Are Brussel Sprouts Safe To Eat After A Cabbage Worm Infestation?

Supposedly. If you thoroughly examine and wash them, Brussel Sprouts are safe to eat even if the plant has been ravaged by cabbage worms. That's what they say, anyway.

I think I'll pass. Call me paranoid, but after reading articles such as this about parasitic infections, I'm a little leery of eating something from a plant that I know has been infested.

What a shame! I love Brussel Sprouts. I was looking forward to having them fresh and organic from my garden, instead of the ordinary store bought kind. As you can see from the first picture in this post, they're growing nicely too! Not so much in the second picture, where you can see some worm damage.

Maybe next year I'll get some nets to cover the plants and keep the butterflies off. Meanwhile I guess these plants will get pulled and tossed...




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Brussel Sprouts Info

This is a new crop for me: Brussel sprouts. I planted them for the first time this spring, and the plants have thrived.

Thrived, but... no sprouts! While so many other veggies in my garden have found their way to my kitchen by now, the Brussel sprouts still haven't made their appearance. Then I thought, what if they're biennial?

It turns out that they're a relatively hardy, cold weather plant, and a frost or two actually improves their flavour. They may not produce sprouts until very late in the year, sometimes waiting until the beginning of the following year.

I planted mine from seeds in the garden in late May, which means I won't see any sprouts until early 2010.

I'm glad I researched this, or I may have pulled the plants and discarded them, thinking that they had failed. Now I know they're doing fine, but not quite ready yet :)