The Rise and Fall of Kale
Does anyone remember the kale craze circa 2016? I was thinking about it recently and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how and why it became so popular. The way it was back then, it was almost as if it was a newly discovered species of plant and not something that had always existed. I tried kale once and it was absolutely disgusting. Why did people put themselves through that?! Don’t get me wrong, I love my cruciferous vegetables: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, arugula. But kale is one I have never been able to enjoy. I honestly would rather stick to spinach as my rich salad green than put myself through the bitter, fibrous mouth-shattering experience that is kale.
The History of Kale
A good food story always starts with the origin of the item in question. The thing about kale is that, unlike other crops that have greatly influenced society, kale doesn’t have books dedicated to its history. It’s almost as if it’s just a hype crop with no great societal effect. Either that or no one has found the time to write extensively and properly about it. Nevertheless, I’ll go through the brief history of kale I have been able to find online.
Kale has been known to man for more than 2000 years and its origin can be traced back to eastern Mediterranean or Asia Minor. The leafy green found its way to Europe and the Americas through various trade routes. Apparently, the earliest mention of kale in America was in 1669 but I haven’t been able to find a reliable source that properly explains this encounter. In Europe, kale was (and is) popular amongst the Scots. Since it thrives well in cold weather and is easy to grow, it was a garden stable amongst Scottish families. For most of history, kale had served the function of a garnish, nothing too fancy.
Why The Craze?
If you guessed that celebrities got their hands on the plant and the masses followed suit, you guessed right. There are only a few options that propel a relatively unknown food to the forefront of the conscience of the masses in “first world” countries: 1) the food industry needs to push a specific product so that they don’t lose money or so that they make more money 2) famous people have gotten their hands on said food. The culprits in the case of kale are Gywneth Paltrow, Michelle Obama, and Beyoncé. I believe that the longevity of the kale craze was because each of these celebrities endorsed kale are different points (Gywneth in 2011 — the first wave, Michelle in 2012, and Beyoncé in 2014). 3 extremely influential and good-looking women say that kale is amazing, the masses didn’t stand a chance. Kale was like a new miracle plant that was going to change people’s lives. It’s a superfood, a little goes a long way, has one of the highest vitamin C content amongst leafy greens, can be eaten in different ways, allegedly has anti-cancer properties. I mean, what’s there not to like about the plant? The problem is that it’s not an easily palatable plant, especially to be eaten raw. People were forcing themselves to enjoy kale at the expense of their palates. Do you know who I feel sorry for the most? Kids whose parents introduced it to the dinner table as the new green. If you thought broccoli was bad, kale was definitely the devil. Eating kale had become a new badge of honour. If you could eat and “enjoy” kale daily, you would be seen as a healthy eater who had their life together (this is a personal opinion, it’s just the vibe I was getting from the food community back then). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that kale isn’t good or eating kale is bad. I’m just saying that the hype around the plant was unnecessary. There are other reliable and awesome leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables that have faithfully been with us for centuries and have never gotten as much attention as kale, simply because they are so reliable.
But the main issue I have with kale is the hype. We need to stop hyping up foods without thinking about the consequences they’ll have on communities. Look at avocado and coffee. They have now become blood money crops. The only saving grace of kale is that 60% of the U.S consumption of kale was produced domestically. They did not have to import a huge amount of it to meet up with demand. Hyping up a plant leads to a rapid increase in the production of a crop, which sometimes leads to the clearing of more land, which in turn affects the climate. When the hype dies, demand decreases sharply and next thing you know, waste increases and all the nice things that come with it ensue. Only a few hype plants/crops have stood the test of time (e.g. avocado) because they are 100% worth it, but it came at a cost to the communities that had to be converted to avocado farmlands. I don’t know if that was worth it.
Let’s think carefully before joining the hype around a crop, it’s not as harmless as it might seem.
I started harvesting my garlic and some of the bulbs were enormous!
My tomatoes are ripening so I’ll be doing sauce the next couple weeks.
Despite the heat (100+ heat index), I got a project done that has been driving me nuts …. getting the Hummingbird Garden weeded and planted in flowers. The HBG is two raised beds made out of old half-round fence posts and was supposed to be a cut-flower bed for mom, but she doesn't use it. Last year, I had 3 big tithonia in one bed & zinnias/wild flowers in the other. This year, I could not get any tithonia to germinate … my seeds from last year OR some commercial seeds. After trying twice, it finally was so late that I quit trying – plants would not have enough time to grow large enough to flower.
Every time I let the HBG beds grow up, I say “Never Again” and here I was Wednesday, weeding the beds (although I had a good excuse: The Knee). The tithonia bed had been mulched with pine needles …. took maybe 10 minutes to clean up. The other bed had no mulch & had 'grassed' up – the root clumps were so thick, deep & tough that I could not hand pull, nor use my regular (and favorite) 'Japanese weeding stick' …. I had to resort to some major digging with a pick mattock. Big swings required to get it deep enough – at least the soil was damp from the rain and not hard as concrete. Shaking the dirt out of the clumps was a pain – so much dirt in them that there would have been none left in the bed without getting it out of the large clumps. It took me most of the morning to clean that bed because I had to take frequent breaks due to the heat/humidity. On Wednesday, I drank two quarts of homemade electrolytes & between dinner and bed time, another 24 ounces of iced tea.
Thursday, I hauled cedar chips from a big pile we have to cover the walkways. The chips smell SO good & being a reddish color, they look nice, too. When I cleaned the old tithonia bed, I was thrilled to find a “volunteer” tithonia! I hope it will grow big/fast enough to flower. I got it mulched and staked up – once they get pretty big & bushy with leaves, storm winds will blow them over – I had that happen last year. Thursday evening, I got the beds planted – the one bed is all zinnias (5 rows) & the tith bed has some TX wildflowers (2 rows) in it that a cousin gave me. If the wildflowers don't come up, that's ok – the tith will need a lot of room. Everything is mulced with pine needles – they will help hold in the heavy rains from yesterday.
The next project (and last one, regarding any raised beds) is to weed the sunflower bed next to the HBG garden – maybe an hour or two of work required, so not too bad. I planted Giant sunflower seeds June 27 and the plants are over waist high. I did mulch, but between rows of where the seeds went in & weeds are coming up between the plants. Now that the plants are big enough, I can mulch around the individual plants, once the weeds come out. The sunflowers should have time to bloom before any frost would get them – the finches will be very happy to have a late seed source.
Before … what a mess!
After – beds planted, mulched, walkway covered in chips
Feeder with shade & 'baby tith'
Sunflowers next to HBG (weeds to be vanquished shortly!):
Our high heat has abated a bit - down to 90 instead of 10 degrees hotter, August is almost here and September is next - two of our hottest months with hot winds - not looking forward to it at all.
Meanwhile, a few things are recovering.
I got two lovely irises this past week:
And these nice plumerias decided to make an appearance:
I am still fighting nasty fig beetles that are destroying my figs - I've never had them before. I got a spray from the local garden store but it doesn't seem to deter them too much, even when I spray it directly on them. Arrrggg....
And, my helpers, waiting for instructions:
Tomato question…
Once again, my tomatoes are hit with blight thanks to a very wet spring and summer. I rotated them to a new area this year but have the same problem. I treated early with copper fungicide weekly for a month but it still took over.
I did clear all the vines and leaves out last year, but I did not disinfect my seeds or cages - a mistake I won’t repeat next year.
A few questions - everything I read said do not can the tomatoes due to changes in acidity level. The tomatoes themselves look fine. If I add lemon juice and pressure can, would that solve this issue? And if so, do I use the canning guidelines for things like salsa which have low acid veggies in them?
If canning is out, what about freezing?
I plan to do a bleach soak for my seeds this year, as well as bleach my stakes and cages at the end of the season.
I have a question about my onions.
It looks like some critter plowed through part of my onion patch. A lot of stems are bent over and the plants did not look close to ready to do it on their own. The leaves were still very green and lush looking.
I know that once the leaves are bent over, the stem is broken basically, the onion stops growing. What is the best thing to do with them at this point?
The ones that are not bent over will stay until they fall over on their own. I never was a big fan of hurrying the process along. I want as much growth as I can get out of them.
But I want to salvage what I can out of the ones I have no choice about.
The forecast is very warm, 80’s to 90 through Thursday, so drying conditions will be very good.
10pm & raining with more on the way when I checked radar. We’ve had showers, some trending toward ‘heavy’, off & on all day & it’s been rather gloomy looking. Since last Monday, I think we’re going to be getting close to 4” of rain by tomorrow.
During a break between showers this evening, I checked the garden. The ground is so soggy & soft, one of my bell peppers was falling over & needed staking up. The Sungolds had not been picked since Friday, so there were many ripe ones - about 3 quarts, maybe more. With all the rain, some of the ripest were splitting open. To avoid more splitting, I picked tomatoes that normally I would have left on the vine at least another day.
Perhaps all the rain will be good for the zinnia & wildflower seeds I planted Thursday. I chased a couple of goldfinches out of my blooming zinnia patch - they are really going after the seeds.
The doe deer is visiting our old apple tree out in the field which does have some small green apples on it. She’s cleaning up anything that falls, then she heads for my mom’s flowers. She’s currently eating all the sedums after going through the day lily blooms, rose bush leaves & baby sunflowers along the fence. Mom is really upset & is covering her hostas along the front of the house & in pots with row cover every night.
I bought a small watermelon today & threw some rinds near the hole under the barn where I saw the ground hog run the other day so it should find them. Hopefully, it will like the rinds so much that when I bait the live trap with watermelon, it will be inclined to go on in for more. From past experience, they’re not the easiest to trap.
Ready for some sunshine - wish the heat would stay away, but that should build back in as the week progresses. Almost August - fall, my favorite time of year, is around the corner.
So... kale... Mrs. Augie loves the stuff, so I plant it for her. She likes it raw. I prefer it cooked. Eating that raw bagged kale salad from the store is like chewing on a bale of hay to me. Not a fan. Cooked, though, is good for me. I prefer the black magic and red russion over the curly vates for cooking.
I've been staying busy putting up produce for later use. I've got six pints of basil packed in olive oil stashed in the freezer now, and enough left to make at least that much more. Made a canner load of spicy hamburger slices on Saturday. That makes 21 quarts of pickles for me so far this summer. Mrs. Augie is still making her lacto-fermented pickles on the kitchen counter, but I'm finished with the hot-pack work on cukes.
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We started on the tomatoes yesterday. Picked all of the romas that were ready, and a few rain-split slicers to work up. Wound up with 25lbs. First run we did pasta sauce. That yielded 4 quarts of thick sauce and 7 quarts of juice to use for soup base or V8 or whatever. I was using brand spanking new Ball jars and had one of them explode as I was lifting it from the canner. That made a huge mess on the barn floor and reminded everyone involved why we do our canning anywhere other than Mrs. Augie's kitchen. lol
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We'll pick more rain-split slicers this evening to throw in with what we didn't cook yesterday. Think we'll do a batch of salsa with those.
One pass down the pole bean row should produce enough to finish out a canner load of those. I've got close to a gallon in the fridge already popped and ready, and half that many that need to be popped so it won't take a ton of them to finish a load.
And then just like that it's August and time to start thinking about fall plantings. I suppose I should get off my biscuits and install the shade cloth I bought for the greenhouse.
Farmer Jesse with the Best crops for Winter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mLOIwZ4V0s
He’s a market gardener in Kentucky. No way most of us could grow exactly like he does because he gets $7-9.00/lb for his veggies in Lexington and spends hundreds of dollars a year in compost. He almost grows in pure compost and beneath that, dark, crumbly, living soil because of all the compost he uses. He also uses a lot of hybrids and equipment like seeders from Johnny’s Seeds which is pricey.
Still got some good tricks and knowledge and grows some things year round. Lettuce, Greens, beets and carrots. Even grows lettuce through summer. Evidently Lexington KY is full of veggie eating foodies.