In Praise of Kale

[diggerthree]

But - a nice way of eating kale - espeically the curly types is to lay it out on a baking tray, drizzle a bit of honey on it and grill it. It goes crispy, like seedweed / veg crisps - really nice A bit of a different green to have with your meals!

How long do you grill for? and at what temperature.? Honey burns, does it not?
is it like "toffee apple"?

[Creemteez]

Tried purple kale last year. No slug damage, no pigeon damage, no cabbage white damage! Sat through the snow with no ill effects. Goes a wonderful dark green when you cook it - all the purple leaches out into the cooking water. Makes for an interestingly coloured gravy!
Trouble is I was the only person in the house who liked it! Mr Teez found it too "kaley", but I quite enjoyed it's irony tang.

[1066]

Another fan of Cavalo Nero here.
Also trying Ragged Jack and Vates Blue Curled this year, both new to me. The ragged jack is so far living up to its name, and has red/purplish tinge to the stalks.

Have also never got on with using loo rolls! So I see I'm in good company !

[StephenH]

Growing 'red curled' this year. Last year, I grew 'Sutherland', an old, rare variety from real seeds, which is boring to look at, not having curly leaves, but excellent to eat. Love it - the easiest of the brassicas to grow, and has the advantage of being 'cut and come again'.

[Florence Fennel]

I'll have a look at that Stephen, thank you. I'll definitely be growing more kale next year, it's brilliant.

[Jamesy_uk]

Now this is a deliberate Necro of the thread

Seeing as this thread is a love in from a range of different varities I thought it would be a good place to ask this. I have 3 raised beds I rescued from the local school who were replacing them, they are 6" to 7" deep and I was wondering if I could grow the Black Tuscan kale in them or will I be stuck with the dwarf varities as they aren't very deep?

[stella]

Any idea how many tuscan kale plants I would need to grow to keep a family of 2 going all winter. I dont have much space so dont want to grow loads if I dont really need it.

[northepaul]

Yes you should be able to raise black kale on those size beds - their roots arent massive but they do need firming in well.

I grew 4 of each kales (not tuscan but red russian and pentland brig) last year and it was more then enough for my family of 4 for the winter.

[rustylady]

Any idea how many tuscan kale plants I would need to grow to keep a family of 2 going all winter. I dont have much space so dont want to grow loads if I dont really need it.

How often do you plan to eat kale Stella?

[binley100]

It is so much easier to scrub whitefly off flat leaved kale ..........(just saying)

[BroadRipple]

Hello to my fellow Kaleys...does anyone else have the problem I have i.e. am so proud of my fine upstanding winter-ignoring kales, esp. cavolo nero, that I can't bring myself actually to PICK any of them? esp as they're getting a bit threadbare and so a couple of handfuls of leaves wd be the end of an entire plant?
Wd really love to grow Sutherland/Ragged Jack/Purple Curled. Anyone want to swap any seeds of those or anything even rarer for another kind? PM me if so. I have Spigarello, Cavolo, Scarlet, um...
oh and a recommendation - Pentland Brig is FANTASTIC. think it's from Simpson's...incredibly long-lasting and yes easy to de-white-fly.

[Jamesy_uk]

Yes you should be able to raise black kale on those size beds - their roots arent massive but they do need firming in well.

I grew 4 of each kales (not tuscan but red russian and pentland brig) last year and it was more then enough for my family of 4 for the winter.

Thanks for the reply.

From the sounds of that I will use 1 bed just for Kale, myself the wife both love it and we have a chest freezer so freezing it easy peasy as well. Will go for 4 tuscan and try 4 red russian as she makes a lot of soup batches.

[Alison]

From the sounds of that I will use 1 bed just for Kale, myself the wife both love it and we have a chest freezer so freezing it easy peasy as well. Will go for 4 tuscan and try 4 red russian as she makes a lot of soup batches.

Personally I don't think that will give you enough to be making loads of soup, I grow about that amount and although it does the two of us OK, we've never got a glut of it and don't even eat it once a week over winter as don't forget it's not producing new growth then so when you've picked it the plant just gets smaller. This is OK for us as we have loads of cabbages, some sprouts, carrots, swede etc etc as well as the summer stuff in the freezer.

[Jamesy_uk]

Hmm, may have to revise it up then. The beds are 5ft x 3ft I will have to do some calculations and see what I can fit in. if we are talking 12-15" spacing then really 8 plants is going to be the max I would have thought unless we keep them well picked in the summer maybe 10?

[stella]

RL never eaten it but as it gets such rave results I am sure we will like it. It will have to last through the winter and provide maybe 2 meals a week. How many should I grow, not got loads of space.