Colewort

Colewort was an extremely important pot herb in Europe throughout the Middle Ages and for a long time thereafter. It was cultivated in England at least as early as 1190 and became the most important of all the pot herbs. So important that to ensure a continuous supply it was typically planted from seedlings four times a year. Herbals from the 16th and 17th centuries describe many different varieties including garden colewort, parsley colewort, double colewort, savoie cole, and cabbage cole.

By the early 18th century, headed colewort cultivars were no longer described as “cabbage cole” but merely as “cabbage”. In England cabbage continued to be grown, in part, because it could easily be transported to rapidly growing industrializing cities. In contrast, the popularity of leafy colewort waned in the 18th century; and it was entirely lost to cultivation in the 19th century. Today, Medieval reenactors simulate the use of colewort with another brassica – smooth leaf kale. (Pictured: Premiere kale from Mountain Valley Seed Company)

A detail from Pieter Bruegel’s painting “The Census of Bethlehem” (1566) shows an impoverished elderly German woman harvesting colewort which is growing through the snow in her tiny kitchen garden. She is growing headed colewort. At the time of this painting, the popularity of leafy cultivars of colewort was already declining in Germany because headed colewort (cabbage) could be efficiently preserved as sauerkraut.

The Junior Classic Latin Dictionary, Follett Publishing Company, 1961, page 41, informs us that rocket [i.e., arugula] is “a sort of colewort”. This odd misunderstanding is frequently echoed by Internet bloggers today. Rocket is Eruca vesicaria. Colewort is Brassica oleracea. These two plants are not the same. They belong to different genera. No one in Medieval or Early Modern Europe would mistake rocket for colewort. In the 1597 edition of his herbal, John Gerard describes and depicts rocket on pages 191-193. On pages 241-250, sixteen different types of colewort are described and depicted. Under the humoral doctrine rocket was considered to be wet and warm in the third degree. This means that it was considered to be unsuitable for both the elderly and the infirm. Colewort, on the other hand, was considered to have a mildly drying effect which made it particularly suitable for the elderly; but nutritionally it was suitable for all.

The colewort has vanished from cultivation but its legacy persists in the modern horticultural term “cole crops”.

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