Geneva, New York
April 12, 2004
By John Zakour and Linda McCandless
Cornell University
crucifer breeder Michael Dickson has transformed cauliflower
from broccoli's pale cousin into a new orange variety that
started appearing in supermarkets and farmers' markets last
fall, and is available in garden catalogs this spring.
"White
cauliflower lacks the dark green pigments that give broccoli
the nutritional advantage that health-conscious people are
interested in," says Dickson, who led the bean and crucifer
breeding programs at the New York State Agricultural
Experiment Station in Geneva, NY, from 1964 to 1995, and is
now a professor emeritus. "This is an alternative. I'm
delighted to hear that it is finally going on the market."
The florets of the new cauliflower look like those of its
white cousin, but are orange. More importantly, the vitamin
content of orange cauliflower is higher because it contains
320 micrograms of beta-carotene per 100 grams, or
approximately 25 times more vitamin A than white cauliflower.
It has been a 30-year journey from the farm to the fork for
the orange cauliflower, which was first found in the Bradford
Marsh in Canada in 1970. The mutant was smaller and less tasty
than a white cauliflower, but the orange color was alluring.
An extension agent sent it to the University of British
Columbia for tissue culture, and, from there, to the National
Vegetable Research Center in England. Researchers who were
familiar with Dickson's work forwarded it to him in 1981.
Using conventional breeding techniques, Dickson crossbred the
orange cauliflower and selected successive generations until
he had a larger, more market friendly variety. The trick was
crossing the orange cauliflower with the right white
cauliflower. "If we used one that was too white, the end
result was too pale," says Dickson.
It took eight
years for Dickson to develop the right germplasm. While he was
working on the horticultural aspects, food chemists at the
Experiment Station were evaluating the nutritional value of
the new vegetable. In 1988, food scientist Cy Lee published
his findings: orange cauliflower had 54 retinol equivalents
(RE) per 100 grams of vitamin A. As a comparison, green peas
are at 64 RE, lima beans are 30 RE, sweet corn is 28 RE, and
cabbage is 13 RE.
Further Development by Seed Companies
Dickson released
the germplasm to seed companies in 1989. Companies such as
Stokes worked to further improve the germplasm, and released
it as a numbered variety to commercial growers like Rick and
Laura Pedersen of
Pedersen Farms in Seneca Castle, NY. They grew the orange
cauliflower last summer and sold it to Wegmans. "It has a
narrow harvest window, but it was fairly well received," says
Rick. He plans to plant three acres of the colorful vegetable
this July, and will harvest it from September to November.
The vegetable is
available to commercial growers and home gardeners.
Johnny's Selected Seeds
markets an orange cauliflower called "Citrus," and is limiting
orders to 5000 seeds for 2004. "I sell most of it to producers
in NY, NY and Long Island who grow it for upscale restaurants
and farmers' markets," said seed representative Di Cody, at
the Empire Fruit & Vegetable Expo in February. "Growers like
the color it brings to fall harvest markets because it looks
good with pumpkins. Restaurateurs like the color and interest
it brings to vegetable trays."
Seminis expects to have
their variety named and ready for commercial sales by
mid-summer.
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