Cabbage Quintal d'Alsace - Vilmorin seeds - Brassica oleracea capitata

The Alsace Quintal Cabbage is a hardy variety that offers an abundant harvest of large, flat and firm heads. It is a superb cabbage with light leaves that is well suited for making sauerkraut. It can be sown from March to June for a harvest from August to December.

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

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

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 that, along with leeks and parsnips, allow you to wait until the first spring harvests.

Savoy Cabbage can be consumed raw or cooked, it can be prepared grated in salads, braised to accompany meat and fish dishes, stuffed or even in soups and sauerkraut. There are plenty of recipes, both traditional and modern.

From a dietary point of view, it is remarkable: it has low energy value but is very rich in vitamins C, B6 and B9, and also contains a lot of fiber and minerals like calcium.

In the vegetable garden, it is an easy vegetable 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 carried out when the cabbage forms a nice head and before the leaves start to turn yellow. It is harvested with a knife, simply by cutting just below the head.

Storage: Savoy Cabbage can be kept in the refrigerator for several days. It can also be frozen very 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 the tasty preservation of autumn varieties with white heads.

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 in it. First of all, and even though the beauty of certain vegetables like cabbage is sufficient in itself, for the aesthetic pleasure they provide but also to repel pests and attract valuable pollinators. So, don't hesitate to plant, in the middle of the rows or along the edges of the bed, Gaillardias, Marigolds, Zinnias, Cosmos, Nasturtiums or even beautiful herbs like Dill. However, be careful with certain plants, even though they are very useful, such as Borage, which tends to self-seed abundantly in dedicated cultivation spaces.