Kitchen Gardeners International: Tuscan kale, a sweet treat
By Barbara Damrosch
It's easy to get someone to eat a tomato, but I've always found kale to be a tough sell -- until I discovered the Tuscan kind. Even diehard kale-haters, once they try it, will make it a regular part of their diet, and not just for its payload of vitamin C, folic acid, calcium and iron. It's the softer texture and fine flavor, sweetened even more by cold weather. I love it so much that it is the only kale I grow.
Other names for Tuscan kale include black kale, Lacinato kale, cavolo nero, nero di Toscana, palm tree kale and dinosaur kale. The last I can't account for, unless it's the vaguely prehistoric look the plant has when growing. Its leaves arch out from atop a straight stem, and in mild climates the plant can sometimes reach heights of six feet or more. That explains the palm tree part. And "black" is only a slight exaggeration. Its leaves, which vary in color even on a single plant, range from a medium gray-blue-green to a very dark version of that hue. It is so beautiful that its history includes use as an ornamental plant in France and Italy. I find a place for it in my home vegetable garden even when we have large plantings of it at our farm. The color is the perfect contrast to pale green or red lettuces, marigolds and just about everything else I grow. The texture is also dramatic. The long, straplike leaves are heavily puckered, with edges that curl under. The tough ribs should be removed before use.
Having it close at hand to snip in a hurry helps me out on days when I'm too rushed to assemble a salad and make a dressing. I'll often chop up the leaves to add to a dish such as bean soup for the last five or 10 minutes of cooking. Steaming and buttering it, or braising it with garlic and olive oil, add an equally simple and delicious green component to a meal. The smaller leaves toward the center of the plant are the most tender, so much so that you might even turn them into a robust salad, topped with a bacon-and-honey or chopped-egg-and-anchovy dressing.
Like all kales, this one is very cold-hardy, and if you have plants started now, you can relish them all fall and winter. Like all brassicas, kale likes a compost-rich soil, high in nitrogen. For maximum production, set the plants out the way you would lettuce, about a foot apart. For a monumental accent plant that would not look out of place in a flower garden or shrub border, give it more room.
Direct sowing now will give you small outdoor plants for winter. (I've found they do not do well in a cold frame or greenhouse.) You could also just sample some at a farmers market to see if this green is for you. Chances are very good that you'll be hooked.
Article copyright of Barbara Damrosch
Creative Commons photo credit: Slowlysheturned
Posted by KGI on August 29, 2008 6:21 PM to Kitchen Gardeners International
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