intact, it will give a rosette of leaves
repeatedly. The bitter leaves are often
blanched before eating to make them more
palatable.
The Cabbage Family: Cabbage, Kale, Brussels Sprouts,
and Others
Like the onion family, the cabbage family is a
group of formidable chemical warriors with
strong flavors. It’s also a uniquely protean
family. From two weedy natives of the
Mediterranean and central Asia, we have
managed to develop more than a dozen major
crops of very different kinds: some leaves,
some flowers, some stems, some seeds. Then
there are a dozen or more relatives, notably
the radishes and mustards (see chapter 8 for
the spicy ones), and crosses between species:
altogether a rich and ongoing collaboration
between nature’s inventiveness and our own!
Beyond the cabbage family itself, some of its