(Brassica oleracea)*Ark of Taste Heirloom* Hands down our favorite cabbage. We searched for seed after first seeing it at the Slow Food “Salone del Gusto” food fair held in Torino, Italy in 2006 where its unusual conical shape and sweet flavor made a lasting impression. And I’m not talking about “egghead” conical; Filder is a cartoonish gnome hat extreme reaching sizes of a foot wide and two feet tall. Named for the region it hails from, near Stuttgart in southern Germany, it is traditionally a sauerkraut cabbage and in our opinion the very best there is. Written records of the variety date back to the 1700’s but with the mechanization of the kraut industry in the mid 20th century, it fell out of favor due to its awkward shape for mechanical processing. Having maintained a regional following, it was boarded on Germany’s Slow Food Ark of Taste, and has since then found a wider audience. A long season, fall cropper it can reach huge sizes (10+ lbs), with a single cabbage filling a 3-gallon crock for us last year. And please, it shouldn’t just be thought of as a processing cabbage. It is hands down the best tasting, sweetest cultivar we’ve tried with none of the sulfur-y pungency that mars many of the modern varieties available, and is a good medium-term storage head to boot. This is one of the varieties that we feel like is at the core of our seed work. Strongly recommended, especially for fermenting enthusiasts. 100-120 days. UO
Packet: 100 seeds
*This seed has tested negative for both Black Leg (Phoma lingam) and Black Rot (Xanthomonus campestris) as required by the WA Dept of Ag crucifer seed quarantine.
