Russian Red Kale

bigjohn

Crowing
17 Years
May 24, 2008
151
11
294
Georgia
I have been growing a small patch of Russian Red Kale. It is absolutely delicious! Easy to grow and bug resistant, too. I discovered that you can simply remove a leaf, place in water and it will grow roots in about a week or two. So I keep it going by putting a few leaves in one my hydroponic lettuce setups. The first one I rooted was in an old coffee can with a small hole cut out of the plastic lid. Or you can wait on the tiny seeds to appear. It holds up to very low temps (we got down to 13 degrees for several days here) and was even tastier after the freeze. It will grow thru out the summer, too, but prefers cooler temps. Very good plant to have on hand and tastes very similar to collards.

My little recipe is to take a large boiler and put about an inch of water, add about 1/2 onion and some Morton seasoning blend and one cube of Knorr Vegetable boullion. Cook on medium high for about 10 minutes. When almost done, I sprinkle a bit of bacon bits or the like on them and let it cook a bit longer. I think I may simmer it for about 30 minutes on a lower temp before they are the way I like them.

Of course, in the winter you can eat the smaller leaves in salads, etc.

Try it out.
 
I like the Red Russian variety, but that’s because of pests. When the warm weather hits I have a problem with the cabbage moth butterfly larva. The butterfly lays a lot of eggs and those caterpillars show up in great numbers. With the flat kale I can find the caterpillars and cocoons a lot easier than on a curly leafed kale. I don’t spray pesticides on anything I eat, organic pesticides included, so once they hit bad I take all the leaves off the kale plant and give them to the chickens, spray what’s left, then get the new leaves that come out pretty young before the infestation gets bad. After a few rounds of this I just remove the kale plants. As good as they are it’s not worth the effort.

My preferred kale recipe is to boil the kale until it is the right consistency (probably 8 minutes or so for mature kale), drain it, and then fry it off in a small amount of oil. That’s mainly to dry it out. I constantly stir it and add paprika a bit late in the drying process. Once it is finished I mix in honey, vinegar, and mustard to taste. A little salt and pepper is good too. Often I will sauté onions before I start to dry the kale.

Your method sounds pretty good too.
 

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