Anybody grown bitter #cabbage before? 🫠I tasted that lovely one I harvested this morning, and it was inedibly bitter. Couldn’t even swallow a bite, and I did try from a few different parts of the head. So away I went to the internet.
Boron deficiency or uneven watering can cause bitter cabbage, but that bed has good fertile soil and drip irrigation, and you saw the plants - picture perfect. I found lots and lots of cooking advice too, also not applicable. But I think I’ve pieced it together - cabbage wants to be stored somewhere cool for a while before people eat it, because alive, it’s full of bitter glycosides to deter critters from eating it.
This random site, like most I found, focuses on the eating and not the growing, but it did give me this clue:
“Cabbage tastes bitter sometimes due to its organic sulfur-containing compounds like most other vegetables that are part of the mustard family… Those compounds will release their bitterness only when the cabbage is cut and will get more noticeable over time. This is a defense mechanism for cabbage against small pests that are trying to eat it.”
https://foodiosity.com/why-is-cabbage-bitter/
And I found this site, which is focused on the growing part. It notes:
“The composition of the vegetable includes glycosides. These are some kind of protectors from diseases. Their greatest concentration is in stumps and leaves located on the surface of the velka. Because of this, bitterness.
In early varieties of glycosides less than in later ones. The latter are suitable for winter consumption, but after lying down. They are usually denser, leaves with a bluish tint. The longer cabbage lies, the less glycosides. Keep it better in the cellar. Use no earlier than February. Then the bitterness will completely go away.“
https://en.tomathouse.com/4/svezhaya-kapusta-gorchit.html
So I’m going to harvest the other savoyed cabbage in the same bed and store it in the downstairs fridge for a month before I taste it. Hopefully I’m right and the bitterness fades in storage. Because if I’m not right, my princess body can’t handle *that* particular pea - just a taste test that I didn’t swallow left me puking two hours later. 🤮
soggy donkey herder /
npub1zs…zj9jd
2023-09-19 03:02:25
Author Public Key
npub1zsrqtzsz84746udtuu9ddl533wngjpcrx9r5065flea8azf2tn8qgzj9jdSeen on
wss://relay.noswhere.comPublished at
2023-09-19 03:02:25Event JSON
{
"id": "a6cf99ddb66e6f431d9ab38c040f1e7751a1f3edc53e3ece7d39bd2f80a4e899",
"pubkey": "1406058a023d7d5d71abe70ad6fe918ba6890703314747ea89fe7a7e892a5cce",
"created_at": 1695092545,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"t",
"cabbage"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://kolektiva.social/users/donkeyherder/statuses/111089585067825775",
"activitypub"
]
],
"content": "Anybody grown bitter #cabbage before? 🫠I tasted that lovely one I harvested this morning, and it was inedibly bitter. Couldn’t even swallow a bite, and I did try from a few different parts of the head. So away I went to the internet. \nBoron deficiency or uneven watering can cause bitter cabbage, but that bed has good fertile soil and drip irrigation, and you saw the plants - picture perfect. I found lots and lots of cooking advice too, also not applicable. But I think I’ve pieced it together - cabbage wants to be stored somewhere cool for a while before people eat it, because alive, it’s full of bitter glycosides to deter critters from eating it. \nThis random site, like most I found, focuses on the eating and not the growing, but it did give me this clue: \n“Cabbage tastes bitter sometimes due to its organic sulfur-containing compounds like most other vegetables that are part of the mustard family… Those compounds will release their bitterness only when the cabbage is cut and will get more noticeable over time. This is a defense mechanism for cabbage against small pests that are trying to eat it.”\nhttps://foodiosity.com/why-is-cabbage-bitter/\nAnd I found this site, which is focused on the growing part. It notes: \n“The composition of the vegetable includes glycosides. These are some kind of protectors from diseases. Their greatest concentration is in stumps and leaves located on the surface of the velka. Because of this, bitterness.\nIn early varieties of glycosides less than in later ones. The latter are suitable for winter consumption, but after lying down. They are usually denser, leaves with a bluish tint. The longer cabbage lies, the less glycosides. Keep it better in the cellar. Use no earlier than February. Then the bitterness will completely go away.“\nhttps://en.tomathouse.com/4/svezhaya-kapusta-gorchit.html\nSo I’m going to harvest the other savoyed cabbage in the same bed and store it in the downstairs fridge for a month before I taste it. Hopefully I’m right and the bitterness fades in storage. Because if I’m not right, my princess body can’t handle *that* particular pea - just a taste test that I didn’t swallow left me puking two hours later. 🤮",
"sig": "bba090b41b6a3f608aea3baa01143cff496ad1b92c8b7c853017c7f343520c0e77265cadda490b501ad846f2f4bbb5f9e715f047946b7b9bc935556b8b0d8cc6"
}