How to Grow Brussels Sprouts

Show of hands: How many of you detested brussels sprouts when you were a kid?

My hand is up. My introduction to the infamous cruciferous veggie was in the form of the heads dumped out of a can and broiled within an inch of their lives.

Now, how many of you grew to love them? Maybe you like them drizzled in olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and roasted in a hot oven. Or maybe sauteed with bacon and fennel?

My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

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Want to ensure that these delicious dinner veggies are just steps away? Grow your own brussels sprouts – even if your kids carry on the tradition of hating them.

Up ahead, here is what we’ll go over on our journey to grow the best buttons possible:

As opposed to the bushes of heat-loving tomatoes and peppers that just everyone seems to grow in their backyard gardens in the heat of summer, brussels sprouts prefer a chilly nip in the air.

They’re perfect as a cool-weather crop when the salsa fixin’s are but a memory.

By vegetable standards, brussels sprouts are quite youthful. According to Michigan State University Extension experts, the plant was unknown until about 400 years ago.

It descended from wild mustard that grew in the Mediterranean and was first cultivated in Ancient Rome.

Later, it was refined through careful selection to create the veggie we know today somewhere near Brussels, Belgium. Thus, the unsurprising name.

In Dutch, they’re known simply as spruitjes, or sprouts.

The first general description of these tasty green gems was recorded in 1587, according to Texa