Cabbage, 'Filderkraut'

*Ark of Taste Heirloom*(Brassica oleracea) Hands down our favorite cabbage. We searched for seed after first seeing it at the Slow Food “Salone del Gusto” food fair held in Torino, Italy, in 2006 (!), where its unusual conical shape and sweet flavor made a lasting impression. And I’m not talking about “egghead” conical; Filder is a cartoonish gnome hat extreme, reaching sizes of a foot wide and two feet tall. Named for the region it hails from, near Stuttgart in southern Germany, it is traditionally a sauerkraut cabbage and, in our opinion, the very best there is. Written records of the variety date back to the 1700’s, but with the mechanization of the kraut industry in the mid-20th century, it fell out of favor due to its awkward shape for mechanical processing. Having maintained a regional following, it was boarded on Germany’s Slow Food Ark of Taste and has since found a wider audience. A long season fall cropper, it can reach huge sizes (10+ lbs), with a single cabbage filling a 3-