ISSUE 70, EXTRAORDINARY VEGETABLES, PART 4, Ruby Ball Cabbage
Ruby Ball Cabbage
In the late 1960s vegetable breeders began working on red cabbages. Red Cabbage became a common garden crop in the first decades of the 19th century, with early seed brokers such as George Revell in Charleston and Bernard M’Mahon in Philadelphia promoting it as a “pickling cabbage.” The Germans made it into kraut, but Anglo-Americans soused it in vinegar, salt, sugar and several herbs and spices. This early form of the cabbage only survives now in Australian germ plasm collections, and perhaps at Cornell. In the field it was supplanted by the early Season Red Acre Cabbage. But when breeders began imagining a red cabbage that did more that get fermented or soused in vinegar, they decided the cabbage had to be (1) all season, and (2) more versatile in its culinary applications.
The Japanese based Takii Seed Company was particularly interested in developing cabbages. Its American branch in Salinas CA serves as its conduit to the American market. Takii’s breeders had a particular fascination with the architecture of vegetables. When working on red cabbages they sought maximum leaf density, and intense purple-red coloring, and a near spheroidal shape. Its medium size and regular round heads were ideal for packing. Its 75 day growth to maturity was early enough to win favor. When launched in 1972, it won awards, including a rare Gold Medal from the All American Selections.
Keystone Seeds of Pennsylvania had launched “Red Head” Cabbage a year before. While a worthy vegetable that won praise from its initial reviewers, the variety was wiped from the market by the success of Ruby Ball. Keystone in 2022 does not even sell seed from its own creation of a half century ago. Meanwhile Ruby Ball has spawned a family of related cabbages: Ruby Ball Improved, Ruby Perfection, Ruby King and Ruby Queen. Ruby Perfection is more truly red. Ruby King and Ruby Queen are more oblate in form and suited for different growing regions.
The burgeoning interest in home fermentation has led to a sauerkraut revival in the United States, and traditional recipes, such as red cabbage, apple, and ginger kraut have led to an expansion of interest in red cabbage as a category, and the ruby ball family of cabbages in particular. You will find no better grown in the United States for this purpose.