Browse the add-ons list recently and you may have spotted something a little out of the ordinary. No, not the bendy beans or piccolo berries – a brilliantly odd new brassica, called CauliShoots®. We caught up with Kim at our long-time grower, Barfoots, to dig the dirt.

O: Hi Kim. We can hardly believe what we’re eating – tell us everything about CauliShoots®.

K: Great that you’re as excited as we are! Launched in 2021, CauliShoots® are a new variety of cauliflower, with little heads on succulent stems. They’re totally edible from floret to foot, meaning they’re super-easy to prep – and there’s no waste!

O: Where are they grown? Does it take a particular style of farming?

 K: We grow CauliShoots® on our farms in the UK from June to October, then through the winter, our Spanish growers at Barfoots España take over. Every stem is hand-picked and hand-packed.

As growers, our philosophy at Barfoots is to ‘look after the land like you are going to farm forever.’ We believe the quality of the soil and biodiversity are crucial to successful farming – our founder Peter Barfoot even has a CBE for Services to Sustainable Farming.

O: How did you develop the variety?

K: Working with our seed partner, Syngenta, we’ve spent the last few years carrying out growing and tasting trials. We wanted to develop the ultimate cauliflower: high in fibre and vitamin C, with long succulent stems and sweet and nutty curds (that’s the white bit). We’ve also found that CauliShoots® are more versatile from a cooking perspective, because of their robust nature.

O: So are they available in the shops?

K: Not quite – in fact, other than a few select restaurants, Oddbox is the only place you can try CauliShoots® at the moment.

O: Wow, we feel honoured! Why is that?

K: CauliShoots® are still a trial at the moment. In many cases, crop trials lead to lots of food waste – but with Oddbox on hand to help, we can make sure every stem goes to a good home. It also means we have flexibility on providing CauliShoots® in different shapes and sizes, and that we can get feedback before they hit the shops. We’d love to know what the Oddbox community thinks!

O: How do you recommend cooking them? Any recipes or tips?

 K: If your CauliShoots® are on the larger side, it's sometimes worth cutting them in half, lengthways, so they cook a little faster. It’s up to you. But the great thing about CauliShoots® is that they need minimum prep.

We think they're super delicious simply fried or steamed and drizzled with olive oil, with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. But they’re very versatile and can be added to your favourite dish or cooked on the BBQ. We have lots of recipes on our special CauliShoots® website, if you’re interested!

O: Thank you Kim, and everyone at Barfoots. We can’t wait to spread the word about CauliShoots® to our community and beyond.

Tried CauliShoots® for yourself yet? They’ll be cropping up as an add-on over the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for our weekly emails.

And don’t forget to let us know what you think so we can pass it on to Kim and the team – if you’re a fan, you can even stalk them on Instagram (pun intended, as ever).