Purple Vienna is a standard home garden and market kohlrabi variety with deep purple skin and crisp greenish-white flesh. The mild flesh is great cooked or fresh. The bulbs become fibrous as they mature so for best quality harvest at 2 in diameter which takes about 55 days from sowing. Named for a German word meaning cabbage turnip kohlrabi was developed first around the 16th century in northern Europe. By the end of that century it had spread throughout the rest of the continent as well as to the Mediterranean region. The first recorded mention of kohlrabi in the States is found in the early 16th century. More recently the countries of China Israel and Africa have discovered this vegetable; it has become quite a staple of northern Indian cuisine. Purple Vienna heirloom kohlrabi in particular dates back to 1863.
