but I just hope this helps people see brassicas in a new light.

This week Fair Food’s produce buyer Joshua Arzt is helping farmers move the spring brassica harvest with specials on cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and broccolini – bok choi and kale are sure to follow.

Fair Fizz

If you have a Sodastream* or similar bubble facilitating machine and you’re displeased by the high price of gas refills then you might want to give Fair Fizz a go.

We love the idea of not having to buy a plastic bottle every time you want a fizzy drink, but we don’t love paying through the nose for the privilege.   

Right now at $10 a refill Fair Fizz is around half the price of your regular cylinder swap.

This is how it works:

–        If you have an empty SodaStream or other brand cylinder, choose a Fair Fizz Trade-In to swap over to Fair Fizz (remember to leave your other branded cylinder out for your driver to collect – we’ll reunite it back to the company it came from). 

–     Once you have a Fair Fizz cylinder, all your refills are just $10. Just add a Fair Fizz Refill to your next  order and  leave your empty Fair Fizz cylinder out for your driver to collect and we’ll swap it for a full one.

–      And if you have a soda maker and just need a new cylinder, simply add a New Fair Fizz cylinder to your Fair Food order and we’ll drop it off.

You can find out all there is to know about Fair Fizz here.

Have a great week

Chris

*Fair Fizz cylinders are compatible with all soda makers, excluding the new Sodastream Quick Connect machines.