Cabbage Harvest has Started!

[jimmyj]

Mmmmmm, cabbages.....

I envy you with a beauty crop like that this time of year.

We gave up on cabbages due to worms and earwigs, but man I love the stuff.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Harvest season is over around here. I still grow a few heads but for more serious needs, it's just too cheap to buy Vs growing. It is one of the commercial crops around here and have no problem buying from a commercial farm. I can buy 12-15 lb heads for $1.50/ea. Same for large heads of cauliflower. Seem to recall the variety of cabbage is Krautmaker. Freezes quite well.

 

[Stimw]

I had problems with worms early on and I hit them with Liquid Sevin. 1 oz to a gallon mixed in a watering can. I think I saved all of the plants, a couple heads look iffy.
I have to use Sevin on cucumbers because the pickle worms will eat more than I do.
A friend gave me well over a hundred cabbage seedlings, I planted 4 more rows (see pic) and gave a bunch of them away to three friends. I will have a crop going into spring if global warming dosen't freeze them out.
I took some seedlings up the road to the lady who gives me a trailer load of horse squeeze every other week. She hadn't planned to put in a winter garden. She tilled her plot, I used my hiller/bedder on it and we planted 4 rows of the seedlings. All in about 30 minutes she had a garden! She is thrilled! She also planted the rest of the plot with other seeds the next day.

 

[Bird]

I usually just boil rutabagas and mash them with butter and salt

I'm obviously not the only one who had never eaten a rutabago. I bought one this morning and when the cashier (young lady) at the grocery store came to the rutabaga, she said, "What's this?" and when I got home and put it on the kitchen cabinet, my wife said, "What's that?" Anyway, I peeled, diced, and boiled it, then mashed it with salt & pepper and butter (margarine) and my wife and I found we both like it very well.

If you find rutabagas a little strong, boil them in broth, then drain and put butter and brown sugar on them

Not at all too strong to suit me, but I'll bet the brown sugar would be good on it. My wife mentioned it reminding her of sweet potato, which we normally eat simply baked, then mashed with butter, but her family always baked them with brown sugar and butter.

 

[Chuck52]

Bird,

Congratulations on joining the friends-of-rutabagas club. I just wish I lived closer to Hooterville, so I could maybe get a better price on their major crop!

I need to go check my little planting of rutabagas. I suspect the 9F temp Wednesday night may have finally killed them, but who knows? I've heard of people digging them out from under the snow. Anyway, last time I looked I only had one about the size of a medium turnip. I pulled a few that were crowding others and they sure were sweet. They'd already survived several frosts in the 20F range. I don't think I'm going to find many like the ones at Schnucks that are labeled as a Canadian product. Those things are the size of a cantalope.

Chuck

 

[jimmyj]

Mmmmmm, rutabagas......

Try using that word when you play a word solving game. Nobody can ever get it.

 

[Bird]

Those things are the size of a cantalope.

Chuck, is it safe to assume the big ones are still firm, crisp, and tasty? Walmart today was getting $.74 a pound for them and I purposely picked a small one just to sample. It was a .72 pound in size.

 

[jinman]

Here's a picture of me standing in front of my row of rutabagas back in 2007 when we had a pretty nice turnip and rutabaga harvest. I have purple-top turnips in my right hand and rutabagas in my left hand. I found out that turnips and rutabagas are a lot harder to give away than squash and tomatoes. I think we still have several frozen vacuum packages of both in the bottom of our freezer.

 

[jimmyj]

I sure envy the growing seasons that you folks in the south have. It all looks so lush.

 

[Chuck52]

Bird,

I can't say I've had many of the really big rutabagas, but I can say I've never had a bad one. They seem to be kinda like sweet potatoes....they can get huge and still be good.

I've got a bunch of itty bitty ones in my garden. I've pulled a few, and I think the cold finally killed them. They're about the size of baby carrots, but are really sweet, what there is of them.

Chuck