Seed for BROCCOLI , CALABRESE, & RAPINI

Green Heading Calabrese

This is what we would consider 'normal' broccoli, taking about 120 days from planting out to make large green heads. We recommend this for your maincrop sowing. It is for successional sowing from the end of March to July.The heads will then be ready for harvest from the end of July onwards.

Normal 120-day heading calabrese.

300 seed £2.53

Quick Heading Calabrese

This slightly unusual variety makes heads about 60-80 days after planting out. The plants will be a lot younger, so the heads will of course be smaller - but it can be very useful for getting in an extra crop. 

Two possibilities for sowing:

Start it from mid-March either in situ, or in blocks for transplanting out - and get an extra-early crop of heads in May/June. 

Or, as long as the winter is not too severe, sow in late August or September in an unheated greenhouse or polytunnel, to get a very early crop at the start of the following year.

Of course, in reality, experienced gardeners will know that with all the brassica family, it can - to be honest - be a bit random when they do actually head up, as it depends so much upon temperature and daylength when they are small. But by sowing this one as well as the 'normal' type, you will extend your season, whenever that turns out to be!

'Quick' 60 day heading broccoli.

200 seed, organic. £2.49

Cima Di Rapa ‘San Marzano’ (60 days)

Unknown in the UK but easy to grow and loved on the continent. We introduced this in 2003 and it was a huge success. Everyone seemed to like it!

Also known as Raab, it's related to turnip - but produces delicious sprouts like a slightly spicy flavoured sprouting broccoli.

Quick growing plants that reach about 1 ft tall, making small green sprouts used just like sprouting broccoli – but much quicker and easier to grow.  Sow early spring under cover, or mid to late summer for harvest in 50-60 days.

Quick 'broccoli' from the Turnip family. Nice raw in salads or cooked.

300 seed, organic. £2.40

Huauzontle (Aztec Broccoli!)

Delicious edible leaves, but the best bits are the flowering shoots. They can get about 3 to 5 ft tall, and almost as wide. The leaves go red as nights cool, looking very pretty.

Easily picked, just take the top 3 inches of each flower stem (which will have both leaves and flowers) and cook like spinach or chard. They keep a great texture when cooked, with a very slight crunch to them. Not chewy - but they just don't go completely soft the way that for example spinach does. So a great thing to mix in with rice, potato cakes, couscous or stir-fries, as an easy way to make a very simple and plain dish seem really special. 

Search on the internet for 'Huauzontles' for lots of Mexican recipes for fritters and more! But they're great cooked simply and quickly like spinach. We plant around half a dozen plants in our home garden each summer, to supply us with shoots from mid-summer right through to the middle of October.

Botanically speaking, this is Chenopodium berlandieri. The baby plants look very similar to the weed Fat Hen - so don't weed them out by mistake!

200 seed, organic. £2.35

Asparagus Kale

We are pleased to introduce this hardy grey-green kale that has been selected for its profusion of tender shoots in spring. While you can take leaves to eat as you would with any kale, this variety has particularly sweet tasty sprouts in spring, like a green version of sprouting broccoli.

Keep picking them so it doesn’t stop production. Seed produced for us by Debbie Rees at Blaenffos.

250 seed £2.79

Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Should really need no introduction, but this makes a profusion of small purple flower sprouts in spring when fresh veg are most valued. Early purple sprouting is sown in late spring one year, and then starts to produce from around the start of March the following year.

The leaves are good to eat too, much as you would cook with cauliflower leaves.

at least 200 seed £2.61