I know the plants would like some rain, but they'll have to make do with some spray from the garden hose. I hope they'll grow bigger, up to three feet tall, with a lot more leaves.
This is the variety often called "dinosaur kale." That's because its leaves are sort of dark green and bumpy, resembling somebody's idea of what a dinosaur's skin might look like.
It also goes by the name of "lacinato kale," or cavolo nero, meaning "black cabbage" in Italian. Other names, according to Wikipedia, are Tuscan kale, Tuscan cabbage, Italian kale, black kale, and palm tree kale. It's my favorite variety of kale. The leaves cook up to a "meaty" texture, like collard greens, and the flavor is good too.
Some of these photos were taken early in the morning, before the sun was fully up in the sky. Others were taken late in the afternoon, in bright light. The differences in the quality of the light make the leaves look very different.
Like chard and collards, kale will survive all but a very hard freeze and can grow all winter out in the garden. Frost supposedly improves the greens, making them sweeter (January 2017 photo). I'm looking forward to harvests of dinosaur kale in December, January, even February...
Of the three greens that were available in cafeterias in Washington, D.C., turnip green, kale and mustard green, kale was definitely not the one I liked best, compared to the other two. I don't remember collards ever been served. Of course, I have no idea what variety of kale that was, and that might have made all the difference! Or maybe, also, the way it was prepared.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that they eat kale in D.C. but mainly collards in N.C., 400 kilometers away. I wonder if the ligne de démarcation is the N.C./Va. border, or it it runs through the middle of Virginia. Walt knows people in Albany NY who moved there from Maryland (or N. Virginia, not sure) and cooked dinner one night for a crowd of us. It was kale, cooked in (a lot of) white wine. It was good.
DeleteWalt says he thinks he ate collards in the U.S. Capitol cafeterias, but he's not really sure. It might have been kale. Usually kale in the U.S. is the curly kale that supposedly came from Scotland. The "dinosaur" or Tuscan kale is very different from that Scottish variety, and also very different from the kale called "red Russian." My preferences are (1) collard greens, (2) Tuscan kale, and (3) mustard greens in a tie with turnip greens. I like red Russian kale, which is a lot like mustard and turnip greens in texture and taste. I'm not crazy about curly kale, though it was the first variety I ever cooked. I bought it in a Piggly Wiggly supermarket in Beaufort NC 10 or 12 years ago and cooked it at my mother's place. It was on the supermarket rack where they display products and produce that have passed their "sell-by" date. It costme 50 cents for a very big bag, and it was nice and green, not spoiled. I cooked it the way I've always cooked collard greens. My mother and my sister were not enthusiastic about it. They prefer collards. So do I, but it wasn't all that different.
Some people cook pots of mixed greens. Collards and turnip greens, for example, or kale and mustard greens. I've never done that, IIRC. I also like chard and spinach, but they are very different from the other greens mentioned here.
When I go to Harris Teeter for groceries, and if I remember (?), I'll check to see what kind of greens they offer. For some reason, the greens we discussed today are not part of my diet, probably because I don't know how to cook them so they'll be edible!
DeleteBefore reading your blog, I never knew that there were things that grew in a garden in the winter!
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends on how mild or how severe your winter is. I don't know anything about St. Louis, but I don't think plants like cabbages would have survived a winter in Champaign-Urbana. I remember a couple of winters there when we had temperatures as low as 20 to 25ºF below zero. Winters here in Saint-Aignan are very mild in comparison to that.
DeleteHere in California, kale is ubiquitous. While growing up in the south, collard greens were everywhere. I have to say, kale is not my favorite, mostly because of the texture. That said, my sister makes "kale chips" by using sections of leaf, brushing them with olive oil, then sea salt and into the broiler for a few minutes. Now those I like.
ReplyDeleteI remember being happy when W. and I moved to the Bay Area because there were always beautiful bunches of collard greens in the supermarket produce departments there. Greens and cabbages and artichokes etc. grow really well in the coastal California climate.
DeleteWe know it as Cabalo Nero and Black Tuscan in the UK...
ReplyDeleteCavalo Nero is what we buy it as over here.
The sprouts when it blows are to die for!!
I think the Cabalo name came from a misshearing and it got repeated!
DeleteI first heard of "dinosaur kale" from a friend who grew it in California. Then I learned about it being called black Tuscan kale. Cavolo nero, black cabbage, reminds me of one French name for collard greens, which is chou cavalier.
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