cabbage question

I planted several 45 day cabbage transplants back on march 18. some of them are just starting to form heads. Should I harves them even though they are small or keep waiting? and

I would keep waiting if I were you! The number of days is just a guideline and doesn't factor in what kind of weather, soil, etc you have had!

Would that go for the rutabagas beside them. Their days are acomplished Sunday?

Pepper if you have never eaten lightly boiled or steamed young cabbages before try snipping off a couple of outer leaves from a few plants , steam and smear with a smidgeon of butter and toss in the pan ,serve hot and eat with the rest of the meal.

There is little or no waste from the plants this way , whereas if you grow cabbages for one or two meals per plant you tend to throw half of it a way as preparation waste and need many cabbages per year .

Because to the prophensity for rapid growth using MM I decided to try the cut and come again method of cropping on all the leafy greens . I'm pleased to say it is a fantastic sucess , I doubt I'll bother going back to specifically growing individual one or two meal cabbages & kale over summer or for Autumn but will just keep harvesting leaves from a few overwintered kale , cabbages and broccoli's or three or four spring sown plants instead.

It does free up space for more expensive long resident crops like carrrots ,swedes , turnips, celleraic and parsnips as well as give more room for leeks , celery , onions and garlic..

I still have three dwarf curly kales planted in June last year & continually harvested in dribs & drabs since they wee big enough .

All the old cabbages have been consigned to the compost bin this week as this years gallant few have now grown enough to replace them .

Soon I will be sowing six or seven seeds for overwintering & spring cabbages as the cycle starts all over again.

thank you plantoid. I had forgoten about steaming them. About how long do you steam them. We have always boiled them down. I have just asked someone about steaming rutabagas. I need to get some recipes/directions/instructions for steaming. We have some old "salad master" cook ware with a steamer and the manual food processor. I dearly love the potatoes steamed.

What do you mean by "swedes"?

I love buttered cabbage, and I found out that when prepared that way, it freezes well, too. Being a family of one, I often prepare a whole head that way and freeze in portion sized containers. (1-cup gladlock containers) They work well for a quick side dish.

Our swede is your rutabagas , can weigh over three pounds .. a winter crop for us ... yellowish flesh and slightly sweet . Dark redish brown /purple uppers and a creamy yellow lower part .. even sweeter if mashed with a little butter or same again & mashed up with potatoes. ( good for freezing in vac packs for a quick portion or three if you running late and the family wants feeding before they eat you.)

We also do mashed swede and carrot with a dab of butter and a shake of black pepper .

What we in the old world of the UK call turnips & you guys cal swede are much smaller ....usually less than four ounces ,white flesh , light purple uppers , whitish lower parts and often slightly peppery like a radish also has the same structure as a raddish .

Steam for three minutes or slip into slightly salted boiling water for four minutes . Never set on the steamer or in a pan waiting for the water to boil or it will be cooked to death and have very little nutritional value..

Time varies according to taste and inclination .. I like crunchy veg most of the time but if we are having roast beef and knife and fork gravy I prefer to have 6 minute boiled dark greens that are quite soft just past leathery & full of water that hold the bitterness , good for knocking free radicals on the head apparentlly .

I've been playing cut and come again with the brassicas , a few weeks ago I took three leaves off each of all the brassica plants inthe garden three minute boiled them and buttered them.. If Carlsberg made delicious cabbages it would be like these were

I fix rutabaga diced and boiled in salted water until tender. Then drain and mash them with a little butter and about 1/4 c sugar (or less if it was a small rutabaga). I don't mix with potatoes at all, but I do like to top them with gravy. I fix turnips the same way, but they have a stronger flavor. This is my first time growing turnips. Do they poke up when they are ready to harvest?

They sit in the top of the ground like swedes .. don't let them get too big or old or they go woody like a woody fiberous radish and they often become homes for various maggot fly grubs if you leave them in the ground for too long.