Cornetto di Bordeaux is the other choice for us along with Bubikopf. Cornetto is probably even better in our wet, muddy winters because it grows tall instead of out like Bubikopf. But both are standouts and we will always grow them for our winter staples. Our customers who have discovered the joys of winter gardening have also really enjoyed them both!

This is my favorite escarole. The leaves are tender and re-grow quickly after a picking. They are good in salad, and very good cooked as a green or in soups (like Italian Wedding Soup). I plant it in the fall here in central Florida and harvest it until it gets hot in the spring. This is something I have in my garden every year.

Prolific seeds. This is a mild tasting green that is great for stuffing with rice and meat braises, mincing for soups or rice. I grew it during fall 2013 and planted more in February 2014. I live in the high desert (3500 ft) of southern California and the cool months are October through March. I have built raised bed planters and enclosed them with 1/4" hardware cloth and 50% Aluminet shade cloth, so it is cooler than being open to the sun. We'll see how long into the heat I can grow it :-)
Paradise Farm, California

We planted the seeds last year at the beginning of April 2013 using
10-10-10 fertilizer and additional amounts of blood meal. Some seeds sprouted at the beginning of May and were harvested when mid-size...however the other seeds that were planted stayed dormant throughout the very hot, dry Lower Delaware summer, but we had a phenomenal crop of escarole at the end of
September and into October....escarole likes cooler temperatures. Seems the seeds in the ground stayed viable over the summer until conditions were optimal for growing. We find that the nitrogen in the blood meal helps the escarole to really produce a great crop. We blanched the extra escarole and froze for use this winter.

I started growing this 2 seasons ago in place of Bionda a Cuore. It is a smaller plant in my experience. I am growing in MA. Start seeds in June..in the garden in July harvest in the fall. The first season a few plants got a disease. I think it was soil based because the next season it did really well. In fact I thought we would have too much but then the deer showed up.