Is purple cauliflower bad?

jpeazybreezy

I bought some at the farmers market this weekend, and am now wondering if I bought some genetic freak of nature. Did someone gmo cauliflower to do this, or was it good ol' fashioned gardening that cross bred this plant for this trait? I've even seen it called "heirloom" on some websites. I just don't know if I'm getting a even healthier version of this brain food, or if I am eating something that's genes were spliced with blueberries!!!

Any advice?

Lvneveryminuteofit

I just googled it and got a wikipedia article that says it's one of the strains of the original species of cauliflower.

There are four major groups of cauliflower.^[2]

• Italian. Diverse appearance, biennial and annual types. Includes white, Romanesco, various green, purple, brown and yellow cultivars. This type is the ancestral form from which the others were derived.

• Northwest European biennial. Used in Europe for winter and early spring harvest. Developed in France in the 19th century. Includes the old cultivars Roscoff and Angers.

• Northern European annuals. Used in Europe and North America for summer and fall harvest. Developed in Germany in the 18th century. Includes old cultivars Erfurt and Snowball.

• Asian. Tropical cauliflower used in China and India. Developed in India during the 19th century from the now-abandoned Cornish type.^[3] Includes old varieties Early Patna and Early Benaras

I don't trust wiki for everything since they're user-supplied articles, but this does site it's sources. After reading this though I'm remembering that i read an article on the dirty dozen, and the "next dirty dozen" which was all about the foods we don't often think of as being better for us due to the farmer's reduced use of pesticides and I think Italian Cauliflower was on the list. But I have no idea where I read it so that might not help much.

Pescalita

I get it in my CSA all the time. Actually it's usually purple and occasionally yellow, never white.

jehan

I love purple cauliflower!  I just like fun-colored veggies in general.  I've seen bright green, yellow, purple, and regular white at our farmers' market.  My only sadness is that when you cook them, the color often goes away, particularly if they are cooked in water.

pixieprincss

It isn't bad. It is normal. We are "brainwashed" into thinking veggies can only be certain colors because of the non-diversity seen at the grocery store from mass producers. Purple cauliflower is a normal variety of cauliflower, as are purple carrots, purple-podded "green" beans, white eggplant, white pumpkins etc. It is even easier to "eat a rainbow" when we're exposed to the true diversity the world's heirloom seeds offer.

Baker Creek has a seed catalog with pictures so luscious it should be considered vegetable porn.  It is a great way to see vegetable variety.

SuperGreen

It's completely normal, not a freak of nature.  It's one of the original colors as PP said.  The white califlower variety is just what stays together the best for shipping it all over the world, so that's the variety you see in the grocery store.  Almost all veggies come in colors you never see in the supermarket.  I can't wait to get purple sweet peppers, striped tomatoes, and pink eggplant from the Farmer's Market!  This is my favorite califlower (Romanesco), it's so trippy!