I loved the picture, so I ordered the seeds. Alcosa Savoy cabbage is a nice, petite head with crinkly leaves. This year I found another Savoy cabbage and am growing two Savoy cabbages.
Cabbage Is Cabbage, Right?
No. Regular cabbage has smooth leaves and makes a tight head. It has a slight bitterness.
Savoy cabbage has crinkly leaves and a looser head. It has no bitterness I can taste.
Both are very cold hardy and I grow most of it for a fall crop. It survives to about twenty degrees without protection.
Time Is Important
The Ozarks has spring. Some years it is very short. Other years it hangs around flirting with winter.
Cabbage likes it cool to cold. All the relatives – broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts – agree. Hot temperatures make them bitter, even kill them.
Time to maturity or harvest matters. Alcosa is 74 days. If I plant it in the garden in March, I usually get a few heads. It is a hybrid, but I plant it anyway.
Violaceo di Verona
According to Baker’s Creek, this cabbage is from northern Italy. It matures in 120 days. That makes it a fall crop in the Ozarks. However, I did want to see what it looked like, so one is growing in my garden now.
Supposedly this makes a medium-sized head. It dwarfs my other ones. The leaves are huge!
Two Savoy Cabbages
Summer is blowing into the Ozarks. My Alcosa cabbages are ready for harvest. The Violaceo has two months to go.
I did plant it in the shade house and will put the shades up within the next week. That may help a little.
Now I have to plan where to plant my two Savoy cabbages in September. Perhaps I will have fresh cabbage all the way to New Year’s.