The Complete Handbook of Kohlrabi
A practical reference for growers, produce buyers, chefs, and serious gardeners
by Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
The complete practical reference on kohlrabi: botany, varieties, grades, growing, and handling for professionals.
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About this book
Kohlrabi is a unique vegetable, a swollen stem whose identity is often confused and whose culinary value is frequently underestimated. This handbook cuts through the folklore and provides a systematic, practical overview of the crop for anyone who handles it professionally. It begins by grounding the reader in the plant's true botanical nature, explaining how its structure affects everything from growth to eating quality.
The book provides a detailed breakdown of varieties and their marketable specifications, including sizing, leaf-to-bulb ratio, and disease resistance. It moves beyond theory to cover the specifics of planting, cultivation, and harvest timing, as well as post-harvest handling and storage for both retail and food-service channels. Later chapters delve into the business of kohlrabi, offering concrete advice on market positioning, supply chain logistics, and certification, alongside practical troubleshooting guides for common crop failures.
For a produce buyer, it offers a checklist for evaluating quality. For a grower, it provides clear protocols for field management and storage. For a chef, it clarifies the differences between varieties and how that affects preparation. The goal is to make kohlrabi a predictable, manageable, and profitable crop, rather than a curiosity.
Reader Reviews
Jeffrey Taylor
★★★★★As a produce buyer for a regional grocery chain, I found the specifications chapter to be exactly what I needed. It saves me from having to call every grower to check if their sizing matches our standards. The chapter on storage conditions is also spot on. It's a bit dry in places, but it's a reference book, not a novel.
Timothy Adams
★★★★★I'm a market gardener and was looking for something more technical than the usual seed catalog blurbs. This book delivers. The planting density tables and the section on preventing woody flesh have already improved my crop. I knocked off a star because it's written by multiple people, and the tone shifts a bit between chapters, but the core information is solid.
Stephanie Mitchell
★★★★★Some useful points about kohlrabi, which is a crop I've always found a bit tricky. I appreciate the section on troubleshooting, but I felt the book spent too much time on large-scale commercial production. My situation is a two-acre farm, and some advice just isn't scalable. Still, it's a good starting point.
Kimberly Davis
★★★★★The book is fine, but I was hoping for more on the culinary and variety side. As a chef, I was more interested in how different types of kohlrabi perform when raw vs. cooked. The section on varieties was good, but I wanted more comparative taste information. The business advice was irrelevant to me.
Kenneth Jones
★★★★★The definitive guide, no doubt. I have a small collection of extension factsheets and random notes, but this organizes everything into a single, logical sequence. The identification of different growth stages was particularly helpful for my CSA planning. It has a solid index, too, so I can actually find things in a hurry.
Shirley Taylor
★★★★★It's very thorough, perhaps a bit too thorough for a hobbyist like me. I grow a small patch for the farmer's market, and the detailed analysis of market grades felt like overkill. The information about storage has genuinely helped me extend my sales season, though, so I can't complain too much. I just wish it was a bit more concise.
Betty Hall
★★★★★A decent reference, but I found the first chapter on the botany a bit too academic for my tastes. I get that it's important, but I wanted to get to the growing instructions. Once I got to that part, the advice was clear and actionable, especially the information on fertilizer ratios. Not the most captivating read, but a handy tool.
Kimberly Smith
★★★★★A solid book, but nothing I haven't seen in various blog posts and free online guides. It's convenient to have it all in one place, but I was expecting more cutting-edge information. The chapter on future trends felt a little generic. Still, it is a comprehensive reference if you need to have everything on the shelf.