Plant · P-342

Kale

Brassica oleracea var sabellica

Kale is a biennial leaf crop that shrugs off cold - it keeps producing right through winter and only quits when summer heat turns it bitter and pushes it to bolt. Left through a mild winter into its second spring, it flowers, and the young flowering shoots are a second harvest with a taste close to sprouting broccoli. The leaves are best picked fairly young since they toughen with age, and a few plants left to go to seed will drop volunteers that come back on their own the next fall.