Kale

Another vegetable we like to grow is Kale - currently we have 2 types growing, from seeds provided by another of our garden club members in exchange for some New Guinea and Yard long bean seeds. The varieties are "curly kale" and "old ladies stop and gossip kale" . They are growing well and we are harvesting leaves regularly to eat and even have spare for the chooks/ducks. Previously I have grown the "squire" variety and "tuscan" . Squire grew really well but I neglected to collect any seeds. Tuscan was not so successful being eaten fairly severely by caterpillars and I decided not to grow this variety again. Kale is not a well known vegetable in Australia/New Zealand but this seems to be changing as we have come across it on a restaurant menu called "black cabbage" some time ago.

Binomial name : Brassica oleracea -acephala group ( acephala means without head )









According to Wikipaedia, Kale is also known as Borecole (from Dutch meaning Farmer's cabbage) and is basically a non heading form of cabbage and is probably more like the original or wild plant than any of the other Brassicas. It has been developed into so many varieties that it is hard to reconcile as being from the same plant - broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale, cauliflower and Kohlrabi are all brassica olearacea.


The name Kale that is used in Australia is from the Scots Cale meaning cabbage. The german kohl also of the same origin. Coleslaw is a related word meaning diced up raw cabbage usually with a dressing of some kind. Maybe if we make up a diced Kale dish it should be called Kaleslaw?


Nutritional:

Kale rates with Broccoli in being a superb nutritious food.

Nutrition content /100gm ( a cup full of Kale would be about 65gm)

kcal = 49 kJ = 208 ( eating green leafy vegetables does not provide much energy)
Ca = 134mg K = 445.5mg Small amounts of Fe,Mg,P04,Na,Zn,Cu,Mn and Se
Vit C = 120mg ( an orange is about 80mg) Lots of B vitamins. Lots of amino acids.
Vit A = 9226 mcg RAE = 769 mcg Vit E 0.8mg
Omega 3 Fatty acids = 170mg (Purslane is about 400mg)

ref:  Kallis J Edible Wild Plants 2010 Gibbs Smith

and an excellent blog about kale is:

http://www.365daysofkale.com/

The levels of carotinoids are just less than Broccoli - the highest I have come across is Garlic mustard (Allaria petiolata) at 12,350 mcg.


Of particular interest though for health reasons is the about 1% by dry weight, of a class of chemicals called glucosinolates. These and their breakdown products have some dramatic benefits to us - for example one type called isothiocyanates (specifically sulforaphane) suppresses tumour growth and helps prevent conversion of precancerous lesions to cancerous ones in our bowel.
They also inhibit a metabolic pathway that converts other chemicals (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) in our diet/environment into cancer causing ones.

Taste wise it is probably milder than brussels sprouts to eat. It is certainly excellent food to be eating on a regular basis.