Roger Phillips

Wild Cabbage

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top 1000Wild Food
Wild Food

By Roger Phillips

Published 1986

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Wild Cabbage photographed on the chalk cliffs near Dover.

Brassica oleracea This can be found in waste places, probably as an escape from cultivation, but on the southern coast, especially near the White Cliffs of Dover, it can be found growing in its wild state.

The cabbage is a really ancient vegetable of cultivation; it was certainly known to the Ancient Greeks, Romans, Celts and Saxons and was much prized for its medicinal purposes. It was said to be beneficial in the treatment of worms, ulcers, eczema, carbuncles, bronchial afflictions, lumbago and migraines.