The Herbarium
Part IV · Fruit & vegetable
Herb. No. 194
Kale
Brassica oleracea var. acephala
Brassicaceae
The unheaded cabbage — a winter green that smoothie culture rediscovered and cottage gardens never forgot.
Kitchen leaf. Same species as cabbage; a heading habit was never selected.
- Parts used
- Leaf
- Traditional notes
- Winter green · Kitchen · Traditional peasant soup
- Grow · USDA 6b
- Hardy biennial, USDA 2–9. Often overwinters. Spring and late summer. A July sowing is the winter crop. In work: Mar · Apr · May · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec
- Harvest
- Outer leaves. The crown keeps giving.
- A frost is an improvement.
- Net the butterflies or share the crop.
Safety
A kale cleanse as a meal replacement
Companions
Plant with Broccoli, Cabbage, Dill, Garlic, Nasturtium, Onion.
Keep apart from Tomato.
Lore
Before heading cabbage, this was just cabbage. Scottish kail was the dinner and the garden. Smoothie shops did not invent it; they put it in a cup with pineapple so you would forgive it. Colcannon still knows the older use.
The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.