Harvested a few tiny (tennis ball to softball-sized, like, orange to grapefruit…little ones!) cauliflower from the last-planted section of brassicas that also has kale and broccoli. It’s still producing in home-consumption quantities, but with the exception of some strap kale, they entirely missed sizing up in time for CSA or the farmers’ market at the end of October. This is the normal. I usually take a chance on a final, extra-late planting—sometimes they make it, sometimes they don’t. Now, growth is so slow, the field is really just convenient live storage.
Not ideal storage, though. These plants are hardy, but the cold—many sub-zero nights—does take its toll on the parts you want to eat. Kale fares the best, broccoli is quickly savaged, and exposed heads of cauliflower get cold-burned to an unappetizing, mushy in spots, brown. BUT, with self-blanching varieties (this one is Minuteman), the leaves curl close to cover the heads, protecting them from sun discoloration (so our white cauliflower can be…snowy white), and this works fine against cold as well.
Then there’s the eating. The summer’s abundance of fresh-picked veggies has been over for a while, and every little taste of what remains becomes more of a treat as winter approaches, supplies dwindle, memories fade. The wheel keeps on turning…! :)
I would say there might be a market for that size of cauliflower, if you where able to grow them in season. Full-size head of cauliflower tend to be much too big for a single person or a couple, and spoil fairly quickly in the fridge. This size would be perfect for a single meal of one or two persons.
Thanks for this great blog! You abandoned us, the readers, for awhile ;). Can you, please, post pictures of the curious wooden structures you had in the field this year? I still cannot decide if there were for tomatoes, cucumbers or beans.
I had the same problem with my fall crop of cauliflower this year. We just didn’t have the right conditions but we are going to have plenty put away for winter. I am getting ready to blanch and freeze about a dozen heads.
-Nathan
Just beautiful!
Very fresh & healthy. Thanks.
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Great blog post. I ate an amazing Cauliflower curry last night. I can only imagine how better it would have been with fresh ingredients like the ones in your post.