Cauliflower Harvest February 2013

I had a good amount of cauliflower this season, which was great because my favorite dishes on a cold evening are Aloo Gobi and Navratan Korma, both of which were made stellar due to the addition of beautiful organic home-grown cauliflower. In retrospect, I could have roasted the cauliflower and persevered its beauty, but nothing tastes better to me than hot'n'spicy 'Ruby Murry'.

An interesting find in regard to growing cauliflower, is you must 'blanch' the heads- that is, if you are not growing a self-blanching variety. Blanching just measn using the leafs of the plant to cover the white heads of the cauliflower. I found simply tying a piece of twine around the whole plant towards the top was fairly sufficient in preventing yellowing of the heads. Plus I could easily untie the bow and check the progress of the head growth, and it looked like I had little garden presents. It was adorable... lol!

However you can see in one of the pictures that there is a little yellow on one heads. This is where the sun caught it before I blanched. Cauliflower turns one unappetizing shade of yellowy brown if not blanched, but it it tastes fine.

I started my cauliflower from organic seed in September and harvested in February. I used peet pots to get them started and I found the earlier the harvest, the tighter the head. I grew it in both a North and South Facing yard. It did fantastic in full sun and was really easy to grow.

Fertilizer- Used chicken and steer manure and bone and blood meal in initial soil prep. Watered a couple times with fish emulsion and worked some coffee and tea grounds in a couple times.

FYI, you want to make sure to soak your cauliflower heads before eating, just in case any cabbage worms are lurking. Due to my biodiversified plantings, I didn't have any trouble with pests. I picked a few caterpillars off by hand long before the heads began to grow and didn't have anymore issues.