Winter wonders

It's often said that the bigger and better our winter cabbages the worse the weather is going to be and that's probably as reliable a guide as rheumatic joints or the profusion of holly berries.

It could just be, though, that those round-headed cabbages with the wrinkly crinkly leaves are getting earlier and earlier as the plant breeders produce new varieties. That's true of brussels sprouts, which now seems to be something of a late summer vegetable although once they were regarded as being only marginally better than useless until the first frosts.

There are some very early savoys these days although to gardeners of old this would be a misnomer. One variety I can heartily recommend is Novusa, clearly the first savoy of the year and probably the fastest growing. You can sow in April and it will be ready to cut in September or leave the sowing until May, the transplanting until early July, and the crop will be ready at Christmas.

Taler is another in this new breed of 'early' late cabbages. This one stands well and is perhaps more frost resistant than Novusa and others of that ilk.

Most savoy varieties, though, have been around since Victorian times. The three Ormskirks (Early, Medium, and Late) are among the most famous, together with names like Best-of-All, Latest-of-All, Winter King, Ice Queen, January King, January Queen, Savoy King, and others that might be said to make up the royal family of savoy.

Technically speaking, some of them may not be officially classified as savoys but they are all what might be called the late late cabbages. There's a very useful variety called Tundra, an apt name for a cabbage that's sometimes described as the most frost-hardy of all and quite capable of standing right through winter and on until late April. Some of the catalogues I see describe this one as a winter ball-headed white cabbage cross.

Most good catalogues include a selection of savoys and similar types. Like all cabbages, these winter wonders are quite easy to grow when given firmish ground with plenty of humus and, where necessary, a little lime to sweeten the soil.

Best practice, I'm sure, is to sow in a small seedbed, thinning the seedlings to an inch or so apart as soon as they are big enough to handle, and then to transplant at about six or seven weeks when the young plants have made three or four leaves.

It's in the worst of winter, of course, that the savoy comes into its own. The mere mention of them brings back memories of the braised savoys served up in my childhood, shredded cabbage braised in real dripping and stock with a little onion and seasoned with herbs. I can hear muttering about unhealthy diets, but could there be anything more warming on a winter's day?