Growing kale

[Kansas Terri]

Kale is such a beautiful vegetable! It is a lush, vigorous, symmetrical plant with large, rather curly leaves. In the cool Fall weather the midribs and some of the leaves turn either red or white, and so it is often grown as an ornamental. It is, however, a member of the cabbage family and the entire plant is perfectly edible! Kale does not form heads: it is harvested by picking the number of leaves desired, and the plant simply grows more.

I try to eat a little kale every day, for my continued good health. It acts as an anti-inflammatory, and so it is often eaten by people with multiple sclerosis. Dr. Wahl, who touts a combined diet plus medicine treatment for multiple sclerosis speaks very highly of it, and I have found that it does reduce some of my own M.S. symptoms.

Kale gives me beauty, food, and it improves my health. It can be cooked like cabbage or eaten raw in a salad. What more could anybody ask from a vegetable?

Like most members of the cabbage family, kale prefers the cool, damp spring weather to hot dry heat. Like most members of the cabbage family it prefers a rich garden soil, which supports a rapid growth of lush foliage. To avoid disease it is recommended that the kale be grown in an area that has not grown any member of the cabbage family for four to five years. For me, that simply means that I move my row of cabbage family crops a few feet over every year.

I believe I like kale best cut up and added to a salad. It has to be cut up rather finely because the edges of the leaves are curly: otherwise it is hard to get the salad properly mixed. It tastes a bit like cabbage, though the flavor is not as sweet. I like kale better mixed in with other vegetables, as I find the flavor to be otherwise a bit too strong for my liking.

Today, I stir fried a little kale with a drop of oil and a little soy sauce, which was ALSO excellent! I will fix it again, soon!

Lastly, I have cooked it like greens. I liked the flavor just fine, though the leaves were tougher than either spinach or cabbage. It was not bad, but there are other kale dishes that I would rather have!

http://media.photobucket.com/user/jerryg7/media/Survival Gardening Palnts/red-kale-.jpg.html?filters[term]=red kale&filters[primary]=images&filters[secondary]=videos&sort=1&o=0

 

[happyflowerlady]

I had some kale growing this spring, and was picking it and adding it to my salads, and cooking it with greens, or using it in a green smoothie. Then the weather warmed up, and it all went to seed, so now I am going to save the seeds, and replant it this fall for a fall/winter crop. If we don't have a hard winter, I think it will last a long time, maybe all winter like the wild onions and the ramps do.
They are a pretty vegetable with their curly leaves, and varied colors, almost like a flower.

 

[Kansas Terri]

I think I will pinch the flowers out if mine tries to go to seed. I can use a lot of kale, and it would really hurt the yield if I were to start over from seed.

The cabbage butterflies have come out: I will spray my kale with insect killing soap just as soon as the weatherman predicts a day without rain!

 

[limcid]

I love kale. I like to eat it raw and as kale chips. I tried juicing them, but there's just not enough yield to make it seem worthwhile, so I just eat them raw.

 

[eackley]

We planted kale for the first time this year. I was skeptical at first, but it does taste good. I've tried kale chips (don't really like them), and kale in salads (nice flavor) as well as raw, picked straight from the garden. I've found that some bug also like the kale leaves. Any organic methods to get rid of the bugs?

 

[Marie]

In my town, there's a farm that produces Kale in huge fields, before dehydrating it, raw, with no added ingredients, in order to create kale crisps (chips). He swears by a 100% raw diet: he was once 27 stone in weight, and was told by his doctors that if he didn't change his ways, he would be dead before he reached 30. He is now 34, a healthy weight, and promoting the raw diet through books that he has lived by through his change in lifestyle, and also the production of his kale crisps. (He also makes healthy, raw, vegan chocolate, but that's another story)

When I tried to make these crisps myself, they didn't quite work, so I am always buying them from him in bulk, because they're so tasty. I do like to grow my own kale though, for use in salads etc. I find I cannot grow it without surrounding the plants with organic slug pellets. If I'm not using it for any other plants, I'll also cover them with a netting to keep cabbage white butterflies from laying their eggs on the underside of the leaves.

It's a method that seems to work for me, though if anyone has any better suggestions for growing kale pest-free, then I'm all ears!

 

[Rzashida]

I like kale, because in Georgia mines grows year around and self seeds. It has multiple health benefits and is yummy. I have been procrastinating about finding a recipe for kale chips. I tried a bag from wholes food and it was disgusting, however they must be doing something wrong. I think I can season it much better.