Organic Cabbage Pointu de Chateaurenard - Brassica oleracea capitata

The Pointed Cabbage of Chateaurenard is a typical variety from the Bouches du Rhone region, offering pointed heads, tightly packed, weighing between 700g and 1kg, with smooth blue-green leaves. It is an early cabbage with a mild flavour that can be eaten raw or cooked. It is resistant to running to seed and can be sown from mid-August to late September for a harvest from April to June.

The Round Cabbage or Cabbage is a very popular leaf 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 heads it forms.

Indifferently called Cabbage or Round Cabbage (in Latin Brassica oleracea capitata, capitata meaning "head"), this beautiful vegetable plant belongs to the large family of Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferous). Originally from 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 sharply conical in pointed varieties. The leaves of the Round Cabbage are smooth, and their colour varies depending on the varieties: from very light green, almost white, to dark green, sometimes slightly bluish, to red tinged with violet or nearly black.

Cabbage, although emblematic of winter, can be sown and harvested almost all year round. 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.

Round Cabbage can be eaten raw or cooked; it can be prepared, grated in salads, braised to accompany meat and fish dishes, stuffed or even used in soups 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 it is 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: round 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 autumn varieties with white heads 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 and foremost, 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 aromatic herbs like Dill. However, be careful with certain plants, although very useful, like Borage, which tends to self-seed abundantly in spaces dedicated to crops.