Sweet roots to change your perception of beetroots and turnips
Dobies has added 44 new varieties to its latest catalogue, led by the beautiful orange cauliflower Amo 125 F1, an Amoresco type.
For its 2023 vegetable seed range, Dobies wants to keep your allotments, veg patches and containers well stocked. Here are four of the best from the range:
Orange Cauliflower Amo 125 F1
Brassica oleracea var. botrytis. Cauliflower Amo 125 is an Amoresco cauliflower with beautiful conical curds. They have a bright orange surface and a lighter orange colour that stays throughout the curd, even when cooked. Good looking and great tasting, Amo 125 is perfect for creating a cauliflower cheese and great to snack on with dips. You can even add it to homemade piccalilli for a twist. Here’s how to grow cauliflowers.
Sow: May to June. Plant: June to July. Harvest: late October to November, 12 seeds for £4.49.
Beetroot Jolie F1
Beta vulgaris. Beetroot Jolie is one of the sweetest and best tasting beetroo, measuring up to 13.5 Brix. Harvest the dark red, round roots either as baby beets or leave them to grow larger for roasting or pickling. Beets store for up to 4 months in ideal conditions. The nutrient-rich leaves make a tasty addition to salads. Here’s how to grow beetroot.
Jolie produces strong plants with dense foliage that provides good groundcover, so there are fewer weeds. Sow: March to July. Harvest: June to October, 200 seeds for £2.99.
Turnip Silky Sweet F1
Brassica rapa. If an orange cauliflower isn’t your thing, try this turnip! Silky Sweet is so sweet and juicy that it can be eaten like an apple but with the texture of a firm peach. This new turnip tastes sweet and mild rather than woody and hot.
It matures in 35-40 days and stays sweet and tender even as it ages. Harvest when they’re the size of golf balls and eat the white roots raw. Sow: March to June. Harvest: May to October, 100 seeds for £3.99.
Kale Cottagers
Brassica oleracea var acephala. Kale Cottagers is a pretty, flavour-packed variety that originated from a cross between a kale and Brussels sprout. It was then re-crossed with purple sprouting broccoli. This created a marvellous mix with a mild, almost nutty, kale flavour. It’s delicious steamed or sauté it with butter and black pepper.
This breeding piqued the interest of Charles Darwin and is mentioned in his writings for the Gardeners’ Chronical, 1860 and his book Animals and Plants under Domestication, 1868.
Extremely hardy, Kale Cottagers provides a tasty supply of leaves throughout the winter. A secondary crop of tasty side shoots is produced on the stems from late autumn to early spring. These are like mini flower sprouts. Sow: May to June. Plant: June to July. Harvest: September to April, 30 seeds for £3.
For more information or to buy the seeds online, visit www.dobies.co.uk.
