I'm growing red kale and cavalo nero for the first time :P
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/supersprout/IMG_0032.jpg)
Are they too young to start eating?
I remember reading that the young leaves can be eaten in salads. Or would you cook them?
Would you pick leaves one by one, or chop the plant down and let it resprout?
What are the benefits of leaving the plants - will the leaves get tough?
Will these plants overwinter, or should I sow more in September?
??? ??? ::)
Advice and recipes from kale veterans please!
I'm a curly kale chap, but I would say you don't have enough there for cooking - better a leaf here & there for salads - if that's what they're good for!
Not more than 2 leaves per plant, looking at those. Me? - I'd let them grow on & just take the outer leaves when needed.
Although kale is 'hardy', it won't go through all winters. Don't know about Nero - Emma??
Good girl with the mesh!!
PS Cook leaf & stem separately. "Even when fully cooked, kale will be chewy, but pleasantly so. Its flavor and texture benefit from sautéing a few aromatics in the pan first".
Try this site - http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=kale
Curly kale is ususally an autumn and winter crop and mine goes through to spring despite occasional -20Cs. Cavolo Nero is Italian and nowhere near as so should be eaten before the heavy frosts start. My last crop all keeled over after a mere -4C.
Can't help with red kale but would try it if I found some seeds. Where did you get yours?
Thanks obbelix, that sounds like good advice. Red Russian from Chiltern Seeds (I think). I was just looking at Sarah Raven's website, and she says Red Russian kale is her No.1 veg :o
I love red russion also and I always grow cavalo and both stand very well through the winter, altho they will bolt by May. I tend to pinch leaves now for salads, then as the plants beef up, start taking more for cooking. I don't tend to cut the whole plant down, unless I really do want lots and lots. If you do, don't cut below the first set of leaves and it will reshoot.
The cavalo will turn quite black/green once the frost has been on it.
Thank you emma-jane, the bit about picking or cutting was puzzling me!
I think I've gone overboard again with thirteen of each for a family of two. If I pick the whole plant for six meals that will help put things right ;)
When I said separate stem & leaf I did not, of course, mean with delicate stuff like this.