A tough and hardy plant, standing throughout the winter, keeping the family in greens however hard the frost or snow.   Older varieties of kale were tough and bitter - but modern types are much more palatable.   Even the tender leaves could not be described as delicate, but kale is well worth cooking where it's robust flavour is an advantage.

How to

• Kale is much more tolerant of loose soil than other brassicas, and it can follow in the potato or pea beds.   Lime if necessary.   They tend to be more resistant to club root, so they may well succeed where other brassicas fail.
• I sow seed thinly in shallow drills 6 inches apart, directly in a seed bed.   An April sowing can be ready for harvest in October/November; I refer to so in May, to extend the harvest throught to March or April.   (They can also be started in seed trays inside - but this hasn't worked for me; I don't have good enough light, and they didn't like the shock of being moved to a cold windy allotment!)
  • A wee addition - you can also sow Kales much closer together, and a bit earlier, if you want to harvest small and really tender leaves for salad (about 3 months after sowing); several sowings, and regular cutting, can give you a good supply for several months.
• Protect by covering with fleece or enviromesh tunnel.
• Thin the seedlings to about 3 inches apart.
• When they are 4 to 6 inches high, they are ready to transplant.   Water the night before.   Pop the seedlings into holes, so the lower leaves are just above soil level, and water generously.
• and deal with pests! - although my first crop of kale was almost pest-free.   Apart from October whitefly, nothing touched it - not slugs, pigeons, or caterpillars.
• Harvest - From most plants I pick some of the more tender leaves - and so encourage fresh new growth.   Just occasionally I will cut a whole head, for the really tender newest leaves.   Stop harvesting when they start to flower.
• The plants become a bit bedraggled over winter, espcially when you've been pulling leaves for the pot.   Come the warmer weather though, they put on a fresh spurt of growth.   Give the plants a liquid feed in spring, and they may well grow fresh tender side shoots, which you can carry on picking until flower buds start to form.
• Remove the finished plants and burn them - don't compost them.

Back to top

Cooking

• I start by gently cooking a piece of smoked haddock or cod in a little milk until it is flaking.   In a new pan, sweat a couple of chopped leeks in some oil or butter.   Add the finely chopped kale (clean it and cut out the main ribs first).   Cook gently for about five minutes, and add the fish and its cooking juices.   Mix up and cook for another 5 minutes slowly, and serve with mashed potatoes.
• It will go with things like bacon and ham.   It can also be cooked in a little milk, which is said to remove the bitterness.

Back to top

Back to top