A traditional Italian type of broccoli sown in summer and harvested in autumn and winter. Broccoli Fiolaro di Creazzo has been cultivated for many centuries and is on the Slow Food Ark of Taste list which is a living catalogue of delicious and distinctive foods facing extinction.
Seed Sowing
Sow in modules or direct from mid June to early September. If sowing directly, ensure your seedbed is weed free.
Transplanting
Transplant or thin seedlings in situ to 40x40cm spacing.
Plant Care
Fiolaro prefers well drained soil with high organic matter and consistent watering. You can mulch around the plants to keep in moisture and prevent weeds.
Challenges
Protect them from slugs and snails and use a fine mesh to protect from pigeons and flea beetles. Copper collars can be effective against cabbage root fly. Clubroot is a disease affecting brassicas, causing root deformities and stunted growth. If your soils have clubroot-causing organisms, improve drainage and add lime to reduce infection. Otherwise, consider growing in pots.
Harvest
Wait until after the first frosts before harvesting to encourage the growth of the shoots and sweeten their flavour. It does not grow a large central head, but produces side shoots – “fiois” – from its stem which are harvested and cooked with the leaves.
Culinary Ideas And Uses
Fiolaro Di Creazzo is a landrace variety that has been cultivated, saved and passed from farmer to farmer in Creazzo, Northern Italy and dates back to ancient Roman times.
The leaves are particularly sweet and rich in vitamins, mineral salts and calcium. They work brilliantly in a frittata or as a pesto with walnuts or pine nuts. It can also be served as a side dish and cooked in a similar way to most other seasonal greens, wilted and then tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and chilli.
Seed Saving
Fiolaro Di Creazzo belongs to the species Brassica oleracea and will cross with all other varieties within this species; therefore, isolate them from each other.
Fiolaro Di Creazzo will need to be treated as a biennial if growing for seed. Sow in September if growing undercover or in August if growing outside and it will flower the following year.
Allow plants to flower and be pollinated by insects. When the thin green seed pods turn brown and the seeds black, cut the stem and leave them to mature further on a sheet indoors. When fully dry, the pods will easily open, and the seeds will fall out. You can stomp or stand on the material, then sieve or winnow to remove the chaff.
Store in a cool dark place; seeds should remain viable for around 3 years.
Most popular Broccoli Seeds
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Broccoli – Early purple (Organic)
£2.09 – £4.00 Add to basket This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pageBroccoli – Early purple (Organic)
A very popular and traditional variety of sprouting broccoli, producing an abundance of tasty spears from late March . We love Early Purple broccoli, it comes at a time of year when we are in serious need of some green vegetables that are not kale, chard or leeks! We can quite happily eat it with every meal during its harvest window. It is very versatile, being great seamed, stir fried, roasted, added to soups and stews, put in omelettes… the list goes on.
It is slow growing and takes around one year from sowing to harvest but it is well worth the wait with each plant producing a lot of food. Plants can grow up to 1m in height.
(Approximate seed count – 250)
£2.09 – £4.00 -
Cima di Rapa – San Marzano (Organic)
£2.10 – £3.00 Add to basket This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pageCima di Rapa – San Marzano (Organic)
A really easy to grow broccoli alternative producing tender flowering shoots around 60 days from sowing. Cima Di Rapa (also known as broccoli raab), is actually botanically a type of turnip rather than a broccoli. As such it is very quick to grow and unfussy in terms of its water and nutrient requirements.
The flowering shoots are harvested like sprouting broccoli and if you take care not to remove the lower two leaves you can get a few cuts off them.
In Italy there are many different varieties of Cima Di Rapa, maturing at different times and with different culinary uses.
£2.10 – £3.00 -
Calabrese – Green Calabrese (Organic)
£2.36 Read moreCalabrese – Green Calabrese (Organic)
A great open-pollinated calabrese variety, producing a large central head along with smaller side-shoots. Ready for harvest from late summer and into autumn, this is a wonderful variety. Calabrese like other broccoli varieties is hungry and benefits from a good dose of compost for best harvests.
(Approximate seed count – 100)£2.36 -
Broccoli – Fiolaro di Creazzo (Organic)
£2.20 Add to basketBroccoli – Fiolaro di Creazzo (Organic)
A traditional Italian type of broccoli sown in summer and harvested in autumn and winter. Broccoli Fiolaro di Creazzo has been cultivated for many centuries in Italy and is on the Slow Food Ark of Taste list which is a living catalogue of delicious and distinctive foods facing extinction.
It is sown in July through to early September and harvested November to March.
It does not grow a large central head, but produces side shoots – “fiois” – from its stem which are harvested and cooked with the leaves – not too dissimilar to Kalettes.
(Approximately 70 seeds / packet)
£2.20
