Eat and Grow Vegetables that Prevent Cancer

EUROPEAN ROMANESCO. (See the fractals?).   Credit: Jitze Couperus     Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

 You should eat and grow cabbage family plants.  Are you eating broccoli, cabbage, kale and cauliflower every so often?  You should since these cabbage family plants are rich in essential nutrients, including Vitamins C and K.  Consuming these vegetables have even been reported to reduce the risk of cancer.  The cabbage family is worthy of your attention.  It has a fascinating history and you should definitely include some cabbage family plants in your garden every year.  They are not difficult to grow if you have some basic knowledge of their growth requirements.

The cabbage family was once called Crucifereae because all members of this family have flowers with 4 petals forming a cross and thought by medieval Europeans to form a crucifix.  Today, the new name for the group is Brassicaceae.  The word brassica comes from bresic, a Celtic word for cabbage.  Cultivated members of the species Brassica oleracea are called Cole crops.


There are over 4,000 species in the Brassicaceae family.  Many of them are not grown for food, but you’ll be amazed at how many vegetables sold at the grocery store are members of this one, health promoting family.  Here are some of the Brassicaceae species that we commonly eat:


Brassica oleracea

Cabbage, Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Kohlrabi, Cauliflower, Collards, Kale, Romanesco


Brassica rapa

Turnip,  Chinese cabbage, Bok Choy, Rapini


Raphanus sativus

Radish


Amoracia rusticana

Horse radish


Brassica napus

Rape seed (canola), Rutabaga


Eutrema japonica

Wasabi


Brassica juncea and B. nigra

Mustard


WILD CABBAGE      Credit: MPF.  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license


Plants in the Brassicaceae family have been cultivated for thousands of years.  Vegetables in the species Brassica oleracea all originated from the wild cabbage plants that are native to cool, coastal, southern and western Europe.  These biennial plants have a high tolerance to salt and lime and their fleshy leaves store water and nutrients.  In Latin, oleracea means vegetable or herbal.


Cabbage was most likely domesticated some time before 1,000 B.C..  Over the next three thousand years, people developed new varieties of B. oleracea through artificial selection.  Some growers had a preference for leaves (kale), terminal buds (cabbage), lateral buds (Brussel sprouts), stem (kohlrabi) and inflorescence (broccoli) which resulted in the extreme variation of the B. oleracea plant we enjoy today. 


The preference for eating leaves led to the selection of plants with larger leaves.  Ancient farmers harvested seeds from these plants for growth in the next season. Around the fifth century B.C., the formation of what is now known as kale had developed.


Preference for kale plants with more tightly bunched leaves or terminal bud led to the development of the cabbage plant somewhere around the first century A.D..  Kohlrabi was also selected for during this century when some growers had a preference for variants with fatter stems.  


Market Scene.    By Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575)


A preference for eating immature buds or inflorescence occurred in the early 15th century.  Heading types of broccoli and cauliflower were found throughout southern Italy and Sicily about 100 years later.


Brussel sprouts are a more recently developed variety of the B. oleracea plant.  As you would expect, Brussel sprouts were developed in Belgium. This occurred during the 18th century due to the selection of plants with large lateral buds.


TRIANGLE OF U THEORY.   Credit: Adenosine at English Wikipedia  Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.


Genetic analysis of plants is leading us to some interesting discoveries.  One such discovery is the Triangle of U.  This is a theory of the evolution of some members of the Brassica genus.  Basically, what happened is: in nature you started with three separate Brassica species and they cross pollinated, creating three new species that have twice as many chromosomes as the original parent plants.


Cabbage (B. oleracea) and Turnip (B. rapa) combined to form Rape seed (B. napus)

Turnip (B. rapa) and Black Mustard (B. nigra) combined to form Indian mustard (B. juncea)

Black Mustard (B. nigra) and Cabbage (B. Oleracea) combined to form Ethiopian mustard (B. carinata)


(Black mustard and Indian mustard are the species we commonly use in the US to make the condiment we call mustard.)


Brassicas are cool weather crops.  They like fertile, well drained soil.  In northern areas, you grow Brassicas early in the season so you can take advantage of the cooler spring weather.  In the southern region or mediterranean climate areas, you start your plants in August so you can grow your Cole crops in the fall, as the weather gets cooler.


The most effective way to grow the cabbage family is to sow their seed indoors in flats and then transplant the young plants when the soil warms up enough to dig.  (Some exceptions are root crops like radish, rutabaga, turnip, horse radish and also rape seed.)  Transplanting small plants early help the seedlings outcompete the weeds because the transplants have a head start on the germinating weeds.


A big advantage of sowing seed indoors is that you can improve the  germination rate by planting the seeds in warm soil.  Most Cole crops germinate best at a soil temperature of 60 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit.  In general, it takes more days for seeds to germinate as the soil temperature gets lower.  If you waited for the outdoor soil to reach 60 to 85 degrees, it might already be May and you’ve lost much of the prime, cool growing weather for the Cole crop plants.  


For cabbage, the ideal growing air temperature is 39 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.  The best cold tolerant Brassicas are kale, collards and Brussel sprouts.  In fact, kale, collards and Brussel sprouts become sweeter when exposed to cold weather in the autumn.  An exceptionally early variety is Russian kale.  It is very hardy in the early, cool spring weather and produces a welcome crop of early spring greens.  


There are some heat tolerant varieties of Cole crops.  The website johnnyseeds.com is a good place to look for these heat tolerant varieties.  Caraflex cabbage is a tender, pointy-tipped type that is a good summer variety.  The summer sprouting mini broccolis and Spring Raab variety are not bothered by heat unless it is excessive.


Start your Brassicas indoors under lights.  In northern regions, after 4-5 weeks of growth under lights, take the seedlings outside and place them in a cold frame.  Let them grow in the cold frame until the soil is unfrozen and loose enough to work.  Transplant the seedlings into the garden bed soil.  In southern Michigan, I transplant Brassicas in late March or early April, depending on the weather.  After watering, cover the plants with Agribon row cover,  This blanket will allow sun and water to reach the plants and, at the same time, keep them warm and protect them from frost.  I’ve had two inches of snow on top of the row cover and the plants survived just fine.


If you live in the city and have limited garden space, you might want to  grow kale, broccoli, kohlrabi and brassica root crops.  Collards and Brussel sprouts also do not take up as much space as cabbage and cauliflower.  Cabbage and cauliflower are nice to grow, but they take up considerable space.   


 Broccoli and other Brassicaceae plants are most protective against cancers of the prostate, lung, colon, breast, bladder, liver, neck, head, mouth, esophagus, and stomach according to a review of hundreds of clinical studies conducted for the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research.  Brassicaceae vegetables produce a compound called sulforaphane that helps our bodies fight cancer.  Sulphoraphane actively kill cancer stem cells, slowing a tumor’s growth.


See an article by Elizabeth Lee:

https://www.webmd.com/cancer/features/seven-easy-to-find-foods-that-may-help-fight-cancer


Include plenty of cabbage family plants in your garden this year and in your diet.  You can stay healthy by gardening and eating fresh vegetables from your own garden.  The Brassicaceae is an amazing and health promoting plant family that you will enjoy growing.




Purchase my latest books: “Organic Gardening for Beginners and Students” and "Beautiful Escape" from my Author Page:


https://www.amazon.com/Edwin-McLeod/e/B08TCJTKSW?ref_=dbs_p_pbk_r00_abau_000000 










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