Kale: more than garnish . . . and a salad green too!
In order to be the best of something, you don't have to be the very best in every category you enter . . . just solid in nearly every one considered. Kale achieves that as a vegetable and here is why.

  • Nutrition :   Although worldwide, there may be a small handful of plants that are more nutritious, kale rates in the top five of nearly anyone's list.  And of course certain veggies may come in higher for certain nutrients . . .but, across the board, kale rates higher as a whole than possibly any other commonly grown veggy in North America.
  • Growing season: Here in southwest Ohio, kale can be seeded outdoors in early spring and completely ready to harvest in early June. By picking only the larger outer leaves, it will continue to grow and produce a weekly harvest all the way up to November. But wait!! Usually the plant will over-winter and begin producing again by April 1st giving it a full and true 7 month unassisted growing period. Grow it under protection and that can be increased to nine months or more.
  • Amount produced :  Well fertilzed, mulched, and watered, kale will produce several large leaves per week for at least 30 weeks.  That is a lot of harvest from one plant and few veggies produce more in the same amount of space.
  • Easy to grow : As a member of the Brassica family, kale is highly vulnerable to catepillars, especially that of the white cabbage butterfly. A weekly spraying of organic Neem oil seems to consistently keep the plants bug free.  Heavy mulching (which the plants love) to minimize weeds, and regular watering as needed make this one of the easiest plants to grow.  They tolerate heat, some drought, and very cold temperatures.
  • Multiple useage : Kale is primarily known and grown as a cooked green, but we have discovered that it's tender crisp texture and somewhat sweet flavor make it one of the best raw salad greens you will ever eat.
  • Bonus points : While most plants begin to get very bitter when going to seed, kale absolutely does not. The buds can be eaten before they open just as you would from it's close relative broccoli. The flavor of kale as a salad is in fact very similar to that of a mild and sweet broccoli taste. Another bonus is that kale will usually servive the coldest winters and come back strong the next year. It will begin to try to go to seed of course, but keep cutting off the stems and it will continue to produce a vast abundance of new leaves.  We discovered that the second season leaves are much smaller and more tender than those on first year plants and therefore they are best suited for harvesting as salad. First year plants are best suited for cooking unless you want to bother to pick out the young new leaves from the center. Second year plant leaves are all smaller and more abundant. Just grab a large bunch in your hand and cut the whole thing with scissors. Within a week it will be ready to harvest again. Cut flowering stalks back further to promote more new leaf growth. The plants seem to tolerate both light and heavy cutting back.
Here are some of last years plants that overwintered. I simply yanked them from my old garden and stuck them in here (in March). Some had small leaves while some stems were bare. All had leafed out by April!!These are some of my earliest transplants from what I seeded this spring in March. They came up and grew without any protection and transplanted easily. They are now producing ten to fourteen inch leaves consistently.These are also from this years starts but weren't transplanted until almost June. They were quite leggy and the weather was hot so I had to take off all but the two smallest leaves. They have now recovered and will be big enough to harvest in a week or two.
Click on these photos{taken 8/21/2009} and read information at bottom of each.
Photos taken earlier this year are at end of article. Photos through 4/7/2010 below.
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On the left is a 2nd year plant that I pulled up after July 1st to demonstrate kale's resilience to a visitor(notice dead leaves at base). I stuck it back in the ground and look at it now! On right is a second year monster that we have been harvesting from all spring . . . and now into summer.These are more second year plants that we get our "salad greens" from. Any shoots that come up to bloom go to our bunny.These are this years plants (just after harvesting largest leaves) that were transplanted earliest in spring.These are also this years plants but were transplanted much later . . . ready to pick.
This is a patch that I thinned out last month to start several new beds. Surprisingly even to me, the remaining plants have completely filled in the beds while the plants in the new beds look awesome too.Just another pic of the continued lush growth on a "last years" bed of kale. Notice that my overwintered plants have stopped bothering with trying to seed, and have gone back to producing larger leaves like my first year plants.It doesn't get much better in the garden (although it does on the table!) . . . beautiful plants thriving under the mulch of beautiful compost!!Just another size comparison.All of my kale plants were picked heavily less than two weeks ago. We have been picking all summer. We eat it with tomatoes, onion, garlic, and turkey ham as a cooked green . . . and as the only "leaf" in our salads!! We have also given a ton of it away!!!This what I just harvested from only two of my overwintered plants. We had been picking leaves from these all summer as well. Even more amazing is that these are two plants that I ripped from the ground in July and replanted as an experiment!!!!This plant represents the pile of leaves on the left in previous photo. I pulled these plants up without digging and then stuck them back in the ground. It had rained very hard the day before and was unusually cool so I did not water them after transplanting!!This represents the right pile from earlier photo. Notice how the second year plants have numerous trunks and branches whereas first year plants produce from only one central stem. It is almost like growing one plant one year and having it turn into three or four plants the next!Yes, I am starting another large patch of kale in hopes of overwintering at least a thousand additional plants (plans are underway to try to start a new "urban farm" for next year). I wish I had planted these in July and would have had I known it would be so wet and cool.
These are the same two plants that were overwintered and transplanted in March of 2009 . . .and then yanked up and re-transplanted this summer . . . and have been harvested from numerous times including several when they were stripped of most leaves.
The bag is the leaves harvested from just these two plants and weighs in at 5 1/2 lbs.
Remember, it is almost November here and we have already had a hard frost . . . and still growing nice!
4/7/2010: last two pics are 3rd year plants!
1/29/2010
3/23/2010
Late Feb 2010