All hail kale
KALE was the most widely eaten green vegetable in many European regions until cabbages took over in the Middle Ages.
BLACK cabbage (cavolo nero in Italian), alias Tuscan kale or just plain kale, was the most widely eaten green vegetable in many European regions until big fat cabbages took over in the Middle Ages.
Though it comes in elongate leaf form, kale belongs with normal cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli and brussels sprouts among the Brassica oleracea species. In the wild, the species is native to the Mediterranean.
Family differences, an Isle of Wight gardeners’ website notes, developed over thousands of years of human cultivation. By the 5th century BC, selective growing had ensured kale’s development. Its botanical name translates as “cabbage of the vegetable garden without a head”. Italian cuisine has a special place for the bitter (radicchio, cima de rape or broccoli rabe, fennel, herbal liqueurs like amaro). It’s largely as an Italian food that we’ve “discovered” cavolo nero. Its earlier obscurity here probably saw it replaced with cabbage in many traditional recipes (such as Tuscan soup ribollita). Kale certainly works in most dishes specifying cabbage, except of course whole stuffed cabbage (French) or German sauerkraut; even Hungarian cabbage rolls can be imagined featuring dark kale.
Food: A Culinary History writes of the intensive vegetable cultivation (most commonly turnips, kohlrabi, white cabbage and kale) in gardens “beside all houses, rural and urban alike” in medieval Europe. Frost-resistant kale flourishes in cold regions such as the Scottish isles, where houses had kale yards (one survives on the Isle of Skye, with metre high dry-stone walls); kail was salt-preserved there in barrels (similar to sauerkraut or Korean kimchi). Sweeter red Russian kale arrived in the US from Siberia with 19th-century traders.
Brenda Oakey and husband Al Williams (Alnda Farms) cultivate 4.8ha on SA’s Gawler River. Brenda says: “We grow for flavour, not looks, things that are a bit unusual (artichokes, purple capsicum, full-flavoured tomatoes), with minimal sprays.” They have red Russian kale, cavolo nero and curly blue, Barossa today, Adelaide tomorrow.
Willunga Young Farmers’ Scholarship winners Jay Kimber, 26, and her three teammates, all 21, from the Fleurieu Peninsula specialise in organic heirloom crops. They’re picking kale, red mustard, rocket and lettuce, with other crops coming, and are planning their weekly presence at Willunga starting around the end of this month.
Also in SA, the Virgaras have kale at Victor Harbor today. Frank Baldasso, born in Treviso near the Italian Alps where his father farmed “a few acres”, has his neighbour’s cavolo nero, plus his own just-picked apples, at Mount Pleasant.
In WA, Pat’s Organic has Tuscan, pale curly and purple kale at Subiaco. Bathgate Farm has it at Albany. In Tassie, Laos Fresh Farm and Steve’s Vegies have it at Launceston; Paulette Whitney at Farm Gate, Hobart.
In Victoria, Kinglake Produce has “dark green long-leaf and curly light-leaf, used for salads and juicing” at Collingwood today, Abbotsford Convent next Saturday.
Homework: Having dragged every likely book from the shelves, Cutting Board finally came upon Elizabeth Rohmer’s The Tuscan Year: life and food in an Italian valley. Boil cavolo nero (“a type of winter cabbage very popular in Tuscany”) 20 minutes, rub garlic on to hot, thick toast slices, moisten in cooking water, top with drained kale, drizzle with olive oil, salt and black pepper.
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