Vegetables - Brussel Sprouts

Brussel Sprouts are traditional for Christmas, as they are one of the few vegetables which would have been available around that point of the year. They are sown late winter or early spring. They grow all year, taking a lot longer than many crops, and you harvest them (naturally enough) around Christmas. The sprouts grow between the junction of the leaves and the main stem - see photo.

The seeds are fairly small, and round. They can be sown inside, then planted out, or sown outside, and transplanted to their final locations, or sown in place, and thinned. They are usually transplanted or planted out, as the seeds are so small, and the plants eventually so big, that it's very hard to sown them a sensible distance apart!

I must admit that recently I have been having trouble with sprouts. We always used to grow enough for Christmas dinner, but recently the plants haven't developed enough to produce much. It could be that recently I haven't sown them inside (where they can develop more early in the year). One year the plants all got eaten by something - twice! And this year the weather may have stopped them developing as they should.

Brussel sprouts are brassicas, like cabbage, so they do tend to be eaten by the caterpillars of the Cabbage White butterfly. There is a reason why it's called that!

Brussel sprouts can be green or purple. The plant shown is a purple variety, and the sprouts themselves look purple when raw, but go green when cooked. You cook them, by snapping them off the stem, making a cut in the hard part of the stem if they are big (or even 2 cuts in a cross - "to let the devil out!"), then boil them under tender, which depends on size. You should be able to poke a knife in. Say about 10 mins for small sprouts.

Seeds