Win, Lose, or Get Creative

Sometimes gardening, like politics, is the art of compromise.

Our cabbages have been under constant attack from every pest known to woman throughout the spring and summer growing season. Cabbage worms, harlequin bugs, and slugs have been the most destructive, with rolypoly bugs sometimes joining the fray.

Now that the bugs and slugs have had all summer to multiply and establish themselves, its been getting downright dangerous to be a brassica in our cabbage patch.

We have harvested some nice big heavy cabbages (as you can see in my last post) but the nail-biting question of whether the pests or the gardeners would triumph finally got to be too anxiety-provoking for me and I looked for a "third way." After managing for months to fend off armies of small creatures who like cabbage as much as I do, I finally gave up and decided not to wait until all of the cabbages are "normal" cabbage-sized. I've never been too interested in normalcy anyhow.

So I harvested a bunch of tiny cabbages yesterday. One of the smallest is pictured at the top of this post.

Baby cabbages make perfectly fine cole slaw and kraut, I've discovered. They are nice and tender, and just darn cute.

Here's an approximation of the slaw recipe that I use:

Classic Cole Slaw

Ingredients

• A bunch of cabbage of any size (about 4 cups chopped)
• 4 or 5 good-sized carrots
• 2-4 Tbs. of raw apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbs. of honey
• Mayonnaise to taste (I use about a cup per four cups of chopped cabbage)
• 1 tsp. high-quality salt
• Lots of freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Finely chop cabbage and carrots. I use a food processor for this, but you can do it by hand.
2. Mix everything together in a big bowl.
3. Chill in the fridge, allowing the flavors to meld for at least 30 minutes before serving.
4. Enjoy!

Cole Slaw on Foodista:

Sauerkraut!

This is the first year we've grown cabbage, and we had a pretty good crop despite our naive lack of cabbage moth control at the beginning.

Some of the cabbage from our garden (top) is going into the current batch of sauerkraut. Making kraut is my favorite old-time way of preserving vegetables without heat or electricity. All that you need is a crock and some salt, and you are on your way to sour, salty, sauerkraut delights.

The batch that's fermenting now includes the aforementioned cabbage, a bunch of gorgeous beets I pulled a few days ago, onions, dill flowers, and carrots. Past experience tells me that the beets will make it turn out a very pretty hot pink color.

I could include a recipe here, but there's really no need for formal directions. Just chop everything up (I like to make beets and radishes super-thin, cut the carrots on a diagonal, and slice the cabbage in long, crinkly strips); smash it down in the crock as you go (I use a potato masher for this part); keep adding layers; and sprinkle a teaspoon or so of salt after every few inches of chopped veggies. Here's a picture (bottom) of the layers getting layered. Then put a plate on top and something heavy (I use an old Bombay Sapphire bottle full of water) and press, press, press every time you're in the kitchen.

Wait a few weeks or if you are a hardcore European-style krauter, a few months, and then, viola!

Did I mention it's very good for you?

Cabbage worm update

So the cabbage worms are doing what they do best: eating cabbage. We sprayed BT on the cabbage yesterday, and we'll hit the rest of the brassicas today.

I learned from Sandi that Christopher's pool net method is not entirely unique. She uses a badminten racket for cabbage moth control (see below).

We'll be able to save these cabbages, but I felt a blood lust for cabbage worms after seeing the damage. Here's to helpful bacteria (BT) and the good old-fashioned methods, too.

Cabbage worms

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of Christopher in his pajamas in the garden catching cabbage moths with a swimming pool net. So far, our haphazard methods of cabbage moth/worm control have been limited to Christopher's antics with the swimming pool net and my pick-n-squish endeavors with the larvae.

Nonetheless, we're not noticing too much damage from the larvae -- cabbage worms -- yet, but we're vigilant because there are lots of the pretty white moths (pictured above) around and we have created a very enticing brassica buffet of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, various kales, and collards.

While amusing to our neighbors, the pool net method is probably not good enough to keep down the cabbage moth damage through the season. And the plants are doing so well that pick and squish is getting to be a time-consuming chore. Most organic pest experts recommend spraying with BT to kill the larvae. Here's a great gardening blog--veggiegardeningtips--with a post on cabbage worm control, for example.

We'll see if we resort to BT....it's looking likely....but I'll probably also try planting dill around the brassicas, which is said to repel both aphids and cabbage moths. Even if it doesn't work, it's beautiful, attracts beneficials, and we'll use it for pickles, potato salad, sauerkraut, and other delights. See the wiki companion planting entry for more on dill and other companion plants for pest control.

Peppers and cabbage

Cabbage is "heading up" --here are some of our cabbage babies (Early Jersey Wakefield) with some kale and the ever-persistant milkweed (on the right side between the two right-most cabbages) poking its head up in the middle of a veggie bed.

We are planting a bunch of pepper varieties -- Corno di Toro, an Italian heirloom (Horn of the Bull!), Black Hungarian, Pasilla Bajio (from Mexico, used in mole), Golden Treasure (another old variety from Italy), Long Purple Cayenne, Red Cheese Pimento, Hungarian Hot Wax (pictured below), Jimmy Nardello, Romanian Hot, and the very intriguing Orchid Pepper, of which a google image search yeilds nothing. What will it look like? Who can say. Baker Creek says it is ornamental, and the peppers are "orchid shaped." I eagerly await its fruiting.


Hungarian Hot Wax


Pasillo Bajio


Jimmy Nardello....an old farmers market favorite of mine ... we're growing starts from Sugar Creek Farm from seeds they saved last year.