A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Kale

Hello everyone.
We all here love Kale and Kale loves white beans. Put in several hot sausages, a big onion and a hole garlic over a nice bed of white rice and yes my friends you can take that to heven! anyway...I live near Richmond Va. and planted Kale for the first time in my garden in late spring and it did not liked the heat of summer so I re-planted it in late summer and now I have kale to sell to every market in the state, what a crop!. My question to anyone here that grows it is when do you start to bring it in for cooking or how big does it has to be before it has the right flavor. Right now is about 14" tall but it just taste like grass from my front lawn. :)

Generally, Kale is ready to harvest when the leaves are about the size of your hand. You should pick about one fistful worth of leaves per harvest while avoiding picking the terminal bud (found at the top center of the plant) because this will help to keep the plant productive.

The small, tender leaves can be eaten uncooked and used in salads. Cut and cook the larger leaves like spinach, but be sure to remove the ribs before cooking.

You can store kale as you would any other leafy green; put the kale in a plastic bag and store it in the refrigerator. It should last about 1 week.

Thank you