Cauliflower
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? Cauliflower |
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| Brassica oleraceaBotrytis Group |
Cauliflower is a variety (Botrytis Group) of Brassica oleracea in the family Brassicaceae. Cauliflower resembles broccoli, to which it is closely related, except with very densely packed white flower buds. Only the head of the cauliflower is eaten, a part known as the white curd. This stalk is surrounded at the base by thick, green leaves.
Cauliflower is a source of nutritional vitamins and minerals. Cauliflower is most commonly eaten cooked, but it may also be eaten raw or pickled, and is often sold in that form commercially with pickled onions and pickles (pickled cucumbers).
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, one cup of raw cauliflower provides 77% of an adult's DRI of vitamin C. It is also an important source of protein, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc, and a very good source of dietary fiber, vitamin B6, folate, pantothenic acid, and potassium. This food is low in saturated fat, and very low in cholesterol (less than 1g per kg).
In March 2003, Britain's Department for International Development released a study showing that cauliflower in India had high concentrations of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and zinc, far exceeding those permissible under Indian law. On September 23, 2002, a 17-year-old boy died after eating a small cauliflower he plucked from a field in Chandigarh, India, although it is believed that his death was due to pesticides that were sprayed on the cauliflower, and not the cauliflower itself.
Bhutanese prophets have allegedly foretold cauliflower poisonings in early 19th century scripts, and cauliflowers were as a result banned in various Bhutanese provinces between 1831 and 1946.
A cauliflower is an annual plant which means that it has a lifecycle of a year.
Harvesting the vegetable
The delicate process
As soon as the head appears, gardeners tie the plant's leaves over the head in order to blanch it, a process allowing it to stay white. They must harvest the plant once it has reached what they presume to be its full size and ripeness, but they are careful not to wait too long, or else it will flower. (There are some cultivars described as "self-blanching", whose leaves tend to grow together over the head, but they are not perfectly reliable in that sense.)
The vegetable requires a cool, moist climate. If temperatures go too high, the plants will not produce flower heads. If too low a temperature is reached, the plants might button, creating small heads.
Where it is grown
Most of the vegetable produced in the United States come from the state of California.
Of all the brassicas, cauliflowers are the fussiest about growth requirements, and the ability to successfully grow cauliflower in a home garden is often thought to be the hallmark of well-managed soil and a good gardener.
Variants
Broccoli and cauliflower (which are both varieties of the species Brassica oleracea) have been recently crossed to create a vegetable called broccoflower, with very pale green heads densely packed like cauliflower; it is said to have with the flavour of broccoli, but many report it as undistinguished.
A green cauliflower, in the B. oleracea Botrytis group, called Chou romanesco has been commercially available in Europe since about 1990. Its head is a nice example of a fractal image in nature, repeating itself in self-similarity at varying scales. [1]. The German name is Pyramidenblumenkohl ("pyramid cauliflower")
An orange cauliflower (B. oleracea L. var. botrytis) called Orange Bouquet is available in North America, sporting 25 times the level of Vitamin A than white varieties. This variety is a hybrid of a swamp-growing mutant found in Canada and a standard white cauliflower.