are properly blanched for freezing, when the color changes from purple to green they are perfect.) Even marinating them in vinegar or lemon juice will eventually turn them green. In my experience, making them into a pureed soup creates a decidedly unappetizing gray soup.
To preserve the deep purple color, serve the young beans raw in salads or on a festive dip platter mixed with other colorful vegetables.
BEETS
Beta vulgaris
Three colors of beets from Renee’s Garden
The ancient greeks and Romans appreciated both red and white beets; and yellow beets were popular in Europe for centuries.
How to grow: Sow beet seeds directly in rich, well-drained soil, in early spring or fall, in full sun. They can take some frost. Plant the seeds V4 inch deep in wide rows or broadcast over a 3-foot-wide bed. I like to mix colors of beet varieties in the same bed so I can combine them in a recipe. Plant extra seeds of the golden beets as they germinate poorly. Beet seeds are actually a cluster of seeds; therefore, they must be thinned to 3 inches apart for full size beets—2 inches for babies. Fertilize midseason with a balanced organic fertilizer and water evenly.
Occasionally, leaf miners tunnel through the leaves. A fungus disease cercospora flourishes in humid conditions and makes orange spots on the foliage. A rust fungus can also be a problem.
Harvest when the beets are 3 inches across or less.
Varieties
Renee’s Garden carries three colors of beets in the same package.
‘Albina Verduna’ (‘Snow White’): 65 days; pure white; large and sweet
‘Bull’s Blood’: 60 days, a beet grown for its deep red leaves as well as the roots; some resistance to leaf miner; the “greens” retain most of their color when cooked; available from Garden City Seeds
‘Chioggia’: 50 days; red on outside, red and white peppermint-striped rings inside; sweet
‘Burpee’s Golden’: 60 days; delicious, sweet yellow beets; leaf midribs are golden; low germination rates
How to prepare: The red pigments in beets are betacyanins; the yellow, betaxanthins. These pigments are fairly stable, though they do fade and change if food is overcooked. (If I boil my borscht too long it turns from a rich red to a dull reddish-brown.) Use beets raw or cooked in salads, cooked in soups and stews, or simply boiled or steamed and served with butter. The yellow, white, and the striped ‘Chioggia’ beets will not bleed and discolor the other ingredients in a cooked dish as do the red varieties and are great roasted in the oven with a little olive oil and garlic. To highlight yellow beets, serve them julienned with red ones or as baby beets. Note: pureed yellow beets sometimes oxidize, turning yellow-brown.
‘Chioggia,’ ‘Burpee’s Golden,’ and ‘Cylindra’
‘Albino Verduna’ and ‘Detroit Dark Red’
Doug Gosling and beet harvest
‘Bull’s Blood’ greens are deep red and are one of the few “red” greens to retain their color and are a meltingly rich vegetable if steamed briefly. When the leaves are very young they are beautiful when added raw to a mixed salad.
CABBAGES AND THEIR KIN
BROCCOLI
Brassica oleracea var. italica and B. oleracea. var. botrytis
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
B. oleracea var. gemmifera
CABBAGE
B. oleracea var. capitata and B. oleracea var. bulata
CAULIFLOWER
B. oleracea var. botrytis
KALE
B. oleracea var. acephala
KOHLRABI
B. oleracea var. gongylodes
Most of this family of vegetables has green leaves and buds, but it is the purple or pink varieties we are most interested in here.
How to grow: These vegetables are grown as cool-season annuals. They can bolt and become bitter-tasting in extremely hot weather. All need full sun, or light shade in hot climates.
Start most seeds indoors eight weeks before your last average frost date. Transplant them into rich soil filled with organic matter about two weeks before the last average frost date. (Start cauliflower a little earlier, as it grows more slowly; start Brussels sprouts four weeks before the last frost date and transplant them in a month.) Most can also be planted in midsummer for a fall crop. Sow cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower seeds 3 inches apart, ½ inch deep; thin or transplant small cabbages 12 inches apart and the larger cabbages, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower 24 inches apart. As they all tend to be top-heavy, when transplanting, place them lower in the soil than you would most vegetables—up to their first set of true leaves (the first leaves after the seed leaves). Plant kale seeds ½ inch deep, 1 inch apart, and thin to about 1 foot. Unlike most cole crops, kohlrabi is best seeded in place, rather than started indoors. In early spring or late summer, sow kohlrabi seeds ¼ inch deep, 1 inch apart, thin to 4 inches for baby kohlrabi and 6 inches for full size. Work compost and one cup of a balanced organic fertilizer into the soil around each plant at planting time. A month after planting, side dress an organic nitrogen fertilizer scratched into the soil around the plants. Mulching helps retain moisture.
Chinese elogated cabbage, green drumhead, and red ‘Ruby Perfection’ cabbages
Most cabbage-family plants are susceptible to the same pests and diseases. (Kale tends to have far fewer problems than most.) Flea beetles, imported cabbageworm, cabbage root fly, and cutworms are potential problems. Use floating row covers to prevent these pests. You can also prevent the cabbage root fly from laying her eggs by placing black plastic directly over the roots of the plant. Rotate members of the cabbage family with other vegetable families to prevent diseases.
‘Red Peacock’ kale among lettuces
Purple sprouting broccoli
‘Romanesco’ broccoli
