Calabrese – fresh from the allotment

I’ve just picked another crop of Calabrese (Brassica oleracea ‘Italica’ group) from the allotment.

I love Purple and White Sprouting Broccoli as well, and they’re a treat in spring when very little else is available. I sow the seeds in April, plant out seedlings in June and then eat the heads the following March or April.

But with Calabrese you get a crop the same year you plant it, so you can sow seeds in April and harvest the heads in September. In a milder winter the larger first heads are followed by several lots of smaller ones, like those I picked today. In cold spells growth slows down and in a harsh winter like that of 2010-11 the plants can be killed off altogether.

I have to net the plants to keep out hungry pigeons and in late summer I pick off Large White (Pieris brassicae) and Small White (Pieris rapae) caterpillars, but I reckon it’s worth it.

Calabrese and Broccoli are very tasty and also good for you, with Vitamin C, carotenoids, fibre and various beneficial compounds. One particular compound, glucoraphanin, is metabolised into sulforaphane, which appears to have anti-cancer properties. You need to steam your Calabrese or Broccoli to obtain full benefits.

If you go to Marks and Spencer you’ll see “Beneforté” Broccoli (actually a form of Calabrese), which has been bred by Norwich’s Institute of Food Research and John Innes Centre to contain high levels of glucoraphanin.

I’ll stick to my own Calabrese and Broccoli for now. Nothing beats a trip to the allotment to pick the tender young shoots, except eating them, lightly steamed, as a side vegetable.

To grow your own Calabrese see the Allotment Vegetable Growing website. I used to raise my plants in modules but last year I sowed seed in a nursery bed on the allotment and the plants were much better – stronger and more numerous – in spite of a spring drought. I like variety “Chevalier F1”, which has given me bigger heads than the non-F1 “Green Sprouting”.

To find out more about Broccoli and Calabrese’s nutritional qualities and much else, see Wikipedia. Beware that “broccoli consumption is … associated with malodorous flatulence” because of the sulphur compounds the vegetable contains. But this is surely a price worth paying?