Cabbage Tête de Pierre F1 Plants - Brassica oleracea capitata

The 'Tête de Pierre' F1 Cabbage is an early and productive hybrid variety intended for summer harvests. This cabbage offers beautiful round heads with green leaves (approximately 1.5 kg), highly resistant to yellowing and bursting. The Cabbage can be consumed raw or cooked, grated in salads, braised to accompany meat and fish dishes, stuffed, or even used in soups and sauerkraut. The vegetable plants of the 'Tête de Pierre' F1 Cabbage can be planted from March to June for a harvest from May to September.

The White Cabbage or Smooth-leafed Cabbage is a very popular leaf vegetable. It is one of the must-haves in the vegetable garden and if we love it so much, it may be as much for its flavour as for the generous appearance of the heads it forms. It belongs to the large family of Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae), like others: Cauliflower, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Savoy Cabbage, red Cabbage or Kale, Kohlrabi, Chinese Cabbage, the list goes on.

The Cabbage bears the Latin name Brassica oleracea capitata, with "capitata" meaning "head". Native to 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 sharply conical in pointed varieties. The leaves of the Cabbage are smooth and their color varies depending on the variety: from very light green, almost white, to dark green, sometimes slightly bluish, or from red tinged with violet to almost black.

The Cabbage, although emblematic of winter, can be harvested almost all year round. Cabbage varieties are generally grouped into three main categories: spring Cabbages, which are harvested from late April to June, summer and autumn Cabbages, which are harvested from July to November, and winter Cabbages, which, along with leeks and parsnips, allow us to eat while waiting until the first spring harvests.

The Cabbage can be consumed raw or cooked. It can be grated in salads, braised to accompany meat and fish dishes, stuffed, or used in soups and sauerkraut. There are plenty of recipes, both in traditional and modern cuisine.

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

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

Harvest: it is ripe when the Cabbage forms a nice head and before the leaves start to turn yellow. It is harvested with a knife, by cutting just below the head. This variety can be harvested from May to September.

Storage: Cabbage can be kept in the refrigerator for several days. It also freezes 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 delicious preservation of white-headed autumn varieties.

Gardening tip: 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. Even though the beauty of certain vegetables like Cabbage is sufficient on its own, flowers enhance the aesthetic aspect of the vegetable garden and also help repel pests and attract precious pollinators. So, don't hesitate to plant Gaillardias, Marigolds, Zinnias, Cosmos, Nasturtiums, or beautiful herbs like Dill, in the middle of the rows or along the borders. However, be cautious of certain plants, such as Borage, which tend to self-seed abundantly in dedicated cultivation spaces.