Cauli Accolade
‘It takes a skilled gardener to grow a decent cauliflower’. That's what we were told many years ago by a local expert- one of the old boys in the village with hands like shovels and a garden plot a testament to decades of seasoned care and cultivation. Proudly we can say that at last, we’ve achieved that accolade.
Previous attempts have resulted in tennis ball-sized miniature examples - fine in many ways but lacking in bulk and fit only for a Lilliputian household. This year we decided to sow an old envelope of un-named cauliflower seeds that had rattled around the bottom of our seed tin since last year. Germination was excellent and 9 healthy specimens were planted in one of our square vegetable beds and protected from insects and pigeons with a tent of Enviromesh. Growth was rapid and went almost unnoticed until a few weeks ago we decided to pull back the mesh for a spot of weeding. We were somewhat surprised if not astounded to see some magnificent cauliflower heads, known as curds, developing. This week we decided that one particularly precocious head was ready for the kitchen and weighing in at 2lbs 5 oz we have to say we are rather proud of it. ‘Like a proper cauliflower from a Cornish field’ was one comment from an enthusiastic visitor.
Cauliflowers are thought to have originated in Cypress in the 12th and 13th centuries. They were introduced into mainland Europe in 1490 and made their way westward over the next few centuries arriving in England at the start of the 1700’s. Global cauliflower production in the 21st century is hard to gauge as it is nearly always lumped in with broccoli, but the combined total for both is over 25 million tonnes. Interestingly, its popularity in Indian dishes such as aloo gobi, (potato and cauliflower) has been aided by the adoption of a long-abandoned Cornish variety which headed eastwards where its genes have aided the development of heat tolerant varieties.
All of which brings us back to Genus HQ. What to do with our cauli? Aloo gobi? Cauliflower cheese? Coronation cauli? Thankfully we’ve enough for all three!
