Friday, June 8, 2012

Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage


I have a heck of a row of cabbage this year!


I LOVE these Early Jersey Wakefield cabbages. Early Jersey Wakefield was released by Peter Henderson in 1868. This variety is known for it's compact conical head and matures in 63 days.I can plant this cabbage the end of July and be eating it the first of September. For us this variety holds up well to our weather extremes and because it makes a smaller head is less susceptible to splitting which many of the giant headed cabbage do here on our farm. It makes a great cabbage for freezing and also for making coleslaw or sauerkraut.  



It has been an especially good year for cabbage so far. I laid my glasses on the head to give you a perspective of it's size. It amazes me that after almost 15 years of planting in this garden spot that the soil fertility is still this high. Lots of cover crops and amendments during that 15 years though! Although this variety is known for making smaller heads this year it's size could rival many of the larger headed varieties. Truly a great variety choice for my zone 5A gardens.  

What kind of cabbage do you grow?


Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

13 comments:

  1. I've not froze cabbage. Interesting to know that it works.

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  2. I have yet to get good cabbage here in my part of Texas. Heat and worms sighhhh Yours are stunning and I will admit I have cabbage envy. I would LOVE to grow cabbage that looks like that! :O)

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  3. My regular favorite that never seems to let me down is a variety called Hispi.
    I don't know if its available in the US, I'm based in the UK. I keep mine netted or else they get eaten by the caterpillars of Cabbage White butterfly.

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  4. How do you keep the cabbage worms off of your plants, they just look perfect. Here in Kansas it's a battle between the cabbage loper worms and grasshoppers to see who is going to eat the most.

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    Replies
    1. I treat my plants with Bacillus Thuringiensis otherwise known as BT. This is an environmentally friendly pesticide that can be used up until the day of harvest and works great on both cabbage worms and corn worms.

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    2. I (also from Kansas) had the same question as Steve! Thanks for this info. I haven't tried growing cabbage in years because, not only did it end up being pretty much inedible after the bugs had their fill, it just seemed to bring the pests to the rest of the garden. I'll have to note this in my journal and give it a try next year!

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  5. Thanks, I will give it a try. How often do you spray once you put the first application on?

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  6. Oh those are awesome. Someone else was telling me about this variety of cabbage. In our area cabbage is a winter crop but I'm thinking with the short growing seasons I could plant at least two crops of it.

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  7. They all look fantastic, CQ! :o)

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  8. such beautiful plants...!! freezer slaw is one of my favorite ways to preserve cabbage... I lost my recipe a few years back and need to find another good one...

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  9. Early Jersey Wakefield has been my cabbage of choice, too, for as long as I've been gardening! My mom loved the big "Dutch Flathead" but she mostly made stuffed cabbage with hers ;)

    Great to see another big fan of 'ol Jersey!

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