ROMANESCU
For some reason, this vegetable seems to have taken the Fens by storm. It was hardly ever seen before this season, now it's everywhere!
It also has an alarming number of names. Locally, these all seem to be variants (polite word for mis-spellings) of the name we've chosen, but we've seen 'Romanesco', 'Romonesco', and 'Romaness'.
But in the wider world, you'll also find it known as the 'Fractal Cabbage', from the delightful arrangement of the florets that is strongly reminiscent of those illustrations of the Mandelbrot set that were common a few years ago. Another delightful name is the 'brocciflower'. It's this name that exposes another of its puzzles -- half the world seems to think it's a cabbage, the other half thinks it's a cauliflower, and the third half has never heard of it!
Whatever the name, it's fairly abundant locally just now, but it's a vegetable that's very susceptible to frost, so be cautious if you're growing it for yourself. Cultivation (and pest control) is very much as for a cauliflower, as is preparing it for the table -- although our own experience suggests that it benefits from a slightly longer cooking time.
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