Fruits & Vegetables Week: Brassica oleracea var. viridis, the Collards

[Gurcharan Singh]

Brassica oleracea var. viridis, the Collards, used as vegetable and salad.

--
Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Retired  Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/

[tanay bose]

Nice catch

Tanay

--

Tanay Bose

Research Assistant & Teaching Assistant.
Department of Botany.
University of British Columbia .
3529-6270 University Blvd.
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 (Canada)
Phone: 778-323-4036 (Mobile)

           604-822-2019 (Lab)

           604-822-6089  (Fax)

ta...@interchange.ubc.ca

[nabha meghani]

Professor Singh ji and others,

 

I don't know if you get Grünkohl in India too. I found for Grünkohl "Brassica oleracea var. sabellica L" on german wiki and Brassica oleracea Acephala Group on engl. Wiki.

The pics look similar. I don't know what is what.

Unfortunately I don't have a foto of Grünkohl shall try to get one.

 

Anyway Grünkohl is a very popular vegetable in north germany, especially in Bremen and surrounding. Because of its form it is called Palme and every place claim that it is their Palm. So in Oldenburg they say it is olderburger Palme and in Lippe Lippischer Palme.

The Kohlessen is a very popular event here. In jan. Feb. when the weather is very cold, it is the Grünkohl-time. One meets many groups going on "Kohlfahrt". They pull a handcart behind them, which is full of various alcoholic drinks. Every now and then they stop and play and sing and drink. We live on the outskirts of Ritterhude and 500 meters behind our house there is woody area. So when we go for a walk, we meet such groups heading towards one restaurant, which is deep in the woods. Kohl und Pinkel is the one and only dish.    Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%BCnkohlessen

 

"Kohl und Pinkel" is one of the dishes at the very famous and oldest event (since 1545) of Schaffermahlzeit, traditionally thought of as a gettogether of the Bremen shipping and merchants and is strictly regulated. Famous personalities are invited and they donate to the "Foundation House Seefahrt", that takes care of the families of the sailors who died at sea.

Women were not allowed :-((((((((((((((((( but now that women are working as ships captains they are invited too. Apart from that Shafferinnenmahl  is organized since 1975, as women are taking a big part in the society-life.

In 2007 Angela Merkel was one lady-guest and in the same year Lakshmi Mittal was the guest of honour.

 

 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaffermahlzeit sorry there is no engl. version of it.

 

Hope I havn't bored you!

Regards

Nalini

[Gurcharan Singh]

Nabha ji

I have uploaded several vegetable cultivars of Brassica, especially B. oleracea.

 

As I understand, var. acephala has now been assigned to two different varieties:

 

1. var. viridis: mostly edible vegetables crops of which I have uploaded several cultivars including our popular Kashmir Karam/Haak saag (syn: var. acephala L.).....this includes kale, collards, tall kale, etc. German names for this are Blätterkohl, Blattkohl, Futterkohl   and Kuhkohl

 

2. var. sabellica: mostly ornamental cultivars grown in pots and beds, rarely used as vegetable (syn: var. acephala auct. (non L.). this includes curly kale used as vegetable, decorative kale, ornamental kale, borecole, curlies. German names include Braunkohl, Federkohl, Grünkohl, Krauskohl and Zier-Kohl.

 

I have uploaded the curly kale as vegetable crop. I will be uploading ornamental kale separately.

 

--
Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Retired  Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/

 

[nabha meghani]

Prof. Singh ji,

thanks for more Information.

If var. sabellica is for what we call Braunkohl, Federkohl, Grünkohl, Krauskohl  then it is used as a very delicate vegetable. In my mail I have written how traditionally it is used in north german kitchen. Zier-Kohl as the name suggests, is ornamental.  Zier, Zierde = decoration.  But all these are prepared as vegetable, they are a good source of vitamins. The harvesttime is typically winter. When one come home, more or less frozen, a good kohl-soup warms one up and keeps you fit thru the winter. Btw. these Kohl-varities are harvested only after they have at least a couple of nights frost. 

 

Are all these vegetables cultivated in India? Some of your pics look as if they are taken in a market.

 

Regards

Nalini