Kale is one of our tastiest and most versatile brassicas and many, though not all, varieties withstand whatever a Scottish winter throws at them. But a few kales are less robust so should be enjoyed in autumn and early winter.
In my book ‘Emerald Ice’ is the most attractive and tasty of these early, more tender specimens. It enhances any border, with its eye-catching broad white ribs and dabs of white on the light green, mouth-watering leaves.
Kale leaves are at their tastiest when between 30 and 45cm long, becoming a bit tougher and more bitter when much more than that. So pick autumn specimens like ‘Emerald Ice’ quite generously, but go easy on the late winter/early spring varieties as they’ll need some foliage to keep growing. Like ‘Emerald Ice’, ‘Nero di Toscana’ is a good early season performer and its slim blue-green crinkled leaves are an asset to any border, especially as, unusually for kale, they’re upward growing and make easy picking.
‘Nero di Toscana’ doesn’t usually perform well in both autumn and spring and you’ll find a few plants simply die over the winter. Those that come through the winter start producing little tufts of tiny leaves at plant nodes and they are the ones to pick in spring once around 10-15cm long.
All kales do this in early spring and this new growth is what to pick. An all-season stalwart is ‘Green Curled’. Sow early in April so there’s a good chance of the plants reaching the full metre I’d expect. You can pick throughout the winter, though regrowth is very slow, and then in early spring it produces a mass of delicious little side shoots.
Read more Dave Allan
- Don't be silly, this is how to grow the perfect lily
-
Everything a gardener needs to know... about creating a dead hedge
-
Here are common pitfalls when you grow a hedge - and how to avoid them
Unfortunately, some of my late winter favourites like ’Ragged Jack’ and ‘Lacinato’ aren’t available any more, despite their robustness. So I have to save my own seed, which is very easy with brassicas, provided you only let one variety flower each year. Otherwise, the plants will hybridise and you’ll certainly not get the plants you’re expecting.
And while I’m on about saving seed, some years ago, we chanced upon a wild brassica growing at the back of a Devon beach, so took a couple of seed pods. Brassica oleracea is the parent of many of the leafy brassicas but looks most like a kale, but with more bitter leaves than usual. I like their tangy flavour when a few leaves are mixed with other kales or in a stir fry. Interestingly, unlike most brassicas, this wild kale is a short-lived perennial and grows into a mammoth beast after a few years.
Anyway, back to more readily available kale. The heritage Asparagus kale is carried by some seed companies now and is an excellent choice at any time, but especially in spring. Though lower growing, with a wider spread than usual, it produces a generous harvest of sweet, succulent leaves.
The Real Seed Company carries a good selection of more unusual vegetable varieties, like Asparagus kale, and is well worth visiting. ‘Sutherland kale’ is another rare variety which, to the best of my knowledge is only available from this supplier. As its name implies, you’ll get no hardier specimen than this and you’ll be guaranteed a brilliant and long lasting spring harvest as well as some now.
Plant of the week
Euonymus alatus or Winged Spindle, is a shrub whose leaves turn brilliant shades of scarlet and crimson in autumn. As a bonus it has purple and pink berries that split to reveal orange seeds.
For the rest of the year it is a modest plant with dark green leaves, though the winged stems are interesting in winter. For the best autumn colour grow in moist, well drained soil and full sun.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here