Swimming Cabbages (and other fall stuff)

[GoDawgs]

I am totally amazed. Astounded, really. We had 6" of rain yesterday. This morning the cabbages in a low area of the garden were doing the backstroke in 6" of water. I have no waders but planned to deploy "garbage bag waders" over my shoes and go cut those cabbages when I got home from a morning appointment.

When I got home and told Pickles I was getting ready to go rescue the cabbages she said she had been to the garden and all the water had been sucked up by the ground! Nooooo, I don't believe it. "Really! And it's a bit soft but I can walk on it." Son of a gun, she was right. No "waders" needed.

So I cut one Stonehead and three Charleston Wakefields. Three of the four are being stored in the shed in a cooler with straw above and below them to prevent freezing and the cooler lid has been left ajar. They'll stay cold but won't freeze in the shed and they won't rot out in the garden. The three pointed ones are early Charleston Wakefield and the one roundie is a Stonehead.



Left in the garden are four late Flat Dutch and three Red Acre, all of which aren't close to being ready.

Elsewhere in the garden the carrots are coming along. The section on the right with the giant skips are Tendersweet. The Yayas behind them are doing well as are the Bolero, Danvers and Napoli on the left. In the middle are the small garlic cloves left over from the main planting and the three mounds in the front are the three potatoes that were planted mid October as an experiment. I forgot to cover them the other night when it got down to 30 with heavy frost and they got burned. Hopefully they'll pop back up.



The second planting of broccoli are still small but getting there.



The garlics are looking good.



And finally, something that's never happened before. Early in the fall when the asparagus had died back, Pickles mowed the patch. Later in the fall a ton of small asparagus sprouts came up.



They're starting to die back again. I wonder if there will be a bunch of large spears this spring or not much of anything! I guess we'll see.

[MissS]

The cabbage look great. Keep us posted on how the asparagus grows next spring please.

[bower]

Oh my gosh, GoDawgs! Luckily those cabbages look none the worse for doing the backstroke! Everything vegetable is dormant here, but we had so much rain, I'm glad there's nothing planted in the swimming area.

[imp]

Dawgs, I have seed for the early jersery wakefield, but does it get a larger core with the pointed head? I am assuming that pointed head cabbages would be similar to each other in that way.

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by imp

Dawgs, I have seed for the early jersery wakefield, but does it get a larger core with the pointed head? I am assuming that pointed head cabbages would be similar to each other in that way.

I can't remember but I'll probably be using one of them next week so I'll pay attention and let you know!

[Father'sDaughter]

Glad they passed their swim test! I also have seeds for Early Jersey Wakefield, so yes, let us know what you find when you cut one open. I've found many pictures of them on-line, but so far only one showing the cut halves.

How long will they keep in the coolercwith straw?

[GoDawgs]

The Wakefield cabbage I'm growing is the Early Charleston Wakefield. A blurb from Victory Seeds:

"A selection of ‘Early Jersey Wakefield.’ 'Charleston Wakefield' is very similar to its predecessor in shape, but is larger and takes about a week longer to reach maturity. The heads are dark-green, compact, and conical shaped, reaching about four to six pounds in size. First selected and released in the late 19th Century. Often attributed to the Peter Henderson company as an 1892 release. However, 'Charleston Wakefield' was in fact first released by the F. W. Bolgiano Co. in their 1880 catalog. An early variety, it is generally grown for a summer harvest but does over winter well."

Eden Brothers describes it:

"The Charleston Wakefield Cabbage is an heirloom cabbage variety that dates back to the late 19th century. Produces cabbage heads up to 6 lbs. Plant Charleston Wakefield Cabbage seeds in just about any climate in the USA, but as the name suggests, tends to thrive in the southeast."