The Mayo Common Cabbage doesn’t sound like much, and it might not grab your attention when flicking through the Irish Seed Savers catalogue at first glance. However, thanks to Irish Seed Savers it has made for a very interesting vegetable despite its name.
I only became aware of the heritage variety a few years ago when my uncle Joe brought some seedlings of the cabbage over to the house. The cabbage goes back a few generations in our family, and I always knew growing up that my grandparents and my parents grew cabbage. However, I never knew about the variety and how important it was not to have it cross pollinated with other brassicas in the area. It’s even more special as the seed from the cabbage was saved quite some time ago and preserved in a university in the UK, only to make a comeback when Irish Seed Savers repatriated the seed from the Wellesborne Gene Bank (now the genetic resources unit, Wellesbourne campus at the University of Warwick) in 2018.
I’ve heard so many stories from my dad, aunts and uncles about growing up on the farm and how my grandad made a living. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend much time with Grandad but the more I hear about him the more I am becoming like him! I work full time in a kitchen garden at Ashford Castle and when I’m not at work, I’m tending to my own kitchen garden. I also keep bees which I know grandad would have loved to have seen on the farm and I also have two pigs. If only he could see what I was at now!
The kitchen garden at Ashford Castle grows a variety of fruits and vegetables and the Mayo Common Cabbage has its place there too. The fact that it is local, a heritage variety and has a story behind it, makes for an interesting talking point in our garden tours. After its long growing season, it makes it to the castle kitchen. Last year, Hilary a talented chef made a lovely sauerkraut which accompanied some of their dishes in the drawing room – used a bit differently compared to your traditional bacon and cabbage! I’m looking forward to trying some of their new creations this coming winter.
I grow a few heads of the Mayo Common Cabbage in my own kitchen garden. I started saving seed last year which can take some time as it is a biennial. I have a lot of respect for the work Irish Seed Savers do, you need a lot of patience! It was a lovely process, my dad showed me how they saved the seed back in the day by hanging the seed heads upside down off the rafters in the barn to dry. A sheet was wrapped around them to catch the seed as they dried. It is extraordinary the number of seed that you can collect from just one plant. I have enough seed to last me a lifetime!
It’s astonishing how the way of life has changed, even from my parent’s time which wasn’t that long ago. However, it is great to keep these varieties alive. They can have such unique flavours, resistance to pests and disease and can also be climatised to a specific area. I do what I do because I love it and I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. It is an honour to have a connection with a heritage variety and I’ll do my bit every year to keep it going.
By Niamh Flannelly
