Raw kale salads with lemon and olive oil or with peanut and ginger dressing are making appearances on restaurant menus. Baked kale chips are a hit with kids. And more cooks than ever before are looking to kale for their winter vitamins.
Kale is a member of the large Brassica oleracea species. Cousins include collards, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli. All are commonly referred to as cole crops, from the Latin word caulis, meaning stem or stalk.
Now is a great time to shop for kale seedlings at your local nursery or garden center. More varieties are being offered than ever before as interest and appreciation for this versatile vegetable grows.
Choices include Tuscan kale (also called lacinato, dinosaur kale or black palm) with its bumpy, black-green leaves; ‘Redbor,’ with its frilly purple-red leaves; and Siberian kale, with bright green, smooth leaves. All kales are rich sources of calcium, potassium and Vitamin C. History tells us that kales and wild cabbages have been foraged, cultivated and eaten throughout Europe for more than 3,000 years.
Tuscan kale adds a dramatic component to edible landscapes and is the preferred type for Italian cooking. Its leaves are up to ten inches long and two to three inches wide. As you harvest the leaves from the bottom, the plant gets taller and taller.
‘Redbor’ kale’s gorgeous magenta leaves make a stunning backdrop to orange winter calendulas. Try growing beautiful deep-pink flowering kales in front of a trellis of ‘Old Spice’ sweet peas.
If you prefer your vegetables to be green, consider Siberian kales, which are a little more like collards. ‘Winterbor’ is a deep frilled green and is both beautiful and useful in the kitchen.
Most kales are extremely winter hardy. While kales produce year round in our climate, the first light frost will bring out their sweetness as the leaf cells develop carbohydrates to buffer the plants from the cold. Harvest outer leaves from the bottom up; avoid picking the inner leaves which protect the growing point. Territorial Seed Company recommends washing and then cooling your kale harvest quickly. Keep refrigerated in a plastic bag to maintain freshness.
Kale thrives in well-dug, humus-rich soil with neutral to slightly acidic pH. Cold weather does slow the action of soil microbes, so you might need to add a complete organic fertilizer and some bone meal to your beds when you plant winter crops, just to give the microbes a boost. Always read fertilizer labels and apply as directed.
Vegetables in this family are occasionally subject to aphids. Immediately after planting, cover your crops or seed bed with Reemay or other row cover cloth to keep aphids from getting a hold. If you do discover aphids, you can usually control them with a hard spray of water. Winter crops are not typically as prone to aphid infestations as spring and summer crops are.
If you see little moths fluttering above your kale or other cole crops, look closely for cabbage looper, the larva stage of these moths. Loopers and other worms can eat your crops from the bottom up. Call the Master Gardener Help Desk (see below) for help in identifying and solving the problem.
Baby kale leaves can be harvested as soon as 25 days after planting, although cold temperatures can slow germination. Toss the baby leaves into fresh salads. Larger leaves can be steamed, braised, grilled, used as wrappers, stuffed, roasted and added to soups and stews. Harvested young, tender kale leaves can add color, texture and extra nutrients to winter meals. Seed can be sown successively throughout most of our mild winter.
My daughters taught me their favorite summer camp salad: Wash and dry the kale leaves. Remove the large central rib, then tear the leaves into bite-size pieces or shred. Squeeze fresh lemon juice onto the leaves, and rub the juice into the leaves with your hands until the leaves are wilted and soft. Finish with a drizzle of good olive oil and salt to taste. For other ideas for preparing kale, check www.epicurious.com. The site has 176 recipes for kale.
Open garden: Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to visit their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on Thursday mornings, from 10:30 a.m. until noon, except the last Thursday of the month. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road at Thompson Avenue in Napa. Enter on Thompson Avenue.
Workshop: Join Napa County Master Gardeners for a workshop on “Indoor Gardening” on Saturday, November 9, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Transform a room into a vibrant living space with houseplants. Learn how to use color, texture and pattern for design and how to care for houseplants. The workshop will be held at the Senior Multi-Use Center, 2185 Elliott Drive, American Canyon. Online registration (credit card only) Mail in registration (cash or check).
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
- Posted by: Yvonne Rasmussen
October 27, 2012 - By Pat Hitchcock, U. C. Master Gardener
Lovely October! Nighttime temperatures are dipping into the forties, daylight hours are shrinking, and the tomatoes we adored in August are just not as tasty now, if in fact there are any left on the vines. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to get some winter vegetables in the ground so you will have something fresh to eat in the cold months to come.
Among the easiest vegetables to grow are cool-season greens. You can eat them at any stage, from just barely sprouted to large and mature. Some greens, like lettuces and chicories, can be served raw in salads, and most of them can be boiled, steamed or braised. Many greens not only prefer the cooler temperatures of fall and winter, some of them actually improve in flavor if they experience light frost.
The easiest lettuces to grow are the loose-leaf types. If you are starting lettuce from seed, look for varieties labeled as cold-hardy. Local nurseries have many types available as seedlings, to give you a head start. Some nursery six-packs include a mix of types, a good choice if you like variety in your salad.
Chicories are related to lettuces and include endive, escarole and radicchio. Appreciated for their crunch and pleasant bitterness, these greens need to be grown in cool to cold weather to keep that bitterness in check. These hearty greens can be braised or enjoyed raw in winter salads with sliced persimmons or pears and toasted walnuts.
The Brassica family includes greens related to turnips and cabbage, such as arugula, collards and kale. Leafy mustards, bok choy and napa cabbage (Chinese cabbage) also belong to this family. Leaves from these plants add a lot of flavor to salads when picked young and tender. As plants mature, the greens are better suited to cooking. Brassicas are hardy and easily withstand the frosts of typical Napa Valley winters.
Also consider planting chard, beet greens and spinach this fall. These vegetables grow well in cool to cold weather. Ideally, you should start them in late summer to get them launched in warm soil, but you can still plant seedlings until the end of October. Place them in the sunniest location you have; winter days are so short that your vegetables will need as much sun as possible.
Before planting, add two to four inches of compost to your garden bed, digging it into the top few inches of soil. The organic matter in compost improves soil drainage and texture.
Consider adding fertilizer of some sort, especially if you grew summer vegetables in the same bed. Most compost is low in nitrogen and the other nutrients that growing plants need. If you are not sure what to add, go with an all-purpose formulation labeled for vegetables, and follow package directions. Too much fertilizer can harm seedlings and add unwanted chemical salts to your soil.
When transplanting seedlings, follow the recommended spacing on the plant tag. Consult a garden book if you aren’t sure. In general, place seedlings far enough apart so that they will touch only when full grown. Place leaf lettuces, arugula and spinach 8 to 12 inches apart; more vigorous greens, such as chard and cabbage, will need 12 to 18 inches between them. Handle plants carefully to minimize trauma to them, which can stunt them and reduce your yield. Plant them in moist soil, and do not let them dry out.
Water regularly until rain arrives. Often the first few storms do not bring enough moisture to wet the soil deeply, so monitor often and water as needed. Assuming a typical wet winter, your greens should not need watering unless we get a dry spell lasting more than a couple of weeks.
Common pest problems include aphids, slugs, snails, imported cabbageworm and cabbage loopers, as well as birds and deer. Watch for aphids and spray them off with water to keep them from establishing colonies. To minimize the caterpillar pests, protect your young plants with row cover. This lightweight garden cloth allows air and water through but keeps flying insects from reaching plants and laying eggs. Monitor for slugs and snails; pick them daily when they first appear to reduce their numbers and minimize their damage. Exclude birds and deer with row cover or bird netting.
Most greens grow relatively fast. In ideal conditions, lettuces and arugula reach full size in four to six weeks. But with the cold weather and reduced daylight of late fall and early winter, growth will be much slower. Pick outer leaves at any stage and leave the inner ones to keep growing to extend your harvest.
If your plants seem to grow slowly, don’t give up on them. Roots will still be developing
underground. These laggards may surprise you with a burst of growth in January or February after other plants have finished producing.
I can’t promise that you will enjoy your sweet and spicy winter greens as much as your summer tomatoes, but your harvest will be fresher and more nutritious than any greens you can buy.
Workshops: Napa County Master Gardeners conduct workshops throughout the year see our wesbite for details and registration information. http://cenapa.ucdavis.edu