Kohlrabi - one of the varieties of the usual and common to all white cabbage . And its name translates as "cabbage turnip." Agree - visually it resembles this root crop, but only it is located not underground, but from above.
In fact, this, of course, is not a root crop, but just a thickened stem, which goes into food. It tastes like the same white cabbage, but only more tender and juicy. In addition, unlike other types of cabbage, it does not cause flatulence, so it can be used in baby food and various diets.
When to harvest kohlrabi?
Agrotechnics of this type of cabbage is somewhat different, primarily because it is planted earlier, and you can harvest for a season not one, but two whole crops. So, planted in May cabbage, you can collect in June. Then again we plant in June-July, to assemble already in the autumn. We are interested in when to clean kohlrabi for the winter?
The time to collect kohlrabi comes when its stem reaches a diameter of 7-8 cm. This indicates that the cabbage is ready for consumption. For late varieties, it is permissible to ripen to a size of 10 cm. To tighten with harvesting, while waiting for it to become larger, it is not necessary, otherwise the cabbage will not be so soft and juicy.
Storing kohlrabi
In addition, when you harvest a kohlrabi cabbage, you need to know how to do it and how to store it later. So, you need to pull out the cabbage along with the roots. Then they cut them with a knife. Young leaves can not be thrown away, but used for salads. Just remember that they are stored only a couple of days.
You can also eat stems as an apple, after cleaning the skin. Also they can be used in the preparation of salads, casseroles, ragout, blanks for the winter.
Cabbage is kept for 3-5 months in conditions of high humidity (95%) and low temperature (0 ... + 1ºС). Premises with such conditions can be basements, trenches, unheated greenhouses, collars. Previously, you need to clear the stems from dirt, dry and sprinkle with sand.