today's harvest

This is the last of my kale and Brussels sprouts.

overwintered kale

It was a great winter for kale, being so mild. We are still harvesting. It looks beautiful in the garden now. My gnome is hiding somewhere under the leaves. He's been working this patch all winter.

I have a great recipe for crispy oven kale, but I am always looking for new recipes.

wild kale

These have grown really fast. I think they are pretty cold hardy, so I hope I can plant them out in a cold frame in March.

I got this mix from Territorial. They describe it as:

30 days. Gardeners who love to grow edible ornamentals will go crazy over this exciting mix. A fabulous array of Siberian kales of unique shapes and hues. Diverse leaf profiles range from delicate waves to tight frilly curls. Color shades from light greens to blue-greens to purples and reds. Up to 24 inches tall, these kales are mild and very cold tolerant. A winter salad gardener's delight

30 days! No wonder its growing so fast.

ornamental kale with yellow leaf

© Skippy's Vegetable Garden

kale survived the winter

Yesterday I finally made it over to my garden (10 feet from my house) and checked on the kale. The Tuscan is dead. The Red Russian lost all its leaves, but looks like it is regrowing some small leaves now. The Winterbor looks fantastic. It also tastes great fresh from the garden with no cooking. Sweet and a bit of a broccoli-like bitterness. I love vegetables that have a real flavor!

So I picked a big bunch and cooked it up. I love the combination of potatoes, garlic and kale. Unfortunately, the result was mealy and flavorless. Oh well. I'm wondering if it was the way I cooked it or if the kale just isn't good anymore. It did get well down into the single digits (about 7*F) this winter and has been a long, cold and snowy one.

My recipe was to blanch the kale for 4 minutes, boil potatoes til tender, saute spring onions and garlic in butter and olive oil, then add kale and potatoes and saute about 3 or 4 minutes. I think this would be a really good recipe with fall kale, but was lousy with late winter kale.

I think I'll give the kale another try with a very quick stir fry (with garlic and thyme?) or even try it uncooked in a salad.




Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

Brassicaceae

checking on the mid winter kale

I went out to the garden this morning to check on the kale. I haven't been out there in a few days. I didn't realize we had more snow coming in, but there is another fresh layer coming down. I had to dig down to find the kale.

The more tender Red Russian kale has frost damage. Little round spots on the leaves. Last year, once it got these it looked terrible after bringing it inside and thawing. This happened at 10*F last year. Our temps got down to about 8* over the past few nights.

But the curly Winterbor looks good. This is the first year I've grown this variety. I've read it can survive the winter. We just finished up a big pot of kale soup I made a few days ago. Yummy. Maybe I'll pick some to saute tonight.

Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

snow on kale

Our first snow! Its a very pretty light dusting. It probably won't last more that an hour or so.

My kale is delicious now. It is getting sweeter every time I try it. The more cold and snow, the better it gets.

Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

Brassicaceae

krinkly kale leaves

I've been admiring the krinkles and colors of my kale leaves. They seem to get prettier by the day. Hard to choose between kale soup and more kale photos. As they say: you can't have your kale and eat it too ... (I do actually have enough for both.)

The varieties here are Tuscan kale (thin blue leaves with dinosaur like krinkles), red Russian kale (giant ruffled leaves with purple/pink stems) and winterbor kale (very very curly blueish leaves).

Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

kale seedlings

I planted three types of kale seeds. They are developing nice second leaves now. Each look different. Clockwise from top left: Winterbor, Red Russian, Tuscan and another shot of Red Russian.

Brassicaceae
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

super kale soup

I planted this kale early last spring. It was bitter when tasted it in September. Not now. It made one of the best bowls of soup I've ever had.

We've had several good cold nights now, which helps improve the flavor of kale. Today, at 25F, as our first serious snow started to fall, I picked a big bunch. Since I also had some nice dried beans from my summer garden, I opened my Portuguese kale soup recipe.

Back in September and October, when these beans ripened, I didn't have time to do anything with them. I threw them in a bowl, put it in the basement and forgot about them. Now they are beautifully dried. I shelled both "tongues of fire" cranberry horticultural beans and green beans "Provider " and "Maxibel".


My Portuguese kale soup recipe is from my favorite vegetable cookbook: The Victory Garden Cookbook by Marion Morash
Portuguese Kale Soup
1 lb kale (6-8 cups)
1 lb potatoes
1 lb smoked sausage (kielbasa, linguica or chorizo)
--(I used local keilbasa from Stillman's Turkey Farm)
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped carrots
4 garlic cloves
2 T olive oil
2 T butter
2 qt water or broth
2 c peeled, chopped and seeded tomatoes
1 1/2 cup cooked kidney beans
salt and pepper

Strip leaves from washed kale. Cut diagonally into wide slices. Wash, peel and chop potatoes. Cut sausage into slices, cook and drain fat. In soup pot, saute onions, carrots and garlic in oil and butter, until softened - about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and broth. Simmer partially covered 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked. Stir in tomatoes and beans. Simmer 5-10 minutes. Add kale and sausage then cook 5-10 minutes. Season to taste.


I do have to comment on how delicious the beans were. These were very easy to grow and are so yummy in soup. Beans are a really good source of home grown protein.

potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)
Skippy's vegetable recipes
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

kale soup

Two superlatives. Tonight may be one of the most beautiful nights of the year. And tonight I made the best soup I have ever tasted! Garden kale, 'Tongues of Fire" dried beans, my frozen garden tomatoes and local keilbasa. Yummm!!

(more soon)
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

dinosaur kale with fleabane

Brassicaceae
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

rain drops on kale

We've been lucky to have a good soaking rain for the past couple days. And our weather has cooled off and become more like fall.
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

first kale harvest

I'm so pleased to get a good harvest of kale. Midsummer, my kale leaves were filled with holes from the green caterpillars of the white cabbage butterfly. To holey for me to eat. I've had the plants covered with garden fabric since them. Now the leaves are very nice. I sauteed them with garlic, then added water and blanched about 5 minutes. Very tasty. I've read they are sweeter after a frost so I'm looking forward to eating the rest of the leaves this winter.

The variety is called Dinosaur Kale. Seeds were from Seeds of Change.

Brassicaceae
harvests from my vegetable gardens
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

covered kale

My kale is now covered. I bought some galvanized stainless wire and made hoops and then covered them with row cover and secured with plastic pegs. I picked a good batch of it a couple weeks ago (photo below), but ended up composting it because there were too many holes in the leaves for it to be appetizing. Hopefully the cover will help. Of course, it doesn't get rid of the caterpillars that are already on the leaves. It just prevents the moths from laying more eggs.

On the far side of the covered kale are my baby broccoli plants. These are also being eaten, presumably by the cabbage white caterpillars. I will have to cover these plants too. My next project....

I looked hard, but didn't find any green caterpillars. Since I have noticed many cabbage white butterflies, I assume this caterpillar is who is eating my brassica. The caterpillar I did find is pictured below. It is tiny and like an inchworm, but I don't know what type of worm it is.


Brassicaceae
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)
cabbage white butterflies (Pieris rapae)