I didn’t mean to jump on the kale train. It just happened. Earlier in the year I read in a vege gardening book that kale had a lot of nutrients, so I decided to grow some. I also wanted a more long-term cabbage-like crop. Kale is handy in that you can pull off leaves as needed. I didn’t realise there was a crazy kale fad going on.
Kale is a good source of many nutrients and apparently has 10 million health benefits. Here are the top ten nutrients in kale, according to The World’s Healthiest Foods: vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, manganese, copper, vitamin B6, fiber, calcium, potassium and vitamin E. For more information about the greatness of kale, just do some googling.
I grew my kale from a seed mix, Mesclun Kale Blend, from Kings Seeds, which includes Pink Stem, Cavolo Nero, Vates Blue Squire, Red Monarch and Red Russian. Having never, to my knowledge, eaten kale before, I didn’t know what it was going to taste like or what I would do with it. But I jumped right in and sowed a couple of small seed trays of it anyway. I currently have 12 kale plants in the vege garden.
My kale has been big enough to use for the last couple of weeks. So far, we have used it raw in garden salads, mixed with lettuce and everything else, and in a stir-fry. Upon tasting my first kale, I was surprised to find that it tasted a little like french sorrel. This was pleasing and amusing, as it reminded me of the patch of french sorrel that The Mother used to grow by the backdoor of our childhood house. Us kids used to snack on it quite frequently. I told The Husband about this, and tried to explain to him what french sorrel tastes like. He thought I was making it up. I googled it. It turns out that the sorrel of my childhood wasn’t french sorrel, but common or garden sorrel (Rumex acetosa). Anyway, back to the kale… I think these are the names of the cultivars I have in the garden at the moment…
Wild Hope Homestead 
Looks like you got more variety out of your mesclun than I did, most of the plants look very similar, good easy, nutritious vege though.
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Ah, you must have acquired a dud packet! I’m not generally a big fan of seed mixes, but they are a good way of finding out which varieties you like. Unless you get a dud packet… 😉
-Twiglet
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