Garden Wisdom Blog — category: Vegetable Talk

Known since ancient Greece and Rome, the modern cabbage is a descendant of wild mustard. The Roman statesman Cato the Elder wrote of its medicinal properties, “It is the cabbage which surpasses all other vegetables.” The seventeenth century English physician and botanist Nicholas Culpeper recommended using cabbage to treat hoarseness, snake bites, kidney stones, liver disease, consumption, eye troubles, cankers, swelling, and other maladies. But this wealth of benefits is not without its drawbacks, as Culpeper points out: I know not what metal their bodies were made of; this I am sure, Cabbages are extremely windy, whether you take them...

Garlic has been used as both food and medicine since at least the 25th century BC, around the time that the pyramids were being constructed at Giza, Egypt. In his Ecologues, Virgil writes all about garlic being consumed by ancient Greek and Roman soldiers, and it is was grown in England by the mid-16th century. This is curious given the modern English attitude toward garlic. As late as 1997, Dr. D.G. Hessayon warned in his bestselling book, The Vegetable & Herb Expert: If you are a beginner with garlic, you must use it very sparingly or you will be put...

Whether the goal is to harvest tender, immature “new potatoes,” or to harvest fully mature potatoes for storage and use over the fall and winter, it’s helpful to follow some basic guidelines on how and when to harvest potatoes. Our Certified Organic seed potatoes ship in March. Order now for next spring! New Potatoes All potato varieties can be harvested as new potatoes — dug up before the plant reaches maturity, while its tubers are still small. By the time that the plants have begun to flower, most of them will have developed at least some immature tubers ready for...

The plant above is spinach, and it’s getting ready to bolt. As we approach the summer solstice, the spring garden is transformed into something quite different. Various plants begin to behave in new ways. Growth really kicks in for vine-forming plants, while other leafy greens suddenly go to seed. The term “bolting” is not immediately intuitive, especially to new gardeners. But it’s a term that must be understood to maximize success in the garden. All plants have the genetic prerogative to make seeds, but they employ different strategies, and react differently to changes in the seasons. A large number of...