You've got to love a food article that opens with: "Where the hell did kale come from?"

I like kale, since I have been growing the Tuscan/Black/Dinosaur/Cavolo de Nero type. . .

Tasty, grows well in the hot spring we have been having down in the Inland Empire area of Southern California. This year I grew it and Red Russian. I eat the Tuscan and find it quite mild and tasty, somewhat like broccoli in flavor and have fed the Red Russian big leaves to my chickens. Lately the Reds and some Tuscans have been trying to goto seed, and I have found that the young flowering shoots are pretty tasty sauteed with a couple of green onions and scrambled into eggs.

The Tuscan Kales are quite tender when small; I like to pick the leaves when they are about the length of my hand. The Gigantor leaves, while on the plant are exeptionally crispy, they break apart readily when I harvest them for the chickens and they will strip the green crispy leaf parts from the tough main veins very quickly.

I think this fall I will make a spinach lasagne, but sub in chopped Tuscan kale and pehaps some broccoli in layers.

 
I have grown the Tuscan kale, but this year grew the Red Russian and liked it better

it got away from me however and got too big, then the bugs found it. I finally took it out, but I did get a lot of harvests from my 6 plants. I also like it in bean dishes.

 
I've been prepping an entire head of curly kale each weekend for salads

1. Trim bottoms
2. Soak in ice water until stiff and refreshed
3. Trim off all stems and rip into bite-size pieces
4. Dress with lemon/oil blend
5. Crush until limp, tender & dark.

This reduces it by 50% at least.

I also make a big batch of tabouli (cracked wheat prepared with homemade chicken broth, boatload of parsley, diced English cucumber (deseeded), diced/spun tomatoes, dried mint, dried z'atar, lemon/oil dressing) and then each day pack up a container lunch of kale, fresh lettuce, tabouli, topped with fresh tomatoes and hearts of palm.

Larry enjoys it so much we have it with dinner each night too.

Takes a bit of time on the weekend to prepare both, but the ease during the rest of the week makes up for it. Not to mention the burst of flavor.

 
Has anyone tried sweet potato greens? I got them in the CSA box and had to google. They don't have

a lot of flavor but are good with garlic, vinegar and butter. And I'm guessing packed with nutrition. I had no idea they were edible. They're also fragile and tend to blacken as basil does with handling.

 
I've never thought of ccoking those - I do love beets greens, prepped the way you described.

I will check at my farmer's market to see if anyone brings the potato greens with the taters - when they are in season. smileys/bigwink.gif

 
Note to self... Not everything tastes great as a "chip"...Made watermelon chips this week. Yucky

 
I think that with all kale, if you are not going to cook it long-time like . . .

in a pot o' greens, the stuff needs to be picked little.

My black kales and REd russians are all still going strong and putting out a lot of side shoots, which makes it easy to pick little leave and blossom shoots.

 
I planted a new (to me) heat-tolerant variety.

I keep thinking I have harvested for the last time and it will bolt soon but it is still producing. I will save some seeds if I ever get them!

 
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