How Capitalism Saved Big Brussel

Remember brussels sprouts? You know the gross vegetable your parents forced you to eat at dinner, usually boiled until it was soft and mushy. Well, there’s a reason brussels sprouts used to taste so bitter, and it wasn’t necessarily the way they were cooked.  

Brussels sprouts are not found growing in the wild. They were instead bred over the course of many years, eventually reaching the state they are in now in the Middle Ages. They originated in that form in Brussels, Belgium, hence the name.  

Then, in the 1960s, farmers switched to mechanized harvesting, which would require a vegetable to grow evenly on the whole stalk, which increased production. But, while healthy, the plant tasted horribly bitter, only made worse by the fact that they were typically served boiled. This also meant that they didn’t sell well, as most people refused to go out of their way to buy them, and restaurants wouldn’t serve them. 

In the 1990s, a Dutch scientist decided to take a closer look at the plant and isolated the two chemical compounds that made the sprout bitter: two glucosinolates called sinigrin and progoitrin. This prompted seed companies to go back through older variations of seeds to find the ones that had lower levels of these compounds. 

The less bitter seeds were then cross pollenated with the high yielding seeds of the present day, to get the best of both worlds. The sprouts began tasting much better and started taking off in the culinary world. Restaurants began to not only cook them differently, but also creatively season them.  

Now, farmers make up to five times more money for their crop and compared to 2,500 acres in the whole country a few years ago, now there are 10,000 acres of Brussels sprouts in the U.S. with more to be created in Mexico as demand grows. Thanks to supply and demand and a determination to not lose one of the most sustainable vegetables in the U.S., the brussels sprouts industry has had its resurgence, and you can now enjoy them in any way you like.