I like both orange cauliflower and purple cauliflower better than white. I find it's a milder taste and not so...bitter(?) as white. Both go really well raw in a pasta salad. (Adds nice color to the salad)

I plan to grow purple cauliflower this spring. It's my first time, but I understand that you don't have to blanche these ones.

Have not grown the Orange, but other than visual appeal of the purples, no appreciable difference in taste. Nevr had any whites or purples to be bitter. Of course ther is no need to blanche a colored cauliflower. Whites can get bad if exposed to bright sunlight and need to be blanched (tied up) for both both appearance and flavor.
{{gwi:115301}}

It's not really a bitter taste I was thinking of, but I can't find the word for it.

The white have a sharper taste, kind of a sharp bite or aftertaste. I like it myself but the kids tend to find it yucky. The purple and oranges don't have that sharp aftertaste, just a mild cauliflower flavour and the kids will eat them.

I have looked and wondered about the different colored cauliflowers. We have never tasted them as the cost is totally outrageous in the supermarkets. It is good to know christie that they may also be more nutritious as well. It makes me want to try them even more.

We tried growing white cauliflower for the first time and would like to try more this coming year. (ours were quite puny in comparison to farmerdilla's, but tasted good)

farmerdilla the pictures of your vegetables are always such an inspiration! Any one that thinks that you have to have a flower garden to have beautiful plants just needs to look at your pictures to know better.

I didn't know that the colored ones don't need to be blanched either. Does anyone have any other tips for growing them.

Cauliflower is a pretty heavy feeder, so you need good rich soil. Plant them at the proper time, keep the cabbage worms off them, keep competing plants out of thier way, and watch them go. Here we have to choose cultivars that head before triple digit temps hit ( spring planting) we also plant in late summer for fall harvest. The colored ones are actually easier to grow, especially in a high sun climate, as you can avoid the labor of tying up the heads. Northern gardeners can do the white self blanching cultivars, but the sun is too intense here.

Cheddar Cauliflower tastes very good. I grow it just about every year. There are a couple of gotchas to be aware of.

You MUST plant at the right time for your area. This would be about the 20th to 25th of March for zone 6. Here in my zone 7 climate, it is March 15th. Cauliflower and broccoli are both very finicky about the temperature they will grow in. Cabbage by comparison is much more tolerant.

The other thing is to control cabbage loopers. This is easily done with regular dusting of Dipel. It is a biological that kills cabbage worms but is harmless to humans. Dust the plants thoroughly every 5 days or after every rain. Don't miss an application.

DarJones

I haven't grown cauliflower at all so thanks for the tips. The purple color isn't as appealing to me for some reason. lol