What is your favourite home-grown vegetable? The kale plant is mine for sure! Dead easy to grow from seed to plant, hardy as anything, heavy cropping, versatile to eat, freezable, and right up there with the healthiest and most nutritious of plants on the planet. All hail to the kale!
Kale seeds are quick to germinate and develop quickly into sturdy kale plants. You can leave them in the ground all year round and even if it gets battered by the winter weather or ravaged by pigeons, your kale plant will still come back strong in the spring.
All you have to do is keep your kale plant netted during the growing season and keep the weeds down around them with a monthly hoe. Pick off leaves as and when you want them and watch others grow back in their place.
There are lots of varieties of kale plant. Green, purple, smooth, curly… I have spoken to many people who don’t like the taste of kale, but for me they all taste great. I chuck it in pretty much any meal, raw or cooked.
Even if you don’t love the taste, surely it’s still worth growing some to benefit from its amazing array of vitamins and minerals. Kale is arguably the most nutrient-dense food, packed full of antioxidants, protein, vitamins (super high in C, K, A, but also has B1, B2, B3, B6), and minerals (calcium, manganese, copper, potassium, magnesium, zinc).
Kale is FODMAP low, so no problems with IBS, and also low in Oxalates which can inhibit mineral absorption and are high in some other vegetables such as spinach.