Organic Cabbage, summer/autumn: Filderkraut

Description

Organic summer/autumn cabbage: Filderkraut. Brassica oleracea var. capitata.

A firm mid-season pointed cabbage. Sweet taste, thin leaves and small core. An heirloom variety originally from Germany.

How to grow:
Start summer/autumn cabbages undercover in January/February in modules, plant out when large enough. Filderkraut can grow large and leafy, so closer sowings can make them more manageable in smaller plots, up to 45cms. Mulch with well rotted farmyard manure or compost, it likes fertile loamy soil. Harvest before first frosts.

Problem solving:
Keep slugs and pigeons off them especially when small. The cabbage butterflies will love them come August, so covering with enviromesh, or something like it will save you picking off many little caterpillars.

Favourite ways to eat them:
Medium storage, with its mild aromatic flavour it’s best used fresh. Makes great sauerkraut.

Cultural history:
An old heirloom variety from the German region of Filder, there is to this day a Filderkraut festival all of its very own in Stuttgart.

Avg contents:  100 seeds.