The colours are a little off on this photo because I’ve put it through several filters — not so much to make it look funky as to reduce the side effect of photographing the plants through a green mesh. The mesh is in place because the plant on the left, ‘Kalibos’ cabbage, is attractive to cabbage white butterflies and I want to make it hard for them to get close enough to lay their eggs (and the subsequent cabbage infestation).

‘Kalibos’ is just one of the many commonly grown varieties of cabbage but what is fascinating about this particular species is that, under the hood, cabbage is the same as kale, brussels sprouts and many more. Kale typically has distinct individual leaves while, on brussels, we normally eat the numerous small, spherical heads that form. All however are variants of Brassica olaracea, the most varied edible species I can think of that is in general cultivation.

My first harvests of crops I’ve planted on the allotment have been from this variety which, in fulness of time, should form pointed, purple heads. However, as I’ve been trimming off the leaves that are growing near the protective mesh, it has struck me that I don’t need to wait for that to happen. At this stage, the leaves are still edible and it makes more sense to start harvesting some now.

Doubtless I’m reducing the perfection and overall weight of the final heads that will form. I might not even get that far. However it gives a regular supply of greens that is likely to let me crop from it at least once or twice a week for the next couple of months. That’s going to add up to all my cabbage needs taken care off for a while to come as well as reducing the chance of crop loss through caterpillar infestation (and I won’t mind if they turn up on the long-in-the-tooth kale still growing in my back garden).