Kale

[piegirl]

After watching several cooking shows in the last couple of weeks in which kale was a featured item, I have decided to try this. I have never even eaten it so are there any kale lovers out there? The cooks were using what looked like a rather wide leafed, dark green type but catalogues all picture rather curled leaves. Plant early in the spring and again in late summer? Freezeable? There seem to be quite a few varieties not counting the ornamental types. Any help is appreciated. Piegirl

[stormymater]

I LOVE Kale! Look at www.growitalian.com for the black kale (Nero). Sometimes it is called dinosaur Kale. It is different from the curled-blue Vates more easily found at the supermarket. There are a lot of different kinds but these are the ones I prefer. Plant just like what you said. Totally freezable & cannable w/o going to mush. Sooooo good.
There is a Korean way of cooking kale I like - thin cross slivers that are stirfried with garlic & sweet soy sauce. I'm a Southern gal who loves her braised greens so this departure is a pleasant surprise.

[habitat_gardener]

I love kale, too! I've grown several varieties:

--black/dinosaur/tuscan kale, dark green, pebbly surface, a more robust flavor

-- some interrelated red russian and white russian and siberian kale, flatter leaves with only a few bumps and pretty ruffly edges, the most delicate ones. They cook to nothing and are sweeter than dino kale. I've grown a few of these and let them go for a couple years in my garden, then let them reseed, so I don't know exactly what I have.

-- purple peacock broccoli, which has nonbiting small broccoli heads and magenta-veined flattish small kale leaves. It's a cross between kale and broccoli. I don't know how it is cooked because I snack on it in the garden.

-- perennial kale, also called tree collards, which I eat year-round. The leaves are flat, no ruffles at all, and dark green with a purple blush (some turn all purple) in cold weather, when it gets even sweeter. This one is the sweetest kale I've grown, with the thickest texture. I usually cook it much like stormymater describes, slice it thinly and then either dunk it in boiling water for a minute or two, or stir-fry. It keeps its shape when it's cooked. I've grown most of mine from cuttings -- very easy -- and got a 4-inch plant at a plant exchange that was labeled "walking stick kale," although someone else at the comm. garden has one of those and it's very different, and all of mine look alike. Mine are 4-6 ft. high and they like to sprawl. In the five years or so I've had them, they've never flowered (thus no seed). One winter when it got down to 20F they looked a little wilted, but revived, so I assume they're a little tender. The book Perennial Vegetables has a few paragraphs about them.

[PNW_D]

Haven't tried these, but friends rave about them .......

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-k...ps/Detail.aspx

[salix]

LOOOVE kale! I believe it is one of the most nutritious and easy vegetables to grow. It is very hardy, so it is one of the last things we harvest up here in short-season-land. It freezes beautifully, and stays quite well just in the fridge. Use it in anything that needs some greenery, one of our favourites is "Beans and Greens" soup. Dried some last year and thought it made a rather tasty little snack - sort of healthy chips. Crumbled up, the dried product could be added to almost anything.

[puttgirl]

I've never eaten much kale, either, only in soup. I'd like to try it, too. Does it bolt in the summer, then?

[habitat_gardener]

When the buds start forming, if I get to them in time (and before the aphids land), I pick them and eat them. They're like little broccolinis. I had a dino kale plant that was 2 or 3 years old, all woody and branched, and produced about 50-100 of these at a time. After a while, it stopped trying to go to flower and produced more leaves again, so it's not like lettuce, which bolts and then it's compost. But my summers are relatively cool, and (when I plant them) I plant them in the less sunny parts of the garden. I let the volunteers grow wherever they want, though, and the flowering time is the same.

[veggie babe]

piegirl,

Remy sent me a bonus pkg. of dinosaur kale last year with my order. It was the first time I planted and eat it, it's worth planting. I always plant mustard, collards, turnips and greens so now I will also plant kale. I think you will enjoy it. I will admit if Remy had not sent me the seed I would have never planted kale.

Neva

[Ruth_10]

Kale is great. I've grown Dwarf Blue Curled Vates, Red Russian, Redbor, and Winterbor (have seeds for Toscano (Dinosaur), but haven't grown it yet.

I like the Dwarf Blue Curled Vates grown as a fall crop. It is *very* winter hardy. I've had it winter over more than once. I think it tastes great raw, fresh out of the garden. Cooked, I like it sauteed with some garlic and chicken broth, maybe throw in a few red pepper flakes for color.

[bitterwort]

Like Stormymater, we grow the black/Tuscan kale, Cavalo Nero, from growitalian.com, preferring it to most of the other kales we've tried because of the texture and because it tastes good during the summer months as well as after a frost. We'd mostly eaten it cooked, as colcannon (steamed and mixed about half and half with flavorful mashed potatoes). Recently we tried a recipe for a raw kale salad with dried cranberries and walnuts and feta cheese from the LA Times. We didn't expect to like it initially, but it's wonderful and a great way to eat greens during the winter.

Scroll down until you find "Kale salad with cranberries and walnuts."
http://www.latimes.com/features/food...3.storygallery

[PaulF]

On vacation a couple of summers ago we saw dinosaur kale near Niagara Falls . We grew it last year and it was really pretty neat, but not as large as at the Falls. It was a great border around part of the garden. We did not eat it, but it looked good enough to eat.

[cortona]

hi piegirl, i live in tuscany(italy) the original place of the dinosaur kale!
if you want some seeds let me know via pm and i think you can enjoy it a lot, in not so hard winter climate it can be pluriannual and give you some nice leaf(but the best and tender part are the new shot that come out wen you cut the apex!)
greetings!
Emanuele

[rxkeith]

kale is a staple in our garden. we use it in soups and stews or just steam it. we also add kale to our green smoothies. red russian and white russian are good ones to grow. i have also grown the tuscan, and vates varieties. let a few winter over, and go to seed the following year, and you will have enough seeds for a long time.



keith

[desertlzbn]

This is funny I saw this thread tonight, we just had Kale soup, it is very much like the soup from Olive Garden that has kale, potato and sausage in it. MMMMMMM it was yummy.

[huxter09]

I grow all the different types of kale here in Oz and it will survive the cold .The Scotish type will survive frost and snow ---think of winter in Scotland --in fact the Scots only pick it after a hard frost .My fave is the Tuscan kale --delicious taste in soups ,braises ,etc .A great tonic too as it is full of iron ,minerals ,vitamins etc .Just boil up the leaves and stalks and drink the water daily .My 80 yo neighbour has drunk it every day since 1950 and he looks better than me !!!