“In a development likely to inspire both joy and dismay around the Christmas dinner table, farmers are forecasting Brussels sprouts will be 25% bigger this year,” reports The Guardian:
Good growing conditions, the introduction of new varieties, and a dose of sea air have resulted in a crop of super-sized sprouts for this festive season.
The vegetable wholesaler TH Clements, a supplier to Tesco, has told the supermarket that the average sprout size this year is 30mm in diameter, compared with 24mm last year, when growing and harvesting conditions were poor.
“The quality of the festive crop that has been coming through in the last few weeks is among the best we’ve had in recent years,” said Simon Tenwick, buying manager at Tesco. “We are certain sprout fans will be delighted.”
The Guardian is discussing the Brussels sprouts in the United Kingdom. In the world as a whole (including America), Brussels sprouts have gotten better tasting and less bitter since the 1990s, resulting in more people eating them. Brussels sprouts are popular in Washington, DC-area restaurants. Brussel sprouts consumption rose by 53% in Australia in 2022-2023 alone.
As the Iowa Farm Bureau explains, “About 30 years ago, a Dutch scientist identified the chemicals that made brussels sprouts bitter. He selected seed varieties with lower levels of the bitter chemicals and bred new high-yielding varieties that tasted less bitter.”
As a result, Brussels sprouts consumption, which plunged in the U.S. in the late 20th century, has increased since then, becoming more popular:
Much like cafeteria lunches or liver and onions, brussels became a popular culinary punchline among the jungle gym set [in the late 20th Century]. Just the name evoked images of emotionless housewives boiling them over high-heat, rendering the little cruciferous vegetables bloated, soft and gaseous, destined to be scraped into the trashcan or offered to a family dog under the table.
But then sometime in the 2010s, alongside the explosion of New American and New Southern cuisine, brussels sprouts underwent some reputational repair. Chefs moved away from straight boiling them and started to slow-roast them in halves or quarters, coaxing out a really appealing caramelized sweetness that masked the vegetable’s inherent bitterness. They coated them in butter and bacon and maple syrup. And this happened over and over and over again until overpriced maple-glazed brussels were as much a cliché of hipster gastropub dining as Mason jar cocktails and food served on wooden planks….As the flavor has improved, so have sales. According to the Organic Produce Network, brussels sprouts sales increased by a staggering 47% from July 2018 to July 2019.
