I planted 2 purple sprout plants from seed at Easter last year, and they grew 5' tall!! They were full of sprouts, but when I picked them all, trimmed them and blanched them, I had enough to feed 2 people!! AND, incidentally, I only learned AFTERWARDS that the purple colour would come out if I blanched them in salted water. My lovely mum informed me that I needed to put a splash of vinegar in the cooking water to stop this happening. I was left with a small bowl of grey sprouts... very appealing!
BUT, and here's the amazing thing, when I cooked them up on Christmas day, the purple colour returned as I put that special splash of vinegar in the pan...pure magic!! And, although there weren't enough to go around, they really did taste nice.
This year I will plant more than 2 plants, so that there is enough to share at Christmas. However, as I am now running an afterschool gardening club, I most probably won't get to see many of them for myself!! Still, maybe this will encourage more teenagers to eat them.
Incidentally, I have been able to get my teenage nephews to eat them, but only if they are wrapped in bacon. Still, they ate about 15 each on Christmas day, so they had their vitamin C and roughage for the day!!
