Assorted Kale !!

[veggiechicken]

Assorted Kale - 2018

When I started this thread in 2013 I was a kale amateur with a mere 13 varieties in my seed box. I've acquired a few more since then. Haven't grown them all though!!
I still think some of them have multiple names but I thought I'd list them and see if you have something different.

Afro
Altmarker Braunkohl
Asparagus
Black Magic
Cavolo Nero
Cottagers
Curly Scarlet
Daubenton
Dwarf Blue, Curly or Scotch
Dwarf Green Curled
Emerald Ice F1
Friesian
Halbhoher Gruner Krauser
Hungry Gap
Jersey Broad Leaf/Walking Stick
Kadet
Kapitan F1
Madeley
Midnight Sun F1
Nero di Toscana
Pentland Brig
Ragged Leaf
Redbor
Red Russian
Red Ursa Russian
Reflex F1
Rossignol
Seaweed
Shetland
Starbor F1
Starmaker/Buttonhole
SugarLoaf
Sutherland
Theyer
Thousand Head
True Siberian
Vates Blue Curled
Winnetou F1

Collards also get lumped into kales on some sites
Kale Collard Champion
Georgia Southern Collards

[bario1]

Black Magic, Cavolo Nero and Nero di Toscana are all the same thing right?

[veggiechicken]

They look the same on the packets but the Black Magic says " Bred for the British Climate & Italian Cavolo Nero type".
I'm not convinced they're different really.

[veggiechicken]

Found this article about Vates collard/kale. https://www.arec.vaes.vt.edu/content...EScollards.pdf

Bet you didn't know the meaning of Vates To save you all looking ...........

The Vates varieties of collards and kale, were all developed at the Virginia
Truck Experiment Station for small farms that sold their vegetables at market.
Vates is an acronym for the Virginia Truck Experiment Station. The term
"truck" comes from the French word "troquer," meaning "to barter".

[SarrissUK]

I love, love, love kale. When I cook it, half of my plate is kale and I eat that first. Something in it I need, I reckon, I wolf it down that quick.
I reckon I need at least three beds of it up on the lottie

[Bren In Pots]

Black Magic, Cavolo Nero and Nero di Toscana are all the same thing right?

I've grow all 3 in the same bed and to me they look the same.

[Thelma Sanders]

Black Magic is just the F1 version of Cavolo Nero, that just makes the seed more expensive. Nero di Toscana is Cavolo Nero, but 'landraced' to conditions in Tuscany haha!
I think that Daubenton, Taunton Deane a Cottager's Kale are all the same thing. Pentland Brig also looks the same, but is less reliably perennial, here at least.

[veggiechicken]

Article about Black Magic kale:-

"Also known as Tuscan kale, Cavolo Nero, Lacinato kale and Tuscan cabbage, amongst other things"

Kale

[Snoop Puss]

^That's interesting. I thought Black Magic was 'landraced' for UK conditions. See here (and Marshall's seeds):
https://moreveg.co.uk/Kale-Black-Magic

[veggiechicken]

More names for the basically the same kale :-


Lacinato kale (called cavolo nero, literally "black cabbage", in Italian and often in English) is a variety of kale with a long tradition in Italian cuisine, especially that of Tuscany. It is also known as Tuscan kale, Tuscan cabbage, Italian kale, dinosaur kale, black kale, flat back cabbage, palm tree kale, or black Tuscan palm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacinato_kale

[Thelma Sanders]

^That's interesting. I thought Black Magic was 'landraced' for UK conditions. See here (and Marshall's seeds):
https://moreveg.co.uk/Kale-Black-Magic

Mmmm, it is significantly different it seems, enough to have an AGM of it's own, something I didn't realise, and it's listed as F1 in some seed catalogues. It's all so confusing when they do that isn't it?

[veggiechicken]

I've read that Cottager's Kale was originally bred in the 1850s in Oxfordshire by crossing Brussels sprouts with a kale variety.
Was this the original Brukale/Flower sprout/Petit Posy that is being flogged this days?

[rary]

VC with you growing so many different kale varieties which ones would you recommend for salad leaves and which ones would you say taste the sweetest or if you prefer your veg to have a sharper taste what would you recommend

[veggiechicken]

Not a clue, rary. Sorry.
Small, young leaves = sweet and tender. Bigger, mature leaves = stronger taste and tougher..
I think its about when you pick the leaves rather than the variety.

[veggiechicken]

All this talk of kale had me digging out my kale seed hoard. I lost count how many varieties there were . but more than 30.
May try to grow one of each to see how similar they are. (Having a sense of deja vu now).