Cabbage Greyhound - Brassica oleracea capitata

The 'Greyhound' Cabbage is an old English variety appreciated for its earliness. This delicious cabbage offers compact heads and has been awarded by the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society for its qualities. It can be sown from March to June for a harvest from June to October.

The Savoy Cabbage or Drumhead Cabbage is a very popular leafy vegetable. It is a must-have in the vegetable garden, and if we love it so much, it may be as much for its flavour as for the generous size of the heads it forms.

Indifferently called Drumhead Cabbage or Savoy Cabbage (in Latin Brassica oleracea capitata, capitata meaning "head"), this beautiful vegetable plant belongs to the large family of Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae). Native to Europe, it is a biennial plant cultivated as an annual that produces a more or less tight head, which can be round, slightly flattened or conical in pointed varieties. The leaves of the Savoy Cabbage are smooth, and their colour varies depending on the variety: from very light green, almost white, to dark green, sometimes slightly bluish, to red tinged with violet to nearly black.

The Cabbage, although emblematic of winter, can be sown and harvested almost all year round. The varieties are generally grouped into three main categories: spring cabbages that are harvested from late April to June, summer and autumn cabbages for the period from July and winter cabbages which allow, along with leeks and parsnips, to wait until the first spring harvests.

The Savoy Cabbage can be consumed both raw and cooked, it can be prepared grated in salads, braised to accompany meat and fish dishes, stuffed or even in soup and sauerkraut. There is no shortage of recipes, both in traditional and modern cuisine.

From a dietary point of view, it is remarkable: its energy value is low but very rich in vitamins C, B6, and B9; it also contains a lot of fibre and minerals such as calcium.

In the vegetable garden, it is easy to grow as long as you meet its requirements: deep soil, excellent manure, and regular moisture. It thrives in the sun and generally does well in cool and rainy climates.

Harvest: it is done when the cabbage forms a nice head and before the leaves start to turn yellow. It is done with a knife by cutting just below the head.

Storage: The Savoy Cabbage can be kept in the refrigerator for several days. It can also be frozen well after being blanched in salted boiling water. Winter varieties can also be left in the ground. Finally, the preparation of sauerkraut (lacto-fermentation) allows you to preserve white-headed autumn varieties deliciously.

The gardener's little trick: Don't forget the flowers! Even though the vegetable garden is primarily a garden for producing quality vegetables, it is always interesting to plant flowers. First of all, for the aesthetic pleasure they provide, but also to repel pests and attract precious pollinators. So, don't hesitate to plant, in the middle of the rows or along the edges, Gaillardias, Marigolds, Zinnias, Cosmos, Nasturtiums, or even beautiful herbs like Dill. However, be cautious with some plants, although very useful, like Borage, which tends to self-seed abundantly in dedicated growing spaces.