kale is cold hardy and is best tasting after a light frost. i am a bit north of you but i generally start my kale inside and put out transplants in late May/early June and than again in late July for a fall crop.

plants need at least 2' between each other and kale can get about 3' high.

I don't do dinosaur kale but I get about 10LBs per 50' cut once a week. You cut th leaves, not the entire plant BTW so one planting will keep producing for weeks if not months.

I second ohiorganic's advice on cultivation. I love kale. Still trying to educate my customer base on it's merits. My 2 favorite varieties are Lacinato and Red Russian. This past year white flies were a real problem. It was my fault that I didn't knock them down earlier with soap.

Fantastic crop - our favorite is Lacinato - dinosaur kale. Sells really well - especially if you provide recipes. Easy to grow, pretty, tasty and nutritionally wonderful. We use transplants and use rowcover to protect from insect damage.

Last Year was my first year growing Kale(russian). I direct seed. I would like to try dinosaur Kale But your link didn't work.
I gave out recipes at market to help sell it- here is a couple
Caldo Verde (Kale Potato Soup) Ingredients 4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and chopped into 3/4-inch dice
1 medium-sized onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 cups coarsely chopped kale leaves, firmly packed
12 cloves garlic, peeled
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon fruity olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation In a large pot, combine the potatoes, onion, kale, garlic, and salt. Add 6 cups water and bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat, and simmer very gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until kale is quite tender. In as many batches as necessary, pour the soup into the container of an electric blender or food processor and blend until you have a smooth texture. Pour soup back into soup pot and taste for seasonings. Add more water if the soup seems too thick. Just before serving, add the olive oil and black pepper.

Curried Chickpeas and Kale

2 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp cumin
3 cups chopped kale or 1 pkg frozen chopped spinach
1 1/2 tbs curry powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
3 cups cooked chickpeas
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/4 tsp salt or to taste

Combine all ingredients in your crock pot and let it cook
on low 7 to 8 hours, or on high for 4 hours.

And of course there is the simple saute Kale & Garlic

the Garlic Lady

Thanks for the recipes. This site has a great rundown on kale nutrition.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=38

The Lacinato kale contains twice the lutein, vitamin a, and other nutrients, so that is the one I'm pushing. I will also be growing standard kales and red kales.

These cut-and come-again vegetables are, to my mind, some of the easiest crops to grow and market on a regular basis.
Very few people at my market fool with them because of their perishable nature, and all I need to do is boost sales. The collard greens I grow produce for 7-8 months out of the year.

Link below is to the research on kale at UNH.

Here is a link that might be useful: UNH Lutein Lab

Here's another good kale recipe for you:

1 pound penne pasta - cooked to al dente stage & drained
1 pound kale - any variety - stemmed & roughly chopped
12-20 Kalamata olives, or other black, Greek brine-cured olive - pitted & chopped *(See tip below)
1 pkge./square feta cheese - chopped/crumbled
1 red onion, chopped
olive oil
Fresh ground black pepper or red pepper flakes to taste

Pour enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a large pot. Add chopped onion & saute until soft but not browned.
Add rinsed chopped kale, & stir thoroughly, adding a LITTLE water if necessary, although the water clinging to the rinsed kale should be enough. Add chopped pitted olives & stir again. Add hot drained pasta & stir again. Finally, add feta cheese & stir again until cheese is just heated thru & starting to melt. Add pepper to taste (something I usually allow diners to do for themselves.)

(Tip: if dealing with unpitted olives, simply smash them with the flat side of a large kitchen knife - pit will squeeze out easily.)

I LOVE this recipe!! It's great hot in the winter, & also makes a terrific "room temperature" pasta dish for warmer months.

I wish I could get folks to buy this! Have tried recipes, nutrition info etc. I think it is just a regional,town thing, I love to grow it-so easy! But could not sell enough to justify the space it took(we have a pretty small operation) Good Luck , you might ask the growers if they do well with it first..

Here is another recipe:
Olive Garden Toscana Soup

2 3/4c chicken broth or stock
1/4c heavy cream
1 medium russet potato, unpeeled, sliced 1/4-inch thick then quartered
2c chopped kale
1/2lb spicy italian sausage
1/4t salt
1/4t crushed red-pepper flakes

In saucepan, combine chicken stock and cream. Place over med heat. Add potatoes. Stir in kale. Grill or saute sausage until no longer pink in center. Cool. Cut sausage at angle into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Add to soup. Stir in salt and red pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.

I don't grow kale, but. I buy it from another vender for the soup. She was suprised that anybody but her knew what it was. She grows it for herself and brings 1-2 bunches along and hardly ever sells it.

Patty

I've grown the dino kale before along with other kales and collards... the plants will produce leaves in a way exactly like your collards... keep using the lower leaves and the stalks can grow waist- to chest- high (on a short person like me). Very simple to start from seed and transplant, and the spacing is the same as other kales or collards; about 2'? Good for you if you get that cooking-greens clientele! They are wonderfully easy to grow and harvest though they wilt so easily.

P.S.- If you're pushing nutrition, you might want to dabble with a salad mix made of baby kales, collards, chards, beet greens, and asian greens! :)

I grew dino last year but was thinking of Russian Red for this year. Is the leaf of the RR more tender? Which is hardier. I am in the Ottawa Valley

I've had a question about my Kale and Collard Greens plants for about two years . . . I know when the plants flower -- or I believe that when they flower -- they've "bolted" or "gone to seed." I still have very healthy-looking and big Kale and Collard Greens plants that I planted two years ago. I just kept cutting them back, eating the greens, and they would continue to produce. They even survived our 18 inches of snow this winter and in the spring they revived. In some other forums people described the taste of bolted greens as very horrible, but our Kale and Collard seem to taste just fine, despite the age of the plants. I have long wondered about this, so if anyone can tell me whether there's a problem eating and continuing to tend to these multi-year plants, please let me know! They just seem to be growing so happily, and I continue to harvest the leaves, and I swear the leaves don't taste gross!

I brought some kale to the market last week, and when I opened up the cooler some of the bags were quite wilted. This kale had been picked and washed only hour earlier. Any tips on keeping it fresh? The kale is in bags, like my lettuce and swiss chard, and the icepacks in the cooler keep the other vegetables crisp.

When I pick my leafy vegetables, I always pick late in the day as I don't time to pick in the morning due to my full-time job (although the farm is almost full-time too!) I have city water on my land and I fill a bucket up and the water is cold. I drench the kale, collards, lettuce mix and other leafy vegetables in the water for a few minutes which helps remove a lot of the "field heat". This preserves them til I can get them home, wash them and drench them again and then immediately place in fridge. I know other people have more efficient ways than I do but this is what I do.

Our farmers market has a local chef who does "cooking demos" once a month with food from the farmers market. Maybe if you can get a local restaurant to do something like that, then you can use the recipes to get kale featured as a healthy food. Then your sales will take off when you provide the recipe with the kale.
I've even been able to sell persimmons by having a recipe with me, printed up on the computer, and passing them out to whoever looks at those persimmons.
Might work for kale too!

This thread hasn't been active in a while but maybe someone will benefit! There is a list of foods by nutritional density (nutrition per calorie) and kale is at the VERY top. A score of 1000 out of a possible score of 1000.

To make kale more palatable, I chop it finely in the food processor until it looks like chopped parsley. I chop leaves as well as stems.

I will post two recipes we love.

Kale salad

1/4 bunch kale (any kind), stems included, processed until size of chopped parsley
1 large red bell pepper, coarsely diced
1/2 c fresh pineapple, diced
1 large carrot, coarsely grated
1/8 c walnuts, chopped
1/4 ripe avocado, diced (optional)
1/2 banana, sliced (optional)

Toss and dress with either
Almond butter and lemon juice and Tabasco
OR
Gorgonzola balsamic vinairgrette

Serves one generously.

Dr Joel Fuhrman has written several books about nutritional density and has many recipes featuring kale. His creamy kale uses a sauce of raw unsalted cashews and almond or soy milk over chopped steamed kale with a small amount of onion and garlic. This dish is extremely satisfying. We eat the leftovers in chicken tacos in place of refried beans.

I have been growing Lacinato / Dino kale for many years.
It is my favorite kale by far.
We started making kale chips this year and they were a big hit with the family. Even the kids loved them.
Really easy to make also.
Kale Chips
remove ribs and stems from leaves
tear into 2"- 3" pieces
toss with light coating of olive oil, soy sauce and dash of hot pepper flakes
spread out on cookie sheet and bake at low temp. around 250
till crispy.
Watch them carefully so they don't burn.
You can alter this recipe with any spice that you prefer.

resurrecting an old thread, but I love kale, and grow it year-round. This year, with the mild winter, I still have kale alive outside on the coast of Maine. The Lacinato, my favorite, can't take the cold, and is the first to succumb. Red Russian is still going, but there is a little damage to the leaves. Winterbor is doing fine. In the unheated hoop house I have smaller plants and close spacing. I'm just starting to harvest whole plants, instead of individual leaves, to make room for the late spring crops in that house.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kale for kids (delicious with garlic)

Here is a recipe for a Kale salad that was served at a recent harvest party at a school garden my family participates in. It was a hit at that party and also when we have served it with vegetables from our garden( I used Red Russian Kale).

Raw beet and Kale Salad,

Vegetable ingredients:

2 Bunches Kale, sliced fine.
3 Peeled and Shredded beets
4 Peeled and Shredded Carrots
6 green onions sliced

Dressing ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 tamari (Soy Sauce)
1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced oregano
1 tablespoon minced basil

Topping ingredients:
1 cup sunflower seeds toasted

Directions:

1) Place prepared vegetable ingredients in a bowl.
2) In a blender, combine the dressing ingredients:oil, vinegar,tamari, tahini,garlic,oregano and basil. Blend until thoroughly mixed.
3)Pour over the vegetables and mix well.
4)Sprinkle salad with sunflower seeds just before serving.

Malabar Spinach is another super good with huge quantities of vitamin A!
And my mom always wants me to eat the purslane in my garden. It is the healthiest thing out there- full of Omega 3s I guess.

Resurrecting the old thread for the recipes, but also a question. I have a succession planting chart (sent to me by Jenn at Miles Away Farm), says to start kale indoors about now for last frost date 1st week of May. So I started 3 varieties (Red and White Russian plus Dwarf Blue Vates), in 6 cells each. I'm limited on my starting space (and the seeds are tiny LOL) so I put about 6 seeds in each cell (of 72-cell flat I'm also starting spinach, chard and maybe broccoli in).

Was this too dense? I've had good luck teasing the roots apart on tomatoes (and I usually only do 2-3 peppers in a cell). Can I break the clump apart about a month from now to plant out?

What about starting chard, spinach, and broccoli inside - how many seeds per cell? If it helps, I also plan on using some of these as salad greens, not just for cooking, so if I can't break the cell apart, can I plant it out and then cut the smaller (outer) plants for salad and leave 1 to grow?

Thanks, I've never done much with cold-weather crops before. In fact, the Succession chart shows succession planting the kale and spinach every 3 weeks, but I'm wondering if June is going to be too warm for kale (I may try direct-seeding some Bloomsdale Longstanding spinach and see how it does).

I always plant one seed per cell. Sometimes, there are two in a cell if I drop too many. I don't worry about it. 6 seems like a lot to me. Very rarely do I not get 100% germination. I usually seed Kale in 72's. Then I transplant it directly out of the 72's. I have 6 flats of kale to go out now in the movable high tunnels. It would have been planted, but we had a nice snow storm last weekend. It wasn't worth stressing it, just to get it planted.

Jay

Starting it indoors is an experiment for me - last year (my first year growing) I direct-seeded some, bought some transplants (that I think were 1-3 plants per cell but I just planted the whole plug together). Didn't matter since some insect ate the kale (left the chard and beets alone).

Jay, thanks for sending that snowstorm my way. 12" thank you very much. Now it's heading towards boulderbelt and further east. Sure glad son has that tractor, even if we forgot to get gas. 4 wheel drive Blazer got out and fixed that situation.

You are welcome, could we have some of the moisture back? At our house we got 1, maybe 2 inches but it all blew away. We had a few small drifts this morning and the rest was bare brown grass or dirt.

When I have two or three plants in a cell by accident, I still plant them as one.

Jay

I put 2 seeds in for broccoli, can snip the weaklings. Soaking the spinach seed now - going to try 3 seeds in each cell for that too. I guess I'll just try to transfer the extra kale seedlings into their own cells when I go to thin them - no big loss if they don't make it.

I think this storm is going to miss us - we've still got 3-4" on most of the ground, except south-facing slopes. Really don't need any more snow - or even rain.

Here's hoping for RAIN for you Jay!

Yup it's been snowing all day here in MD. It's some really wet snow.

Yes Sheila, you are NOT supposed to get it. Jay it was a very heavy snow, shall I send it Fedex or UPS?

tomatoesandthings, My store is rebuilding just for you.

Greetings Snowed Growers,
If you have a lot of retirees at your market and are looking to promote the nutritional benefits of kale, here is some information I found during my search:

Zea-xanthin, an important dietary carotenoid, is selectively absorbed into the retinal macula lutea in the eyes where it is thought to provide antioxidant and protective light-filtering functions. Thus, it helps prevent retinal detachment and offer protection against "age-related macular degeneration related macular degeneration disease" (ARMD) in the elderly.

It is very rich in vitamin A, 100 g leaves provide 512% of RDA. Vitamin A is required for maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin and is essential for vision. Foods rich in this vitamin are known to offer protection against lung and oral cavity cancers.

It is one of the excellent vegetable sources for vitamin-K; 100 g provides about 700% of recommended intake. Vitamin K has potential role bone health by promoting osteotrophic (bone formation and strengthening) activity. Adequate vitamin-K levels in the diet help limiting neuronal damage in the brain; thus, has established role in the treatment of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

100 g of fresh leaves contain 120 mg or 200% of daily-recommended levels of vitamin C. Scottish curly leaf variety yet has more of this vitamin, 130 mg/100g. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, which helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful oxygen-free radicals.

I find it sells because people put it in smoothies. They want Russian- no frills.

Malabar Spinach is dangerous for those people with heart disease, it interferes with their medicines.

Yes, Marla, I should have said it looked like it was going to stay south of us, I've been keeping an eye on the forecast. Last night the TV weatherman and anchor were practically crowing "This one missed us!" Sorry for all you who got slammed - hope this is IT for the season.

Kale is pretty high in vitamin E as well - so I was going to advertise it (if I have any this year to bring to market) as "Have your CAKE and eat it too - eat KALE!"

Just started the seed on Monday (3/25), here it is Thursday and the White Russian and Dwarf Blue have started germinated at LOT. Red Russian is behind, but I've even got some broccoli germinating. This is in covered flat on the floor, room temp 67F. Going to have to prick out the seedlings and put them in new cells since they are clustered tightly together (all those liitle round seeds just rolled to the middle and I couldn't see them b/c they're black LOL).

So much for saving space - next time I'll just plant 2 seeds per cell and save myself the trouble of pricking out the babies.

I just couldn't believe these germinated so quickly - I've only got a few cherry tomatoes started the same day and on heat starting yet.

Add a little heat to them and they will start coming up in about 2 days. Tokyo Bekana and Napa Cabbage are just as fast. I threw out a flat of Tokyo Bekana as they weren't looking right. Not sure why, but I wasn't going to risk infecting other stuff. I started them last night. They will be up by Friday night. With adding heat, I can usually get tomatoes up in 3 full days after seeding.

I don't have a heat mat, I just have a "Hot Box". It is a 4ft by 4ft by 4 ft wooden box and I stack my flat in there inside 1 foot by 2 foot plastic totes with lids. Then I put an oil filled radiant heater in there and turn it on to the right temp. It has a thermostat so It turns on and off to maintain the perfect temp. I can 16 flats in there. Then I can place flats on top of it, for bottom heat. It works for me.

Jay

I think my old warming tray is giving out after a month of being on almost continuously. If I keep at this, I'll probably have to buy something for germinating. The last round of tomatoes took 5-6 days with heat and the peppers took almost 2 weeks. Just have about 6 dozen more tomatoes on it this week - should be up by Easter (and if the warming tray isn't dead by then I can use it on the table for dinner LOL).

What temp do you set for tomatoes and peppers?

I was just surprised the kale and broccoli sprouted so quickly without heat - I thought they'd take 5-7 days, really didn't expect to see anything til this weekend, in fact they weren't doing much this morning but then I happened to take the dome off to plant my spinach seeds and WOW they had just exploded over the past 6 hrs.

Have you ever grown tatsoi or maruba santoh? Wondering if I should start them indoors too, or just direct-seed. Reminds me, I was going to start chard this weekend. I'm going to have to put together another rack for the brassicas.

Oh, and how's the little guy going?

My heat mat doesn't seem to be as warm as last year, I think it might be 2-3 years old.

I experimented with squash and cucumbers, with and without heat. The ones with the heat germinated slower than the ones without heat.

my daughter lives in Philly, Pa in the city and buys kale ever week at the produce area in downtown. It goes into the blender for her and her husbands 5 day a week morning drink along with other things. so there are people out there buying it

I don't know why people are planting Lacinato kale 2" apart. You realize these plants get HUGE over time right? Ours are planted 12" apart in row. At the end of the season most are over 3' tall and look like small palm trees. Regular Kale is an entirely different animal.

Lacinato is specifically requested by my chefs. I literally sold TONS of it last year. My staff (the our 4 oldest children) hated it by the end of the season. It is VERY labor intensive and needs to be picked first thing in the am or it needs to be hydrocooled within 15 minutes of harvest and then refridgerated. You can NOT ice it.

Who's planting 2" apart? Early post on this thread someone specifically said it needed 2 FEET, and could grow 3 ft tall.

I did start mine with multiple seeds per cell, repotted the White Russian 2 seedlings per cell (in 3606) on Friday and Red Russian, Dwarf Blue Vates 2-4 per cell today b/c I ran out, but I'll try separating them again in a couple of weeks, or it might even be warm enough by then to harden off and plant out (as long as we don't have hard freezes like we did last April).

You should be able to start hardening it off right now. I just put all of mine in a cold frame yesterday after pricking them into bigger soil blocks. Kale is very very cold hardy-it's one of our main winter greens and most survived the winter outside of the hoophouses

I know kale is cold-hardy, but the seedlings? Lows are going to be close to freezing Sunday night. I would like to get them out of the 67-degree house (I guess I could lower the thermostat at night, during day it's actually been closer to 70 due to sun). But also we're supposed to have showers the next couple of days with highs in mid-40's tomorrow, and rain all day Friday with highs mid-40's. Warmer during the days on the weekend but nights are going to be colder, so I'm thinking I need to hold off a little bit. Could put them in the garage but not enough light from the small windows in the doors?

Seedlings can be very frost hardy/even freeze hardy. Unless it gets down to 25 or so, there are several plants that can stand it. Maybe put them out and then cover with a cotton sheet or agrifab or something like that.

Personally, I would take the trays out in the daytime and then leave them out overnight, but covered.

If you're really scared, then only do some of them.

I don't know if they're ready to be hardened off - the White Russian kale and some of the spinach are just starting to get their first true leaves, and the other kale and broccoli only have cotyledons so far. I only started them Mar 25. Or can cool-weather crops be hardened off way earlier in their growth than the more tropical plants?

Last frost is still a month away.

My area and I think boulderbelt's last frost is earlier than that. Mine is more like next week.

With that frost date, I'd wait another week, then start the hardening off. Early plants of the 'frost hardy" plants are more hardy than the fragiles like toms and peppers.

I was thinking of asking my dad to take the kale (white russian is really getting big, though started same time as others), broccoli, spinach to his house and put in sunroom - gets pretty warm there during day (too warm?) but would get more sun and would be cooler (too cool?) at night than in my family room, but be more sheltered than moving outside. Would also give me more room under grow lights for my tomatoes and peppers (1 flat off cool weather stuff isn't even under light, it's 1 shelf below and gets some light from the (wire) shelf above and from the window, if I'm careful to keep the flat fo tomatoes pushed back a little. I've got to buy at least 1 more clamp-on lamp. I have 1, works with regular bulb but it blew out a CFL last year and I don't want to put it on a timer with another CFL.

Funny how we're in the same zone but frost dates are different? I'm going by 90% LFD, 50% is end of April but not anywhere near next week. Like I said, it's going to be mid-30's at night this w/e, warming up to lows in 40's next week but averages are 36-38 for the rest of the month and last April we had 3 hard freezes the last week, after unseasonably warm weather in March and earlier in April.

Like they say, "If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a little bit - it'll change!"

Weather and Change, you would be hard pressed to beat our weather here in Kansas this week!

On Tuesday were were under a Severe Weather Watch, Severe Weather Warning, Winter Storm Advisory and a Winter Storm Warning all at the same time! This is no joke. We had Rain, Sleet, Hail, Freezing Rain, Snow, Thunder, Lighting and wind all during the same hour. Then it kept going most of the night.

It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

You could also start moving that kale and broccoli outside in a protected area and just bring them in at night.

Jay

Oh yeah, Jay, I was looking at TWC and tornado threat today through TN, GA, etc. Heavy rain here tonight (we've had a brief spell in the middle of the night for past 2 nights) and rain all day (hopefully not too heavy) tomorrow.

Did anybody get really walloped from Walda?

BUMP!

I'm growing Kale for the first time this year. Curly, Red Russian and Dino.
Eating a lot of all of them and even blanched and froze a lot so far!
I just saute' mine in a little extra virgin olive oil, minced garlic and chopped sweet onions. YUMMY!

If you tear the leafy part from the stems, don't throw out the stems- save them, cut into about 4 to 6 inch lengths, batter each with a tempura styled or a beer batter, deep fry (you can pan fry, but they aren't as good). Cook until just browned, keeping in mind not to overcook.

Great to use as a nibble, or serve on a plate.

You can also take some of the stems and use them cut up in short pieces, in veg soups and in stews.

You can also use the stems of the bok choi this way, just split them length wise into even sizes.

This post was edited by cobalt_imp on Mon, Sep 30, 13 at 14:18

I came here to see if anyone grew kale indoors. But I realized that since it is very cold hardy it is best kept outdoors. A friend had it grow right through the winter last year and it continued all summer again. I started from seed last deb and all plants are growing great. We do smoothies every day. We have cooked it like spinach and made kale chips. This is my new favorite edible. The productivity of each plant is amazing. I have moved smaller plants to the front of the house for more sun. I check often for caterpillars that have been eating a portion in the last few weeks. This experience is with the very curly and purple variety. Sorry I dint have the Latin names handy. Enjoy.

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