What is this?

Gardener:ruGrew

Date:11 Sep 2021

Blog Type:Vegetables

If you guessed it was a brussels sprout you would be correct!

 

With pretty much everything beginning to go to flower in our ‘winter garden’ I’m at the stage where I am removing plants. 

 

As I have been learning more about soil, rather than yanking the roots out, I have been moving the pea straw away from the stem of the plant, following it to the ground, then using secateurs, cutting it off so the roots stay in the ground, not disturbing any of the soil structure and are left there in situ to decay - or in some cases, I get a pleasant surprise and they re-sprout!

 

Why am I telling you all this?

 

Well with our lovely summer winds my Brussels sprouts blew over last year so were growing along the ground a bit, and I left them like that too long to be able to prop back upright without damaging the roots, so when I went to add more pea straw to the bed I just covered the lower stem of the plant…. Then to my surprise when I went to cut out the plant, I found a few of these ‘glowing’ sprouts! 

 

I wish I could tell you if they tasted and different, but I added them straight into dinner with the rest of the veggie mix, without thinking of seeing if they were different! I still have more plants to try though, so I’ll try to remember to do a taste comparison! 

What is this?