Kitchen Garden Forum

I'm sharing a moan here so if hate moaners then ignore the thread, I not a regular moaner nor a depressive.

My enthusiasm for growing and eating kale came about after years of buying spring greens and throwing most away because of yellowing and mostly tough leaves.

It was Kavelo Nero or Nero Toscana that swayed me rather than the curly type which I am growing but stays in the shadow of the two Nero-types.

Because of my personality, when I'm happy I like to share happiness. When I'm miserable I tend to not share that unless i'm in safe company.

So, back to the kale, after investing in netting and creating good growing conditions I have lots of kale and I'm offering to share it with friends.

Why is it that I have to deliver the damn stuff rather than the pseudo-keen, "Oh I love kale, yes I'll have some". One neighbour was quite straight about it, they don't like cabbage or most brassicas. Fine.

When I offered to share my glut with a greengrocer they feigned interest though in hindsight I have never been able to buy Nero type kale so the local populace have possibly not experienced it though it's nice to pretend.

Preparing a pan full of kale is fiddly if done nicely, the pre-chopped curly stuff I see in the Co-op or other placed usually includes the course bits but at least it's chopped and ready.

Is that what I'm doing wrong ? I need to de-vien it and chop it nicely. Maybe even sauté it in garlic and oil for their convenience and pleasure.

I give up, easier to feed the the compost heap.

In the meantime, what a fantastic plant. Netted with enviromesh it copes with strong winds, I had one green creepy thing and a little greying on the tougher outers. It's a cut and come again plant that is now part of my diet.

Fabulous.

It is such a practical green/brassica.

I agree Richard, if you remove the tough bits, then it is great, I love the italian Kale stir fried with garlic and chilli! I have yet to try Kale crips.

Wonderful stuff, kale, I agree , Richard. We grow the Italian black kale, curly kale and seaweed kale which is strange, feathery stuff, but it all tastes great. I take the central rib out, steam if for a few minutes, refresh it with cold water, then chop and season it and re-heat it in the microwave just before the meal.
We use it for all kinds of meals from September to March and still have enough roughage for the compost heap. Kale is great for bubble and squeak and chopped into vegetable soup, too!

Cook always manages to boil even the toughest bits into submission....

Stay with it Richard - it is very versatile. Soups, pasta, stir fried, pretend Chinese seaweed. Just cut the whole rib out top to bottom & slice it finely. Easy to grow, stands well over winter, looks good on the plot.

Google for recipes - lots of interesting ones that will include all your favourite garlic!

Westi

Richard , thank god its not just me with this problem even my 3 daughters refuse it, we would normally pass it on to other plot owners but when my wife planted the seeds in spring we where over run with 3 different types of small plants so as usual she went round to the other plotters and divided it up , virtually ever plot on our allotment has enough kale to keep our town going in it over winter

Yes I,m a fan of Cavalo Nero too but mine is looking very sparse and miserable this year so am glad of the curly variety too. Great for colcannon, stir fries and soups.

I did sow some seeds of the curly variety and while it's doing well I prefer this cavelo Nero type. Both are grown on re-claimed ground on the lower paddock.

This ground has very little top soil for filling raised beds. Years ago I started drying grass cuttings and digging them in, this improved the soil situation. When it came to filling the beds I mixed the indigenous soil with New Horizon composted waste, 6X and some of my own composted material. This all sits on six inches of rotted cow poo. It works very well.

I just trimmed the tops off my oldest kale plants that were easilly two foot high, unfortunately the new shoots always sprout from the top so the plant would eventually fall over if it wasn't for the netting. Those plants even survived the recent strong winds because of the netting, I should have used that years ago.

I'm now just about to buy some of that enviro fleece, I know that isn't what they call it but you'll know what I mean. Is it as good a purchase as the enviromesh I wonder ?

There seem to be different thicknesses and qualities of fleece Richard so beware if you are in a windy situation as it might tear quickly. I once bought a spontaneous purchase of some from. Pound /cheap ,bargains shop and it didn,t last five minutes. Stuff you buy from a garden centre type place is generally stronger and far better quality. Over the course of a winter it probably gets quite muddy and grubby so you really want material you can throw in a washing machine and reuse .

I'm afraid we're not very keen on Kale. Friends grow it and kindly offered us some, while we were doing a vegetable swap. We gave them a cauliflower, as theirs had come to nothing and we took some kale...think it was the curly one.
Neither of us liked it much....it was "okay" but we haven't bothered since.

I have noticed that folk who genuinely want something you've offered them from your plot, almost have your hand off and are there with speed to collect it. The ones who accept but don't come to collect, probably don't want/like it but don't want to risk offence by saying so. Personally, I'd rather they say they don't want/need any just now...I'm not in the least offended by that.
I did take offence one year, when a neighbour eagerly accepted a cauliflower from our glut...and I later saw it on his compost heap!
When I asked about it, he said they didn't like it but "didn't like to say no".

Enthusiasm for kale ?

Not really! With one exception.

My first meeting with kale was in the 1940's when there were fields of it, alongside mangels, grown for cattle fodder. Most kale is still fit for little else when there are so many pleasanter brassicas.

I actually grow kale every year, Red Russian, a flat-leaved kale and cavolo nero. The one exception? The flowering shoots in springtime, which are superior to any sprouting broccoli. The rest goes to the hens who love the stuff and can strip a mature plant down to a bare stem in minutes.

I understand that a lot of people don't like anything associated to cabbage, I got over that and found I enjoyed dark green leaves and so I came to Cavelo Nero. I grow curly kale but don't like it in the same way.

I understand likes and dislikes.

What we occasionally come up against is people who feel they should be liking and eating kale or cabbage or whatever but prefer a jam sandwich but haven't the courage to come clean. I much prefer honesty.

I'm getting picky with my kale, picking the more tender young leaves as they emerge though the darker leaves respond to a quick boil then a sautée in oil and things. The darker leaves are good in soup and at the end of the day it's better to grow something and compost it than grow nothing.

Primrose wrote:There seem to be different thicknesses and qualities of fleece Richard .

Are you familiare with the enviromesh version of fleece Primrose ? They claim a five year life and much more robust than conventional fleece than wont last five minutes here.

I nearly passed this thread over as I've only tried curly kale once and was disappointed. But having read all your posts I might try the dark kale for a bit of stir frying. I like the sound of a quick boil and then stir frying with oil and things.
MW