I knew I had read about this somewhere but I couldn’t remember where until I checked just now. When I first harvested some of the over wintered cabbages some weeks ago I just went ahead and left the plant in the ground with just a short stem showing.
I couldn’t remember the exact recommended procedure but it seemed to be worth a try. After a bit of searching on the web this evening I think that I must have got this from the RHS website originally because I found the following extract on their cabbage page:
Cabbages are harvested by cutting through the stem just above ground level with a sharp knife. Cut a 13mm (1/2in) deep cross in the stump of spring and summer cabbages and you’ll be rewarded with a second crop of much smaller cabbages.
Slightly to my surprise I have now found out that this actually works but I realise now that I didn’t do things exactly as recommended.
As can be seen in this picture, I forgot about cutting a cross into the stump but even my incompetence didn’t stop this from working.
Obviously in future I will always do exactly what the RHS tell me just in case the vegetable police come around to check !