Cool Weather Crops in June

Rosalind Broccoli

Cole crops, or “brassicaceae (the mustard family, previously Cruciferae or the crucifers) include many food, forage, ornamental, and weed plants” are plants that flourish in cool weather. Here is southwest Ohio we are at the end of cool weather; our cole crops are still not ready to harvest yet…

…except for the broccoli.

We harvested that last week, just before it flowered. You can tell when broccoli is about to flower as the tight green bumps on the florets begin to expand…and then a couple days later you’ve got yellow flowers instead of broccoli. We let a few of the smaller florets do this but not the large heads. The flowers are edible though so if your broccoli bursts into color you just have to get a little bit creative…don’t just compost it!

The brussel sprouts and cabbage are both still growing strong and should be ready to eat sometime in June. They are cole crops but will tolerate some heat. We planted everything in March – mostly on March 8 – when temperatures were still dropping below freezing so I’m guessing these plants are where they are supposed to be for southwest Ohio. I am sure the cabbage is fine…but since I’ve never grown brussel sprouts I’m wondering if there is a slight chance that the heat (it is going to be almost 90 degrees today) will stunt their growth or cause them to flower.

Spinach

The spinach bolted several last week but there are still plenty of edible leaves.

Lettuce

We also planted red leaf and buttercrunch lettuce, both of which are holding up well in the heat and composing part of most dinners we eat at home. The red leaf (New Red Fire Lettuce from Territorial) is especially healthy looking and has great flavor. We will grow this variety again, for sure.