Christmas time is always busy, rushing up and down the country for the annual visit to relatives, delivering presents and hopefully collecting a few along the way. Then the big day arrives, which is spent cooking from the early hours for a meal eaten in total exhaustion by the cook!

Despite all this action, thank goodness it’s nearly back to normal, I’ve finished the brassica section of the vegetable growing guides. The cabbage family have always been tricky and under rated. I think the reason they’re under rated comes down to our cooking habits in the past. Boil until absolutely ruined used to be the standard method. I googled cooking Brussels sprouts the other day and was horrified to still find advice to cut a cross in the bottom and boil for 15 minutes. No wonder people hate them!

The cabbage itself is a really healthy food - there’s more vitamin C in raw cabbage than oranges or apples. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, then a cabbage will keep and entire health centre at bay! There’s more on the vitamin content in the growing cabbages guide.

Anyway, I hope you find the guides interesting, there’s a lot more to go online in the new year and some major additions coming to the Poultry Pages

Growing Brassicas

• Coping with Club Root - Plasmodiophora Brassicae
• Brassica Pests & Problems
• Cabbage Root Fly
• Growing Cabbages
  • Types of Cabbage (Spring, Summer, Winter, Red, Savoy, Chinese Cabbage)
  • Cabbage Fertiliser Program
• Growing Cauliflowers
• Growing Brussels Sprouts
  • Brussels Sprouts Fertilizer Program
• Growing Swedes
• Growing Brocolli
• Growing Calabrese
• Growing Turnips
• Growing Radishes
• Growing Romanesco