Cabbage literally means head, and the record one weighed over 62 kilograms
The word cabbage comes from caboche, an old Picard French word for head. Most heads weigh half a kilo to a kilo, but under the long summer days of high northern latitudes they balloon: the record, set by 2012, is 62.71 kilograms. Romans considered this humble vegetable a table luxury.
Cabbage is a biennial grown as an annual. In its first year it forms a rosette of 7 to 15 large leaves, then shorter-stalked leaves cup inward to build the head. Left for a second year, it bolts to 1.5 to 2 metres and flowers, and seed plants must be isolated from other cole crops to avoid unwanted crosses. It cannot pollinate itself and relies on insects. The roots are shallow, with about 90 percent of their mass in the top 20 to 30 centimetres of soil.
Its origin is murky because so many leafy brassicas look alike. Nonheading cabbages and kale were probably domesticated first, before 1000 BC, maybe by Celts of central and western Europe, though newer linguistic and genetic evidence points to the Mediterranean. Wild cabbage clings to cool coastal cliffs, tolerating salt but not competition, yet genetics suggests those populations may be escapees from ancient gardens. Theophrastus described Greek varieties, and by early Roman times Egyptian artisans and children ate cabbage and turnips.
By the Middle Ages it was prominent in European cooking, judging from illuminated manuscripts. Germanic-speaking peoples introduced many new types from the Renaissance on, and the crinkly Savoy appeared in the 16th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries cabbage became a staple across central, northern and eastern Europe, and sailors carried it on long voyages to ward off scurvy. From the early modern era it spread worldwide; China now grows 48 percent of the global crop.
The name family runs deep: many European and Asian words trace to a root cap or kap, head, and the Latin variety name capitata means having a head. Brassica itself comes from a Celtic word, bresic. Cabbage is eaten raw or fermented as sauerkraut and kimchi, and it is rich in vitamins K and C. Guinness has tracked cabbage feats too, including a cabbage roll 19.54 metres long.
Source: Cabbage
