Amazing Kale!

After surviving a pretty hard winter where temperatures did get below zero, I have to admit being simply amazed at the hardiness factor I’ve seen in one lone plant. A member of the cabbage family that not only came through in shining colors, but which has also provided me with a few good meals this spring.

The variety, according to the seed packet, is Dwarf Blue Kale. I picked it up at my local grocery store last year with the idea of seeing if I would even like the stuff. To my surprise, I loved steaming the leaves and eating them with a little butter, salt and pepper. While Burpee Seed is selling a packet on line for $3.25, I got mine for fifty nine cents from a company called American Seed. They sell seed under various names including the familiar NK label. It does pay to shop around!

What interested me the most, was the fact that the leaves, after stripping them from the stem and steaming for fourteen minutes, was really awesome! I would have thought they’d be a little bitter, but that was not the case!

One other point. Just a few plants can really produce a good harvest. Also, the leaves make a great garnish and companion to other meals. Sort of like parsley.

A pleasant garden surprise - Curly Kale!

One of the biggest surprises to me for the gardening season that just ended was a plant called curly kale. I figured it to be a rough tasting thick skin offshoot of the cabbage family and really failed to understand why anyone would like to steam it as part of a dinner. Well, I was wrong again as it turns out. (Something I’ve gotten used to over the years). This plant tastes awesome when taken fresh from a steamer and then lathered with a bit of butter, salt and pepper. It has a wonderful texture with just a hint of the taste of cabbage. I’ve added it to my evening meals and plan to grow three to four plants next year. (Just one plant provides an awful lot). And did I mention it can fend off really cold temperatures? One morning it got down to 24F and while that pretty much killed everything else that wasn’t covered, the kale brushed it off like water off a ducks back.

Eating Kale for the first time!

For the first time, I have grown a few kale plants to see what they taste like. I found on the internet that kale is not offered very often in markets so many people don’t know how to prepare it. That included me, so I decided to follow what advice I could find and treat it like cabbage. To wit, I trimmed off the stalks and placed a handful of leaves in a steamer for about three minutes.

The kale was then buttered, salted and peppered and eaten. I had to place it into a microwave to finish it off, but will admit that the taste was pretty decent. If you like steamed greens then definitely try this plant.

I won't bother going into the nutritional aspect of this vegetable other than to say it is very healthy. Salute!