Brussel sprouts

These big robust winter loving plants really do get their name from Brussels in Belgium where they’ve been cultivated since at least 18th century.

13 June 2022
Both feet in winter, but our heads are in full summer planning mode.

I am genuinely so stoked to be growing brussel sprouts. It took me many months to persuade Dylan that it was a good idea to trial them. We’re both always persuading each other of trials we wanna do in the garden. At the moment Dylan is telling me all the amazing things about bush beans, he’s pretty good at convincing me.

Brussel sprouts though are a vegetable that lots of people famously hate, and they take a really long time to grow. They really do get their name from Brussels in Belgium where they’ve been cultivated since at least 18th century.

But I remember seeing them for the first time sold on the stalk. I was living in London and going to lots of raves, and seeing those brussel sprouts on their stalk is a memory that has stayed with me. I had about zero interest in vegetable production at the time.

For me its close to my heart to think back to that moment in Hackney buying dried chickpeas and seeing those sprouts. I was having an intense and fantastic time, and those brussel sprouts planted a tiny direction marker in my brain. So cheesy but true.

So they are something important for me that I’ve wanted to grow for awhile. They’ve been in the ground since January and now here they are in the box ~ enjoy <3

Tiny hipster Grace on the way to a rave in London in 2010, with a love of brussel sprouts well and truly growing in her heart.