Brussels sprouts

Some may say that it is 200 hundred years too long if they have only tasted the large green bullets that you buy in the shops! However, these heirloom varieties produce much smaller delicately flavoured sprouts, and when you grow your own, the spring flowering shoots can be used as broccoli and its top knot of leaves serves as a mini cabbage. Remove the leaves as the sprouts form from the base up, and stake well. Loosely formed sprouts are a sign of too much nitrogen. Best in frosty areas. Grow through summer for autumn and winter harvest. Most need around 5 months before harvest.