Allotments 4 All

Nero kale.  Will turn more black in colour after a frost.

I grew that a couple of years ago and dutifully waited for the first frosts before harvesting.  Trouble is, it was very heavy first frost and I lost every single plant!  Didn't get to taste a single leaf.

Wow!  Me to!!  I do start picking it now as I need it, but this year have plenty of chard, spinach, cabbages and sprouts, so am not stripping it bare.....just yet!

Hi all,  :D
              How come none of your photo`s show the little green caterpillars that are in mine  ???  What do they taste like when they get cooked   ???

                                                                                        Adrian.

I think that in Italy, where the cavolo nero originates, they get air frosts and light ground frosts at the beginning of their cold season.  I got a whopping -5 the year my crop was wiped out.

The thing is, does it taste better than our ordinary kale that does withstand the winter here?    Is it worth my trying again and investing in some fleece?

Has a more delicate flavour Obbelix, not as green and irony, if you get my drift, and mine overwinters on my Essex plot with no protection at all. 

Thanks E-J.  My garden regularly gets to -15 for a few weeks at a time in winter and last year it was -20 and snowdrifts at the end of Feb and early March.  I think that's a bit much for the Nero to withstand.    I could grow just a few plants to eat up before Christmas though.

I was about to say blimey Obbelix, where are you in the country to get that chilly, then I checked and see you are in Belgium.  Even so, suprised it gets that cold! BBBRRR.

We're in the middle on the crest of the Scheldt and Meuse basins and it gets really cold in Jan and Feb when we get continental or Siberian easterlies.   My garden is also very exposed with no neighbours and fields all round so no wind break between me and the channel.   Good gales and lots of rain in a normal year.  Nothing to speak of here since the first week of July.

The last three winters have been very cold at times.  Funnily enough though, there's a village near my daughter's swimming pool which is nestled in a small valley and very shelterd and a chap there has two banana palms in his front garden.   Couldn't do that here only 10kms away.

For all you fellow kale lovers, interesting nutritional info here:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=38

Thanks Terrace max.  Very interesting.   I think kale and green cabbages are amazing plants.  At the risk of going off topic, the most important thing I learned at the local equivalent of NCT ante-natal classes was that a cold cabbage leaf stuffed in your bra would cure mastitis while breast-feeding.   It worked a treat for me but I had a huge row with an obstetrican/gynae who blustered about it being scientifically unproven and potentially carcinogenic.

I told him it had worked for centuries and scientists and doctors had the wrong science because they often ask the wrong question.  Now it seems they're waking up to the wonderful properties of brassicas.   

Good to hear you came to a similar conclusion to me Obbelix after raising babies: listen to the midwives, ignore the doctors!

HI TM - I had my baby in Belgium and lived too far from conventional ante-natal classes so didn't actually come across midwives till I was threatened with induction for pre-eclampsia.  I said they couldn't as my baby was breach and the midwife confirmed it by feeling my bump.  The doc relied on scans and the last one had her the right way down but she clearly hadn't liked the view.  In the end she was a footling breach and over 3.5kilos which is the average weight for Belgian boys at birth and over the limit they allow for natural breech delivery.

I then ended up having to lie at the monthly clinic we went to for weighing and measuring and innoculations.  Not keen on breast-feeding after 3 months and not keen on demand feeding either and she was as heavy at 8mths as they get to be at 2 yrs.  They said I was making fresh cream, not milk and should stop.  Humph.   I carried on.  She's now bonnie and gorgeous and slim and active and 155cms at 10yrs, with no illnesses apart from occasional colds and no fillings.   I rest my case.

 

Our first was declared by the doctor to be 3/5ths engaged. Next day mum's waters broke. Hospital midwife had a quick feel of the bump and knew baby Thomas was breach. This meant emergency Caesarian. He, and his Mum, are now fine - no thanks to the doctors!

Similar experiences with no.s 2 & 3. When no. 4 arrives in May (touch wood) I'll be smiling serenely at the docs and listening intently to the midwives...!

4 kids! It must be all the kale I eat... ;)

oooo Terrace, congratulations in advance!  Number one son was breach and I was booked in for a c-section, and when the big day come, the consultant have a quick feel, and thank goodness the little terror had turned.  They were amazed I hadn't felt him doing rolly pollys!

And it was Savoy cabbage with me, very cooling, altho not terribly attractive!  ;D

4 kids....4 kids.............I don't even want to imagine!  :o

Thank you EJ.  :) I'm making a note of all these maternal brassica tips BTW... 8)

Shouldn't really count the fourth chicken 'till he/she's hatched (so to speak!) but I'm really excited! I'm an old hand at conception ( ;D) but still feel like a complete beginner when it comes to parenting...not unlike allotmenting, in fact. Maybe I'll do a really good job of it next year??

HI TM - 4 sounds like a handful to me.  Good luck to all concerned.  Red cabbage isn't as good, apparently, and chilled green leaves work best.  That means Savoy here.  They don't sell kale in the shops so I buy plugs in the markets and grow it and I've never seen spring greens anywhere here either.