From the editor

Get the cooking wrong and cabbage becomes a crime scene

There are generations of people who shudder at the thought of cabbage, Brussels sprouts and – as I discovered when I googled ‘most hated vegetables’ – radishes.

The poor old brassica family has suffered from a lot of bad cooking over the years. Organic gardening guru Bob Crowder wrote many times for us about his love of the sprout in particular, and hoped that people would come round if they just learned how to cook it (in butter, lightly). Chelsea Winter agrees, writing that the first crime with cabbage is overcooking (which brings out a sulphur flavour and turns it mushy).

So you can imagine I was a little suspicious when I first tried kimchi. That dish was accompanied by 14 other little bowls of various pickled vegetables that I struggled to identify. However, I did try them and then had to identify them because I wanted to recreate them all. That’s how I fell in love with daikon. A radish. Albeit, one that masquerades as a carrot.

The experience left me feeling a little less uneducated when I visited Kelli Walker’s block (see page 18) and tried her sauerkraut. I had to be strong because she cheerfully announced it’s “80 per cent cabbage” but it turns out, Kelli knows how to make cabbage sing. She and husband Simon also made me one of the best lunches I’ve ever eaten, featuring their products and another food I’ve never liked: salmon. It turns out, fresh, smoked salmon can turn even the most squeamish.

Thank you for joining us in 2018 - happy new year!