What can I sow now for Winter?

[chadspad]

What is the name of the dark greens that u can get? I always thought it was spring greens but thats more like a cabbage. The stuff I mean is large leafed, my Grandma always put bicarb with it to soften it, very strong flavour and full of iron. Have been looking for seeds on Ebay but cant find anything the same!

[Mrs Moustoir]

Do you mean kale? You can grow it as a veg to cook or eat the small leaves as a winter salad. There are lots of varieties and not all are curly.

My MIL was a great one for cooking veg with bicarb especially peas which would start out green and end up beige. She would put the veg on at the same time as she put the turkey in on Christmas day.

[chadspad]

No, dont think its Kale. Have just googled it for some piccys. The flat leaf stuff is similar tho. The greens I meanhad big leaves, usually tough (hence the bicarb) and once cooked tended to end up as a lump of watery gloop. Mmm, thinking about it, why do I want this anyway

[Millymollymandy]

There's that fodder cabbage you can get here (as seeds) which I made the mistake of growing once, thinking it would be something like spring greens but the leaves and the plant were enormous! I never bothered to cook with it and the chooks weren't interested. Maybe it was something like that, although it is more of a bluey green cabbage colour rather than dark green.

[chadspad]

I used to buy it from Tescos and the like so not sure it'd be fodder cabbage would it? Oh I dont know. Perhaps it was some kind of tops that they were just generalising as greens. I'll keep searching lol.

[Millymollymandy]

Oh I thought when you mentioned your grandma you were talking about back when you were a kid! No T***o wouldn't sell stuff like that! Perhaps it was beet greens or spinach beet or swiss chard?

[chadspad]

Have found it! Its brussels tops! Are they literally the tops of brussels sprouts plants then? My plants never looked like that lol

[Mrs Moustoir]

Yes - just the tops of the sprout plants. Mine are like net curtains at the mo due to cabbage white caterpillars.

[chadspad]

Yes mine too lol. Havent seen those to buy in the supermarkets for eating - has anyone else in France? Mind u, theyve only just cottoned on to parsnips!

[Mrs Moustoir]

Yes - you can get sprouts here (even Lidl sell them in the winter) but most grow their own hereabouts. I bought local broccoli recently and it came with free cabbage white caterpillars. Got enough of my own.

Sowed a nice mix of winter salads today - land cress, mustard and spinach.

[gdb]

over here we are just now (mid september) sowing wild rocket. a nice strong salad plant. and also lambs lettuce as someone mentioned.

if we can do that here (sweden) you can still do that in the uk!