You Can Eat Kale Raw

Kale is one of my more successful crops. It’s plentiful too so I’m always looking for more good ways to use it.
For the longest time I thought you couldn’t eat kale raw but a while back I found a recipe for a raw kale, avocado and tomato salad with lemon juice, cayenne pepper and olive oil. (if you add salt use very little - it will kill the taste).  Sounds nasty but it’s delicious.  Not only that but right after eating a serving or two you get this great feeling of being energetic and alert - almost a high from all the vitamins in the uncooked kale. Definitely more energizing than “Five Hour Energy” drinks. The two main secrets of preparing raw kale is shred it finely, and use an acidic ingredient like lemon juice to wilt the kale. Just like ceviche.

I have also made a raw kale and parsley salad recently, with avocados, shredded carrots, mushrooms, onions and a dressing of lemon juice and olive oil. (my own concoction). If you like parsley as I do you will love this salad. Just shred the kale super fine – and of course removed the thick stem in the center of each leaf.

Kale and Collards are members of the cabbage family.(Brassicaceae). They are cool weather crops – ok in spring here but not so suitable for midsummer. Right now my kale is still producing well. I have three plants. When I want to cook with them I just snap off a bunch of the outermost leaves. The leaves in the photo were for a dish of fried tofu on a bed of sautéed kale and topped with toasted pine nuts. It keeps producing new leaves so it’s an endless supply of greens. For the hottest days of middle summer I am going to try planting some kale in a partially shaded area in the front where hopefully it will stay coole enough to avoid wilting or bolting.

If you let the kale stay unpicked for too long (especially if it is crowded with not enough space between plants) the risk of developing these white/grey powdery pests on the underside of the leaves increases. I don’t know what they are called but they are pretty common for me. This year has been much better than in the past as I’ve been more diligent about picking the leaves regularly and giving each plant enough “breathing” space.

In general it’s really important not let the vegetable plants get too mature or overgrown because they just become a breeding ground for pests and disease. I just pulled out some six feet tall lettuces from last year that went to seed.  You can imagine the quanity (and variety) of bugs I found in there...