From the Garden: Of Kales and Coleworts

Now that we are experiencing nearly nightly frosts the kale, or coleworts as the ancients term it, are at their finest.

 

There are a number of varieties of this most useful green, but one in particular has garnered much attention and admiration by the modern gardener. Unfortunately it has also accumulated a surplus of pseudonyms and is known variously as Lacinato, Tuscan, Black Palm or Dinosaur kale as well as several other variations on the theme.

It has a very long history with the Italians and is remarkably similar in appearance to the Swollen Colelwort illustrated in Mr. Gerard’s work, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes first published in 1597. Gerard writes, “The swollen Colewort of all other is the strangest, which I received from a worshipfull merchant of London…who brought the seed thereof out of France. This goodly Colewort hath many leaves of a blewish green, or of the colour of Woade, bunched or swollen up about the edges.”

It is a very mild kale and the young leaves may be used raw in a salad, imparting a flavor that most resembles broccoli. It may also be used for soups and, if you reside in a climate that allows, the flower buds in spring are excellent when sautéed.

Unfortunately it is one of the least cold hardy of all the kales and even in Williamsburg where we are blessed with a relatively mild climate it often needs covering to survive the winter.

The most cold hardy specimen of the group is known as Scotch or Curled Kale as was recorded in Modern Eden (1767), “This is the hardiest of all the sorts, and therefore has its value. It thrives in the severest winters, and supplies the table even when the common colewort is destroyed.”

Indeed Mr. Mills observed in that same year, “they should not be eaten before the frost has rendered them tender; for till then they are tough and bitter.”

Last winter, which was the coldest in recent memory, the Scotch kale was the sole variety that survived the winter without harm.