Organic Cauliflower Tardif d'Angers - Ferme de Sainte Marthe seeds - Brassica oleracea

The 'Angers Late' Cauliflower is a traditional, hardy variety that produces beautiful, dense heads (about 1.5 kg) of white cauliflower with a wonderful texture in spring. This cauliflower resists cold temperatures (at least below -5 °C (23°F)) and stores well. It is ideally suited for freezing. It can be sown from mid-July to mid-September for a harvest from March to June.

With its pure white colour and, in recent years, joyful yellow, orange or purple hues, the Cauliflower is a flowering vegetable whose fleshy meristem is consumed. It belongs to the large family of Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae) and has the Latin name Brassica oleracea botrytis. Sometimes called Cyprus Cabbage, the Cauliflower is a biennial vegetable plant believed to have originated in China.

Consumed for the first time in Germany only 300 years ago, this vegetable has earned a special place in our kitchens as it lends itself to many preparations. It can be eaten raw in salads or cooked, plain, in a gratin with bechamel sauce, or accompanied by a curry sauce that complements its flavour very well. It is a low-calorie vegetable and rich in vitamin C.

There are many varieties of Cauliflower, each with a distinct growing period that should be respected. You can have this vegetable all year round by carefully choosing your seeds.

Cauliflower is a demanding vegetable, requiring excellent base fertilisation and regular moisture.

Harvest: Cauliflower is harvested when the head is tightly compact by cutting it just above the ground.

Storage: Cauliflower does not keep very well. It is best to consume it soon after harvesting. It can be stored for a few days in the refrigerator. You can also freeze it after blanching it for 3 minutes in salted boiling water.

Gardener's tip: The main enemy of cauliflower is the Cabbage White Butterfly (Pieris brassicae), a beautiful cream-white butterfly with small black spots that emerges in April-May and wreaks havoc on its leaves throughout the summer. While spraying a solution based on Bacillus thuringiensis is an acceptable curative measure, we prefer to prevent this by installing insect-proof netting on vegetable hoops. These nets are easy to set up and reusable, protecting, for example, your carrot and leek crops.