Tall Kale tales

Curly kale and Tuscan kale are huge as they don their plentiful flowers.

I like to grow kale because it is easy to start from seed, it does well in my garden and it is tasty. Spring kale's new leaves are delicate with a more subtle flavor than the mature foliage from fall. An added bonus is they flower their second year and they are delish. They are great in a stir fry and salads, so are the tender new leaves and stems.

Kale is a biennial, and flowers only in its second year, then it dies. The first year it throws out robust foliage, but in the following spring the centre of the plant elongates producing a loose cluster of simple yellow flowers. Bees love them. If you don't want huge plants, but still want the flowers and baby leaves, harvest the main stem as it elongates. The remaining plant with pump out more delicious stems and flowers.

So here are my kale plants. I have a few since I love them so, but no one else in the family is as keen. All the more for me! 

Tuscan kale flowers.

A detail of the four-petaled flowers.

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Two captured container grown kale have bolted producing talks with flowers on top.

A close up of their simple yellow flowers.

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Just as this kale started to elongate, I cut it back to harvest it. Now, instead of becoming one huge stem with flowers, numerous little ones have taken its place. Yummy.

The kale in this ornamental bed needs to be harvested.

This curly kale is elongating as it prepares to produce blossoms.

This Tuscan kale has bolted and is huge.