Cotswold Chatterblog

Sprouts are nice to eat! Sprouts are good for you! Who says?

William Haines, whose family have been farming sprouts for three generations in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds is persuading children that sprouts are nice to eat.

Sprouts are like Marmite - you either love them or hate them - there is no in between. The sprout was voted Britain’s least liked vegetable in 2002 but William believes that people always say that they don’t like sprouts but that is because they only have them once a year at Christmas and then they don’t know how to cook them. The old varieties were bitter but new types are much sweeter and therefore more appealing to all.

He tempts the children by serving recipes with hidden sprouts- sprout fritters, sprout cake and battered sprouts - and has a 80% success rate in converting them over to the benefits of the sprout.

The sprout is one of the few fresh vegetables on our plates in the depths of winter and they are a nutritious treat when properly prepared. They are very low in fat and sodium and high in dietary fibre and vitamin C. Weight for weight sprouts have three times the level of vitamin C of an orange and just four to six sprouts contain the adult daily dose of vitamin C. They are also a good source of vitamin D and folic acid during pregnancy and have specific health-promoting compounds called glucosinolates which may help to prevent cancer.

All in all they have a lot going for them so get some in for Christmas and also get all the family to eat them throughout the winter months.

Sprouts are part of the cabbage family and British farmers produce more than £30 million worth of sprouts a year. Sprout tops, once a poor man’s food, are now one of the most fashionable vegetables around and can be found on the menu of many top-class restaurants throughout the UK.

Tags: food | christmas

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.