Sunday, April 1, 2012

Kale for every meal!

If you're hankering for a juicy Boston butt, spicy chicken wings, fresh ground whole grain breads, or delectable baked delicacies you can still swing by the farmers' market behind Ace Hardware in Smithville and fill your recycled, reusable bag on Saturday mornings. God willing and creek don't rise, you'll be able to start buying tomato plants and ornamentals this week!

If you started your own seeds you might already have your own tomato babies. With this warm weather and grass growing bonanza you might be tempted to go ahead and put those tomatoes in the ground. Go ahead. You could even try a couple squash seeds. You might be the first lucky gardener to have tomatoes and squash this year!

There's a local colloquialism that says, “If you don't have to plant at least twice, you're not planting early enough.” Me, personally--I don't care what the weather is doing; I won't plant my tomatoes outside until May. And since it thundered in February, I'm keeping my guard up for a frost in May. The tomatoes and especially the squash would not appreciate getting caught outside uncovered for a cold snap.

Kale, on the other hand, shakes off a light frost and keeps growing like mad. If the only kale you've ever eaten was mushy and dull or tough and bitter, you have to give fresh kale a try. Even the bunches of kale in the grocery store seem pallid and bland compared to the taste and texture of kale fresh from your garden, patio, or local farm.

You can plant it now in the garden or even in a container. Keep an eye out for white to yellowish butterflies with a spot on the wings, yellow eggs, and green caterpillars. That's the Imported Cabbageworm, and it's horrible. If you only have a few plants it's conceivable to keep up by hand picking the caterpillars every night for a couple weeks. If you have too many plants for handpicking, you can try out an insecticidal soap.

As is the case with all fresh produce, not including storage crops like potatoes and winter squash, the quality of the kale degrades as soon as the leaf is separated from the plant. To take maximum advantage of the health benefits of kale and other fresh greens, eat as fresh as you can.

If you're harvesting your own kale, rinse it in cold water, shake dry, and then store in a bag in the refrigerator. Treat bunches of greens you buy from the market the same, and they'll keep a week.

One variety commonly grown here is 'Siberian'. We grew 'Siberian' last year. I didn't like that its leaves were poky and thought the flavor was only okay, but I must mention that it lasted through the cabbageworm siege and dry summer.

There is a huge variety of types of kale. Some have smooth edges, others are deeply serrated. Some have smooth leaves, some have bumpy leaves. You can choose from flat leaves, curled leaves, dark green, light green, redish, purple, and every combination you can think off. Picked fresh and tender the mature leaves only need to be lightly cooked, while the small leaves can be added to salads as baby greens.

Our favorite is a kale of many names: Tuscan, Dinosaur, Black Palm Cabbage, and Lacinato are a few of its aliases. It is a lush dark green, flat leafed, smooth edged variety that laughs off light frosts by getting sweeter, tolerates the summer heat to flourish again in the cooler fall weather, and lies perfectly flat on a cookie sheet when I'm baking kale chips.

Baking kale chips is the ultimate route to winning over new kale eaters. No kidding, it's as easy as this: Lightly toss the washed and dried leaves with a little olive oil. They shouldn't be drenched, just lightly dressed. Arranged the leaves in a single layer on a cookie sheet and season with a very small amount of sea salt and pepper. If you're feeling fancy, sprinkle on a little freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Bake in a preheated 350º oven for 7-12 minutes, depending on your oven. You want the leaves crispy and dried but only barely browned. Before trying it, you can't conceive of how delicious this easy recipe really is.

Kale is a nutritional powerhouse. It contains vitamins K, A, and C, manganese, and fiber, in addition to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Its nutritional profile also includes high concentrations of carotenoids and flavonoids which have powerful cancer preventative properties.

Researcher William Li has an excellent presentation on ted.com entitled, “Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?” in which he demonstrates that the anti-angiogenesis properties of vegetables rival prescription cancer fighting drugs.

Angiogenesis is the formation of blood vessels. The development of a tumor is fueled by angiogenesis—blood vessel growth—to provide its own blood supply. Without its own blood supply, the tumor is starved of fuel and cannot grow. This is a very specific and precise demonstration of why including fresh produce in your diet is so beneficial to your health.

You can sneak kale into every meal so that you're getting as much of that good stuff into your body as possible. For breakfast you could try a frittata or omlette that includes finely chopped kale, herbs, and cheese or just poached eggs over a bed of lightly sautéed kale. For lunch you could use kale instead of lettuce on your sandwich. For dinner, throw some baby kale in your salad and dress it with a homemade vinaigrette with extra virgin olive oil. You could lightly sauté some kale-- chop the greens into half inch strips and the stems into quarter inch chunks, toss together in a pan with olive oil over medium-high heat, add a little water or stock, and cook for about 5 minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper. The greens will still be bright green and tender. Combine the sautéed kale with a chunky pasta, like penne, and some Italian sausage and a little Parmesan cheese.

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