Mastodawn

These plants - originally kalettes and purple sprouting broccoli - now interbred and self seeded have fed us with this wonderful food daily for several months so far this year and will go on doing so for several more months. We never tire of it. The stalks taste as good as asparagus and the green is very tasty. The early bumblebees, when they emerge, will feast on the flowers that open. So don’t pull up the old plants and they will feed you and the bees and will self seed

@JeniParsons
oh aren't they lovely! we haven't had much success with things like that here (heat + slugs and the entire world's population of snails) but i keep trying ...

JeniParsons 3d ago

@moonrabbit my problem is caterpillars in the summer and autumn but the plants recover each year

@JeniParsons
we just seem to have constant munchers. which is good, i suppose, because our garden certainly supports a lot of small wildlife!

JeniParsons 3d ago

@moonrabbit yep that’s why I don’t feel the need to kill them - there’s enough to go round. Slugs though 🙄

@JeniParsons
i think i've just kind of decided that i grow stuff for them now

Engelsbäckerei 3d ago

@moonrabbit
I'm sorry, but I must disagree: You have at most half of the population, because the other half resides in my garden! 😉

@Engelsbaeckerei @JeniParsons
maybe they travel back and forth 😂

Martin Rundkvist 3d ago

@JeniParsons Gotta love them cabbage varieties ❤️

JeniParsons 3d ago

@mrundkvist absolutely!

Dagnabbit, Pascaline! 💥3d ago

Yes, I was thinking the same, I love all of them 💚

NilaJones 3d ago

It's called raab, and is my favorite spring vegetable!

May I suggest growing tronchuda kale, from Portugal? It produces tender-stemmed raab into August, in the PNW, if you keep picking it

Don't buy from rarefseeds.com also called Baker Creek, but there must be other sources. If desperate I will send you some!

JeniParsons 3d ago

@NilaJones thanks interesting! We had a horrible conservative politician in UK called Raab but this is much nicer. I’ll try to source some tronchuda kale which until now I’d never heard of.

NilaJones 3d ago

It's great stuff! Also leaves, 12 months of the year. Makes a big, perennial plant!

Pacific Byiringiro 3d ago

@JeniParsons This is amazing Nature really gives back when we let it grow. Beautiful to see how it feeds both people and bees.

#SustainableLiving #GrowYourOwn #NatureLovers

JeniParsons 3d ago

@pacific06 it really is beautiful as a natural process

Pacific Byiringiro 3d ago

@JeniParsons sustainability!! 👌💪

UkeleleEric 2d ago

@JeniParsons Perennials and self-seeded plants are what the agriculture industry has tried to destroy, because of 'can't make profits every year'. One of the plants you want to get hold of is Good King Henry. Also, raspberries will take over any area if you want them. And wild strawberries. (I have the latter two in my garden, and I didn't plant any) Avoid any hybrids, as they won't seed true.

JeniParsons 2d ago

@UkeleleEric thanks - we have lots of wild strawberries here and belong to RealSeeds in Pembrokeshire where we can source old varieties of lots things. Enjoy your growing 🌱