Cruciferous Vegetables - say again?

It seems like cruciferous vegetables don't have a name that sounds even remotely appetizing. Nevertheless, they are some of my favorites for vegetable gardening because of their tolerance to cold, good taste, ample production, and texture.

Let's dive in and take a look at some. I'll try to keep this alphabetical, just so it has some semblance of order, but feel free to jump around until you land on something you like. There is bound to be something that will suit you.

Broccoli

Our first candidate in the cruciferous category is broccoli. This stout and cold hardy plant is sought after for its buds. I know that sounds a bit odd, but we really do eat the buds of this plant.

Let broccoli go too long before picking, or let it sit in the refrigerator for a while, and you'll see those buds start turning into blossoms.

One of the great things about broccoli is its hardiness in cool and cold weather. A friend of mine told me: "You can't kill it." Well, that might be an exaggeration, but I can certainly attest to its hardiness. This is one of the appeals of cruciferous vegetables in general - they tend to be cold tolerant.

Broccoli offers us a primary "head" composed of a dense pack of buds. This is what we're mainly interested in, but it also offers plenty of "side shoots" in response to cutting the head. With its side shoot production and cold hardiness, broccoli can provide a relatively long harvest well into the late fall and early winter if given just a bit of protection.

A nice bunch of broccoli is excellent steamed, sauteed, or even minced up with fried eggs. The thick stalks just below the head can be sliced into small sticks and cooked a bit longer, and they are equally good.

Brussels Sprouts

Here is one of the cruciferous vegetables that develops in a odd manner. The sprouts form along the trunk of the plant, just above the point where leaf stems exit the main body. Small and firm sprouts look very much like miniature cabbages, and can be prepared much like broccoli, but require a bit more cooking.

I like steamed Brussels sprouts, and I am also fond of cutting them in half, through the core, and sauteing them in a pan with butter, garlic and some pepper. The sprouts cut in half tend to absorb more flavor from the pan and cook through a bit quicker.

Anyway, Brussels sprouts are another of the cold weather hardy cruciferous vegetables, but they require a lengthy growing season. Here in Wyoming, it is advisable to start Brussels sprouts early in the spring, allowing them to merely hang in there during the summer, and make a push for more growth with the onset of fall.

Offering protection during the early part of winter is essential here to allow them to more fully developed for the harvest. Brussels sprouts require a considerable amount of room, something similar to broccoli, and I find their yield to be a little disappointing in light of the area and development time they demand.

Bok Choy

Here is a stir fry vegetable chef's delight. Bok choy is not only an easy to grow vegetable, but it is attractive, multi-colored, and has a very pleasing texture. The leaves are similar to other greens, and the stalks have a unique flavor and texture that is refreshing.

Like other cruciferous vegetables, bok choy is cold tolerant, and can be harvested well into the winter months if given adequate protection. My experience shows that bok choy can survive single digits, and even lower, if given double row cover protection, and kept out of direct wind.

Bok choy has a pleasing upright growth habit, with limited spreading, and this allows it to be grown in proximity with itself and other plants. Harvesting is simplified as the base of the plant can be cut off with a knife at ground level.

Cabbage

Growing cabbage can be a satisfying experience, and it can also be a little bit frustrating. Another cool weather crop, cabbage tends to be susceptible to, you guessed it, the cabbage butterfly. All it takes is a visit from this white fluttering marvel, and you'll have little green worms on your cabbage.

Many of the cruciferous vegetables like cabbage and broccoli are prone to being a home and food source for those cabbage butterfly worms, so don't think for a minute that cabbage is all they enjoy.

Cabbage tends to take-up quite a bit of space in the garden, but provides a nice dense harvest in return. You can grow really large cabbages, much larger than anything you've ever seen in the store, and that alone is worth the space requirement that cruciferous vegetables such as these demand.

Cabbage is relatively versatile when it comes time to preparing it. It can be used raw as coleslaw, steamed, bakee, or sauteed with onions and caraway seeds for a delicious side dish that is especially complementary to red meat.

We enjoy cabbage sliced finely and made into a casserole with eggs, and I am partial to shredded cabbage mixed with cheese and caraway seeds and then fried in butter. I know it sounds odd, but it is absolutely delicious.

Collard greens

I dare say that collards are one of the classic greens from the south. They can be steamed, boiled, slow cooked or sauteed, as they offer a wealth of vitamins and minerals as well as good flavor.

Collards can be harvested a few leaves at a time, or the entire plant can be harvested at maturity. Collards enjoy cooler weather, but can take warm weather in stride.

I enjoy greens of all sorts, and collards are one of my favorites. Slow cook them on low in a crockpot with onions and chunks of bacon or ham, and serve them with a little cider vinegar, and you'll have yourself a nice side dish. I prefer hot pepper vinegar if I can find it.

Kale

I think my first introduction to this part of the cruciferous vegetables family was back in Detroit when I was a child. It was the curly variety of kale, and it was steamed and served with butter. What a treat! I wondered why our family didn't eat this delicious vegetable more often.

Recently, I have grown Russian kale, and it has a peculiar characteristic on the leaves. There are tiny leaf like appendages that grow straight up off of the middle of the leaves as if they were abnormalities. It is really quite curious.

Kale is very winter hardy and can winter over outdoors if you have it in a protected spot and your winters aren't too harsh. The cold weather can make an improvement in kale as it tends to increase sweetness. With a cold frame or greenhouse of some sort, expect to be eating kale throughout the winter, even in harsher environments.

Kale is fond or cooler weather, so it grows well in the spring and then again in the fall. Expect it to become almost dormant in the heat of the summer.

Kohlrabi

Another of the odd looking cruciferous vegetables, kohlrabi is one of my favorites. It's a root type vegetable but grows completely above ground. Only the tap root portion is beneath the soil.

Kohlrabi is mature when it's about the size of a baseball or softball, depending on the variety. It has stems and leaves radiating out from it and coming right out of the top. It's good whether prepared raw or cooked. Preparation involves trimming off the stems, slicing off a bit of the top and bottom, and peeling off the firm outer skin.

I eat kohlrabi much like a turnip or radish. Slice it into sticks or rounds or half-rounds, and munch away. It's a very nice addition to the lineup of cruciferous vegetables that are relatively easy to grow.

Radish

The world is full of different kinds of radishes - long ones, short ones, white ones, red ones, purple ones, hot ones and mild ones. Usually, radishes are one of the first vegetables you try to grow, and they are one of the easiest.

Radishes can be eaten by themselves whole, sliced up in a relish tray, or sliced or chopped into a raw salad. They like cooler weather, and they are quick growers. You can easily get a couple of crops in during the regular season, and you might be able to extend their season into the late fall with just a little protection from the elements.

Another advantage of the radish is that it doesn't take up much room. It's happy with a little patch of ground and enough room for the root to swell up into a ball or something resembling more of a carrot shape.

Turnip

The classic purple top turnip is another one of my favorites among the cruciferous vegetables, and one of the fondest memories of my grandparents house in Toledo, Ohio. My grandmother often had turnips sliced up and sitting in a plastic dish filled with water in the refrigerator. They stayed crisp and fresh that way.

I love the taste of turnips. They have a unique and mild taste that goes great with just a dash of salt. They are usually crisp and firm, without being woody, and have a firm texture that isn't quite as solid as a carrot.

Recently, I grew a white Japanese hybrid turnip. It was incredibly sweet, and the swollen root portion grew entirely above ground. Only the tap root was below the surface. The turnips grew to a uniform shape, about the size of a golf ball, and they were a beautiful creamy white color.

Turnips are one of the double-edged cruciferous vegetables, they offer us both their greens as well as their swollen root. So, don't toss the tops of these cruciferous vegetables on the compost pile until you've given them a try.

Turnip greens can be a little bit bitter, so be prepared for something that doesn't have as smooth a taste as one might expect from other leafy green vegetables. The greens from turnips are more like mustard greens in some respects, so put a little cider vinegar with them and enjoy this dual purpose vegetable.

Watercress

Watercress is an unlikely member of the team of cruciferous vegetables. It's not anything like anything described above. It's a small pedaled creeping plant that forms a thick carpet of pungent leaves to spice up your salad.

It enjoys cooler weather and moist conditions, and will quickly overrun an area unless you keep it trimmed back a bit. I find it easy to grow, but don't expect it to be of any quality once the weather starts getting warmer.

Snip off the leaves of these cruciferous vegetables and enjoy a little kick in your salad bowl.

So, there you have a summary of some of the cruciferous vegetables. Put them on your vegetable gardening schedule and give them a try if you haven't already.

Done with Cruciferous Vegetables, take me back to List of Vegetables