Cabbage Plant
All About The Cabbage Plant
If you have a cabbage plant in your garden, you have a vegetable with roots in history and mythology, as well as a superstar when it comes to nutrition. All too often, cabbage is considered a rather common and uninteresting vegetable. Cabbage has many culinary uses, is great for losing weight, and can also be fun to grow.
If you think the only use for the cabbage plant is to boil it in water, then serve it with butter, salt and pepper, you may be in for a surprise. Not that plain old cabbage with butter, salt, and pepper isn't good tasting, it's just that there are many more possibilities. Before we get into that, let’s take a brief look into how cabbage is grown, along with its nutritional value.
Cabbage may be grown from seed or from transplants. The latter is generally the preferred method for home gardeners, unless a very large crop is planned. If you do sow from seed, you would do so indoors, or in a greenhouse, 4 to 6 weeks before time to set the plants out. The seed germinates quite rapidly by the way, taking about 4 days on the average. You want to set the plants out so that they will form heads either before, or after, the hottest part of the summer. Cabbage likes full sun, but will tolerate light or partial shade during the hottest part of the summer. Cabbage is a cool season crop. It will tolerate light frosts, but should be harvested before heavy freezes set in.
Cabbage is often planted in accordance with a staggered schedule, so you won't get the entire crop at once. In mild winter areas, you can grow and harvest cabbage year round. Cabbage is a biennial, but is almost always treated as an annual. If allowed to grow for a second year, the crop will not be cabbage heads, but seeds.
Cabbage is a low calorie food, about 23 calories per cup, hence is an excellent main dish in any weight loss program. Cabbage soup, containing other vegetables and seasoned to taste, is a staple for a rapid weight loss program (7 - 10 days). This isn't surprising, in a food that has low calories and can be rather filling. Fortunately, cabbage is also highly nutritious.
The cabbage plant is rich in vitamin C, and a good source of vitamins A, B, and E as well. It is also a high fiber food, and contains many of the essential trace minerals. Vitamin C is known as a fat burner, while vitamin B increases metabolism, and also helps burn fat. Vitamins A and E promote healthy skin, and are good for the eyes.
Cabbage is known to have been in the Chinese diet for at least 6000 years. When it first came under cultivation is not exactly known, but the cabbage head did not make an appearance until medieval times. The ancient Greeks and Romans cultivated the vegetable, as did inhabitants of the countries of northern Europe.
Once the cabbage plant is harvested it can be eaten raw, as in a salad or slaw, it can be boiled, baked or stir fried. It is wonderful as a soup, goes well with corned beef and potatoes, and of course when salted and fermented, becomes sauerkraut. The Germans, English, and French all developed their own recipes for sauerkraut, leaving it up to the Americans to match it up with the hot dog. Shredded cabbage, dipped in milk, flour, and then deep fat fried, can be eaten like a french fry.
The cabbage plant is by no means humble or unexciting, and is well worth adding to your garden for your eventual enjoyment at the dinner table.