Recommended Cabbage Varieties for Salad, Coleslaw, & Stir-Fries

Hey, everybody. Today we're at our research farm in Albion, Maine, looking at cabbages. We'll be looking at three varieties today. We'll be looking at 'Tiara', which is a small round one here. We'll be looking at 'Caraflex', which is a small pointed one. And then we'll be looking at 'Tendersweet', which is a flat one. The reason I chose these three varieties is I believe these are the best varieties we have for fresh eating, meaning using them for—not cooking them—but for salads and coleslaws and that sort of thing.

'Tiara' for Salads

The first one here, 'Tiara', this is a little round salad type cabbage. And you can see there are two different head sizes here. There are some small ones, and then there are some bigger ones. The small ones were grown at spacing eight inches between plants and 15 inches between rows and then three rows per bed. You end up getting a small cabbage, maybe six inches in diameter. The larger heads were grown two rows on a bed, 12 inches apart, so you get the bigger head. You can control your cabbage size either in your home garden or if you're selling to a roadside market or maybe selling to restaurants by spacing. If you grow the cabbages at small spacing, make sure they have plenty of fertility and water so that they have enough nutrients to make a nice head.

Tiara, this is my favorite cabbage for making salads. The reason I like it so much for salads is it's mild, the leaves have a really nice crunch to them, they're really juicy. I like to make salads in the summer out of Tiara when there's no lettuce around.

I'll cut a head so you can see the interior. You can see the cut head here. It's well packed, a nice yellow interior. And it's just overall a really nice cabbage to eat. And I usually, for making a salad, I'll cut it like that. Cut the core out. Then you can just cut it like this. Then you have a nice product for making a salad. You can put whatever your favorite dressing is onto it. So again, that's Tiara, and I think that's a really nice cabbage for a salad.

'Caraflex' for Crisp Coleslaw

Then the next one here, this is a 'Caraflex'. And it's the same thing with the spacing. These two small heads were grown 8 inches apart and the larger ones were grown 12 inches apart. Caraflex is my favorite variety for making coleslaw. And the reason I like it for coleslaw is that the leaves are very crisp and sort of thick, so it's really nice for that.

I'll cut a head of those so you can see that. You can see right here that the leaves are a little bit thicker than we saw with the Tiara. So that gives you some nice crunch in the coleslaw. And again, I like to just cut it in strips. And then there you go, some nice cabbage for making crisp coleslaw.

'Tendersweet' for Silky Coleslaw and Stir Fries

The last one we're going to talk about right now is 'Tendersweet'. Just like the other two, these heads in the front were grown close together, and the ones in the back further apart. These particular heads right here are a little larger than they normally get from 8 inch spacing. A lot of times they would maybe be 2/3 or half the size even.

This variety, if you like a silky coleslaw instead of crispy, I think 'Tendersweet's a good choice. If you like coleslaw with a crispy leaf, then I think the 'Caraflex' is a little better. And there's another really nice use for Tender Sweet, and that's for stir frying. And the reason I like it for stir frying is the leaves are really thin, which means when you stir fry it, it'll cook very quickly. Sometimes the thick-leaved cabbage will be very slow to cook in a stir fry, and it'll take longer than some of the other vegetables. And we'll cut ahead of this now so you can see the interior.

You can see the interior here. These are really thin leaves. It may be a little hard to see on camera, but they're definitely thinner than the 'Caraflex' and a little more thin than the Tiara as well. Again, take the core out. There you have a nice pile of leaves for your favorite stir fry. Or if you like a silky coleslaw, you can make coleslaw out of that too.

Again, these are my three favorite fresh market varieties, the 'Tendersweet', the 'Caraflex', and then the 'Tiara'. Thank you for joining us today.

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