All About Kale: The Evolution of This Popular Green

As a kid, I remember the national collective view of kale as being fit only for cattle and if anyone was idiotic enough to want to eat the stuff, the experience would be a sorry one. Tough, bitter, unpalatable and not improved with much boiling.

By the time I could afford to pay for my own dinner, Italian chefs had begun to test the conservative British palate with something called cavolo nero – literally translated as ‘black cabbage’ – a type of kale.

Kale Around the World: Different Varieties

I was curious about this elegant Italian variety with its slender, ribbed, dark leaf. In the 1980s, cavolo nero was a horticultural rarity. It was really quite tasty, easy to grow, and withstood the worst that a British winter could throw at it. But was this the only kale worth eating?

Italians will no doubt hate me for saying this, but of all the wonderful varieties of vegetable emanating from that country cavolo nero is by far the least interesting.

I give it no space in my garden, preferring the many other delightful and tastier varieties I have discovered over the years.

The Americans bred their own delicious types, which they called collards, from the English word colewort meaning ‘cabbage’. A staple of Southern US cuisine, collard greens sprinkled with vinegar is my kind of food. One I grow regularly goes by the wonderful name of Georgia Southern Collard.

Asparugus Kale: A Brilliant Brassica

Travelling in the former Soviet Union, I soon became familiar with a number of different Russian variants. Unlike the narrow-leaved and almost tubular cavolo nero, Russian kale came in red and green, with large, serrated and frilly leaves. The Canadians had their own varieties too. Then, in the mid-1980s, I discovered asparagus kale.

This awesome brassica, bred in Scotland towards the end of the nineteenth century, was so named because the flower spikes which emerge in spring can be eaten blanched, like asparagus. Delicious. But, for me, the real joy of this variety is its profusion of tender, pale green leaves that are at their best when plucked in late winter and stir-fried with garlic.

Other Types of British Kale

I have been an advocate of asparagus kale ever since. It’s not the only brilliant British kale. Another is Ragged Jack, so named for its deeply serrated, dark green leaves. Not grown commercially for more than a century, it survived in Tunley in Somerset where it was known as Tunley Greens.

Another local variety is Black Jack from Tiverton in Devon, though back in the 1970s the grower was evidently keeping the crop to themselves because I never came across it when I lived in the neighbourhood.

Off One’s Kale: The Kale Revolution