Not too fond of Kale, are ya?

[streetsurfer]

Thought I'd mention this for any who may not be too fond of kale. My wife is a picky eater of sorts. After five months of purchasing it for me and giving it the occasional try, she was still not fond of store bought kale. However, she now loves my young and tender fresh homegrown dwarf blue curly kale. I am not sure if it is the strain that makes it more appealing to her or that it is grown as local as you can get (just seconds from harvesting to the table), but she has finally become a fan of it.

[DebB]

I'm really looking forward to growing greens next year and picking them when they're younger and more tender. The only collard greens I can get here are huge! I think I could roof with them. I've seen younger baby leaves on some YouTube vidoes, ohhh-hh-hh!! *Ü*

[RawKnitster]

Sounds wonderful! There are so many delicious varieties of kale that what is available at the grocery stores. I am going to grow my own this season. I will look for that variety. :)

[Biff]

Kale is one of my most favorite of the greens. While I am posting the obvious to many, I am often surprised by how many people tell me how bitter their green smoothie or salad is with kale. I then tell them to remove the stems (and only eat the leaves) and they then become big fans of store-bought kale. (The stems are very bitter - this goes for chard and collards too!)

[michigan roman]

' red russian kale ' from www.willhiteseed.com

theyve huge amounts of seeds cheap

i also get romaine and spinach from them

other things too , but the above 3 greens i grow in large amounts as my base salad greens mix

the red russian is a flat leaved kale as opposed to the curly leaf type .
and to me its a more mild taste than the can be brassica taste of the curled .

[Aleesha Sattva]

i looooooooove the stems. funny how we are all so different. it's my fav part of kale and many of you may remember... i was the queen of kale when i first went raw. ate it every single day... for lunch and dinner LOL could NOT get enough of it.

mmmmm yummy kale!

think i'll see about making a little space in my garden in the front yard next year... and grow some for myself.

[streetsurfer]

I'm going to try that red russian you've mentioned Michigan. I have a couple mustards to plant but I need to make room under some lights. I'm full up with sage stevia and rosemary cuttings. The dwarf blue seeds I have are from Ferry~Morse.

I do remove the stems on the larger curly leafed and lacinato from the store, but we've found the stems aren't tough or bitter in the young leaves of the dwarf blue when at about hand sized. The stem is actually milder than the leaf.

Seeds have just showing up at some local stores so I will be looking for some more variety, for sure. I've not seen much to pick from at the few places I've looked so mail order is likely.

I'm happy my wife is slowly giving more things a try. She liked the oat/flax burgers I made early on in my conversion and flax crackers but I haven't made any lately. Maybe some flax crackers with kale in them would be good?

[T-Bird]

I'm happy my wife is slowly giving more things a try. She liked the oat/flax burgers I made early on in my conversion and flax crackers but I haven't made any lately. Maybe some flax crackers with kale in them would be good?

Juice the kale and use the pulp??? If you're a juicer!

[T-Bird]

Oh and are you growing outside? Could be the cold weather making it sweeter, plus young and fresh that is making the diff with DW.

[streetsurfer]

Juice the kale and use the pulp??? If you're a juicer!
I would probably fine chop it and add it like herbs.
I could try it but my juicer's a centrifugal, and I'm not sure they do greens very well.

Oh and are you growing outside? Could be the cold weather making it sweeter, plus young and fresh that is making the diff with DW.
The kales only been grown indoors so far.

[michigan roman]

i dried a bunch of redrussian this fall outta garden to have as a powdered green food this winter , and wow does it smell good

[Aleesha Sattva]

how'd you dry it? just hang it upside down?

[michigan roman]

HI LEE :)

i layed the leafs out on top of a big like 4 x 8 plastic tarp
out under the sun every day , at night i bunched the tarp up
and put it / leafs in garage

next year adding spinach / parsley and more to the mix ,
probably wild dandlion growing in lawn also