Brassicas
Kale
Brassica oleracea var. sabellica
Timings for your region
Suggested: Moderate · Explained in the glossary
Start indoorsearly May – early June
Plantingmid June – mid July
Harvestmid October – late February
Practical tip
Stands in the bed all winter and is picked leaf by leaf as needed — the colder it gets, the milder it tastes.
Origin & history
Kale is the closest thing to the wild cabbage of Europe’s Atlantic coast — it forms no head and is thus the most original form of the cultivated cabbage; Greeks and Romans already grew such non-heading kales. In northern Germany it remains a winter ritual: kale walks and kale dinners with a crowned “Kohlkönig” belong to the season between November and February. Regionally it is also called Braunkohl, Krauskohl or “Oldenburg palm”.
Varieties
The classic German varieties are tightly curled, medium-tall types such as “Halbhoher Grüner Krauser” or “Lerchenzunge” — hardy and productive over months. Palm kale (black kale, “Nero di Toscana”) has long, dark, blistered leaves, tastes milder and is picked leaf by leaf from late summer on, but is a little less frost-hardy. Kale is usually open-pollinated; to save your own seed, let one plant flower in its second year — though it will cross with any other Brassica oleracea cabbage nearby.
Care
Kale is planted late and needs regular watering through the first weeks of summer heat — after that it largely looks after itself. Medium-tall varieties get top-heavy in autumn and blow over in a gale: earth them up in September or add a stake. Keep snapping off the lower, yellowing leaves so they do not rot against the stem; leave the heart leaves at the top alone, that is where the new growth comes from.
What can go wrong
On young plants in early summer, flea beetles make the typical little shot-holes — they like it dry and warm, so even watering, mulching and a net over the row of young plants all help. From high summer on it is the caterpillars of the cabbage white and the cabbage moth; under fine netting from planting day the crop stays clean, otherwise the only answer is weekly hand-picking of egg clusters and caterpillars from the leaf undersides. Grey colonies of mealy cabbage aphid sit in the heart of the plant: break out affected shoot tips and clear the picked-over stumps in spring, or the aphids overwinter in them.
Harvest, storage & kitchen
Only ever break off the lower, fully grown leaves and leave the tip standing — then the plant keeps producing into spring. Pull out the tough midrib before cooking; it stays stringy even after an hour. Blanched and frozen in portions, kale keeps easily until summer. From March the plant bolts, and the tender flowering shoots can still be cooked like broccoli.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.