It’s the Queen of the Greens and yet most people aren’t eating it.

How many foods can you say are Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidant, Anti Cancer and has Vitamins A, C and K, Iron, potassium, calcium, folic acid and plenty of fibre.

Kale is related to Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts as part of the Brassicaceae family. The main difference though is it doesn’t produce a ‘head’ like its fellow siblings.

It’s easy to grow and you can keep picking leaves off all through the season which will encourage it to sprout new ones. It’s also tolerant of frosts and in fact cold weather actually sweetens the leaves. Now is the time to be growing Kale right through the cooler months.

These dainty looking moths look pretty flittering around the veggie patch but they are the bane of a gardeners life. They lay eggs on anything in the brassica family (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, bok choi) and some other plants too. The caterpillars hatch and camouflage very well with the leaves making them very hard to spot. In a single night they can eat big chunks of the leaves and make a bit of a mess.

For mass produced farming this means spraying insecticides or otherwise their crop is so damaged, no one would buy it.

There is however a better solution for home gardeners that doesn’t involve any chemicals and that is using Pestfree Covers

Brassicas are not a fruiting vegetable so don’t need bees or other insects to pollinate them so you can leave the netting on the whole time they are growing.

If you have Kale that is already infested with caterpillars, use organic spray Dipel to get rid of them before adding a veggie net otherwise you will still have caterpillars inside the net.

There is also another smaller pest - Cabbage Aphids. These can also be greatly reduced by using the veggie netting when you first plant them and then being diligent to close it up straight after harvesting.

They will grow best in full sun if you are in temperate and cool zones and part shade in the tropics and subtropics.  Plant right through the cooler months of the year - Autumn and Winter.  Space them about 30cm apart as they will easily fill that space and need good airflow around them.

Harvesting

These are pretty fast growers so you will be harvesting your first leaves about 8 weeks from sowing seeds. No need to pull the whole plant out, Just keep picking the outer leaves and let the others continue growing.

When the weather warms up, Kale starts producing flowers or bolts and once this happens the leaves become tough and pretty bitter. If you see flowers forming, pick all the leaves whilst you still can.

I found that placing a bunch of Kale in a vase of water was not a great way to store them. They turn yellow pretty quickly. Far more effective was to store them in a sealed plastic container in the fridge. It doubles their life and keeps them looking fresh.