In praise of Nero Kale

[Jimmy]

Just had a helping of Nero Kale.
Discovered it a few years ago.
It always seems to do well and lasts into the spring.
I grow about 6 plants.
Use the root fly collars.
Not much seems to bother them, perhaps a bit of pigeon protection early on.

I strip the leaf stems an chop the stems up fine. The cook in microwave fo 3 mins with salt and pepper. Add the rest of the leaves and give a further 2 mins.
Yummy.

I saw Jamie Oliver do a spagetti with liquidised greens mixed in. I think the kale would do very well.

Anyone else enjoy Nero?

Finally, waiting for jabs(s) so I can get to the pub for a pint or 2 or ....

Suspect Autumn or later, if pubs still exist.

Jimmy

[Nicos]

Hi Jimmy- good to see up you again!

We grow it every year too and as usual it’s doing really well....although we did have greenfly on it this year for the first time.

I love it too....very reliable!

[Bren In Pots]

I grow 8 plants and that’s plenty for the two of us, I use kale as a steamed veg, in soups, gratins and the young leaves in salad. It makes nice crisps if dehydrated

[Chippy Minton]

We love the stuff and usually grow it, but it got slugged this year. Have a great recipe for Cavolo Nero bruschetta, lightly boiled with a clove of garlic then shredded up (with the cooked garlic clove) on top of a toasted piece of ciabatta rubbed with garlic and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil............ Mmmmm bruschetta....

[greenishfing]

My favourite brassica!!. Pubs though? Maybe. Depends how the locals behave. I can only live in hope, a half of hand pulled black Sheep please. But I am not over optimistic as I can see how some idiots behave.

[roitelet]

It makes really good Stampot

[annie8]

Am going to grow Kale this year for the first time. You should try the Jamie Oliver recipe with kale - we had it for dinner tonight was yummy.

[Right Shed Fred]

I also love it. I just harvest leaves from the bottom and it gets very tall and odd looking. My neighbour lets his get very big and they disappear one by one over the winter.
I usually cut out the central vein, slice it, fry for a few min with loads of garlic, and add a glug of water to the hot pan and let it steam through. When that water is gone and kale is tender I add flaky salt. The cavolo nero goes really deep green and glossy.

I should probably experiment with other ways of cooking it, but I never get round to if as I like it like this so much.

[SimpleSimon]

I do 3 sowings of Nero kale and always have a nice supply of tender plants to harvest year round. The older plants are still in the ground at the moment but getting a bit ragged. I over wintered 6 in my tunnel which are getting ready to take over the reigns. Sowed more this week which should be ready to start harvesting when the over wintered ones bolt in spring.

[ameno]

Speaking of bolting, I noticed yesterday that one of my cavolo nero plants is bolting already, despite being the F1 variety Black Magic, which is supposed to be more bolt resistant than the standard variety.
It's these damn mild winters we get here in the South West... The weeds never stop growing, either.

[.commander]

I brought some to try this year. My curly red kale has been ravaged by pidgeons, but I'm hoping to get some environmesh or netting soon so this wont happen again.

[Bren In Pots]

When mine bolts I use the flower heads in stir fries. .

[Babru]

What about caterpillars? I wasn't planning on growing any brassicas this year as there are so many cabbage whites around (and I only grow things that don't need netted). You've got me thinking about kale now though. They do look amazing too.

[Bren In Pots]

Kale looks pretty enough to be grown in flower or shrub borders so maybe you could hide some in there, have to say though that it is easy to pick caterpillars from Cavolo Nero leaves.

[annie8]

My Cavolo Nero seeds arrived today. Had also ordered kale red Russian seeds which folk on the forum had recommended but strangely the packet says it is a micro leaf. Have I made a stupid mistake and ordered the wrong thing?