Thursday, September 18, 2008

Dinosaur Kale


Dinosaur Kale
Brassica oleracea 'Lacinato'
(BRAS-ee-ka) (awl-lur-RAY-see-uh)
Synonyms: Black Tuscan Kale, Black Cabbage, Black Palm, Nero Toscana, and Cavolo Nero.

This was a new plant on me. The sun shining through the leaves gave an interesting texture and pattern. The nursery was stocked up on Kale but it seems a little early to rip out the annuals and plant the fall stuff. Some of the annuals are looking a little long in the tooth but most are still going strong. They are saying there is a frost warning for Sullivan County, New York for Friday morning. That is a little close, although they are more inland then Fairfield County, and I will be keeping an eye on the forecast and the thermometer.

Hopefully they will have some of the nicer varieties of Kale and Ornamental Cabbage when I go to plant them. Probably not they seem to get all snatched up before then. This Kale had beautiful long leaves and color. After looking up Kale on the net I found that Kales don’t form a head with their central leaves like Cabbage. The plant has been in cultivation since at least the 4th century BC. This is the best shot I could manage of the full leaves.


The planting job is going okay. There was a lot of transplanting that I hadn’t planned on so that was slowing things down a bit. Another couple of days ought to do it.

To throw in a flower picture here is an Aster that was not marked. It was really tall and had a bit of a frilly appearance, which made it unusual to me.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That second kale picture is really beautiful. I just spent some time round your neck of the woods. Hope you are well.

Anonymous said...

I love the abstraction of the first photo. Kale is a fun little plant and I never used it to cook until I made the homemade version of zuppa toscana from Olive Garden.

Anonymous said...

Me encanta tu pagina, son unas fotografias explendidas , enhorabuena

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the lovely photographs on your website. They helped me identify the variety of kale that I purchased at the Farmers Market (and neglected to jot down the name). I've just recently taken a closer look at kale for incorporating into soups, sautees, etc. It is a wonderful addition to the leafy greens I use!