Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)

This crucifer, which is thought to have originated on the sea cliffs of England and the French coast of the Channel, is widely cultivated everywhere as a food plant, and is represented in Madeira by the varieties acephala, capitata and Botrytis. The first variety includes the couve rinchão or vaqueira and the couve tronchuda, both without a head; the second, the couve murciana, the headed cabbage, the imperial, the alcanhão, the pão de açúcar, etc.; and the third, the cauliflower and broccoli. The cabbages of the first variety and the headed cabbage are grown from seed produced on the island, whereas the other forms always come from seed brought from Portugal and abroad. In the cauliflower it is not the leaves that are used but the more or less fleshy inflorescences, whose flowers are almost always abortive.

The cabbages of the first and second varieties are used not only to make soup but also for cooking, cut into small pieces, with maize flour, to which they give a pleasant flavour.