Growing Cabbage Pick My 1st One & Have a Question

kbmbillups1
kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,390 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited November 2020 in Vegetables

This is probably a dumb question but...I planted cabbage for the 1st time and just picked the 1st one. I couldn't wait to finally try one of them! It's still small but I haven't used any chemicals or conventional fertilizers so I figure they won't get huge. Anyway, I'm making a cabbage salad with it. I'm just using the head which is enough for me and husband.

Do you guys cook the other leaves like you do greens or just put them in your compost?

Comments

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    When I was young and foolish, I used to compost the outer leaves. Nowadays, I would try to eat the outer leaves like I would kale.

  • DebiB
    DebiB Posts: 92 ✭✭✭

    Yes, the outer leaves can be eaten. They might be tougher than the head of cabbage, so you may need to cook them a bit longer.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    There is another post happening: Making bone broth, what should I put in the pot. Sorry, I don't know how to link to it.

    But that would be an excellent use for the outer leaves.

    You could chop them and add to fermented veggies. A local sauerkraut producer adds chopped kale to her kraut, so that might be an idea for ripped up outer leaves. Or shred them and marinate for a slaw. You could add them to juice blends if you make your own juice. Cabbage juice is very good for stomach ulcers. As @DebiB suggests, they might take a bit longer to cook but after that they could be used for cabbage rolls.

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,390 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks @shllnzl @DebiB &@torey I saved the outer leaves just waiting for your replies. I'll pick kale tomorrow and chop the cabbage leaves finely and add them to my pot. Cabbage rolls sound really good and so does sauerkraut. I haven't made that in a while! My cabbage tasted more like Napa cabbage than the green cabbage I buy in the store so it would probably make some good kimchi too. Adding it to bone broth would be a good too. Thanks for all of the ideas.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    In addition to all the good ideas you can also feed them tto chicks, pigs or rabbits. But eating them is my favorite thing too.

  • OhiohillsLouise
    OhiohillsLouise Posts: 120 ✭✭✭

    Congratulations on your first cabbage, and it’s a beauty too! My outer leaves go to the chickens.

  • greyfurball
    greyfurball Posts: 591 ✭✭✭✭

    And just for your own information, often times homegrown fruits and veges are often smaller than the grocery store counterparts.

    This doesn't mean you did (or are doing) something wrong. Just keep it in mind, the items you see in a grocery store are made by corporate agricultural industries where they make it their business to add amendments which will make their produce look the best, biggest and the most pleasing visually.

    But all those cute adjectives are done with chemicals, herbicides, pesticides and often altered DNA.

    Yours on the other hand is clean, healthy and better tasting.

    If I had my choice, I'd take yours any day!

  • Kelley
    Kelley Posts: 140 ✭✭✭

    We feed them 5o the livestock. Never thought of using them.