20 Reasons to Love Kale

• By
• Sharon Hanna

Image by Flickr/B*2
Healthy and easy to grow, kale can be prepared in over 80 different ways

As if you didn't already love kale, here are 20 more reasons to fall for this affable veggie

I loved Carol Pope's blog about kale . . . not surprisingly, seeing as I wrote an entire book about kale! 

It really is a great veggie to use in umpteen ways, including the 80+ recipes in The Book of Kale, which, I might add, were so much fun to create and test on friends and neighbours!

Even so, there are kale cynics among us. Hard to believe, but true. In case you are/know a Kale Curmudgeon or Kale Killjoy, or someone who is simply neutral, here are 20 very good reasons why you should grow (and love) kale!

Oh, and get those seeds in the ground now for overwintering! Your planting window is mid June to the third week of July.

20 Reasons to Become a Kale Believer

1. You can grow high-quality organic greens for yourself and your family year-round in most climate zones.
2. Veggies grown in good soil, especially using organic methods, are superior nutritionally to those grown using monoculture farming methods.
3. Vegetables retain maximum nutrients when eaten soon after harvest. The faster it goes from the garden to your mouth (or the mouths of your family) the better.
4. Kale is the easiest vegetable to grow organically.
5. Kale is a nutrient-dense powerhouse with the highest concentration of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients of any vegetable.
6. You can eat your vitamins, minerals and micronutrients in their original form instead of a pill.
7. Kale tastes sweet and delicious after a freeze or two. Store-bought kale is usually not grown in cold climates, so if you live in a climate where your kale can be kissed by frost, you can totally take advantage of this. There is nothing like walking out to your garden in late January with a basket and filling it with gorgeous, healthy greens for your dinner.
8. There are more than 80 yummy ways to prepare kale in The Book of Kale alone.
9. Save money on food! Organic kale, which is the best choice it if you don’t grow it, costs as much as a dollar per leaf. You can grow kale practically for free in the garden, in containers or even in a bag of soil on your porch. If you ate kale every day – simple with the recipes in this book – it would be easy to save hundreds of dollars a year on food, compared to buying greens at the grocer.
10. Lessen your carbon footprint by making fewer trips to the store in the car. Plus, no plastic wrapping or refrigeration is needed.
11. Gardening is a great form of mild exercise. Nibbling fresh kale from the garden while you are doing it makes it even healthier.
12. Gardening is great therapy. In my opinion, there’s nothing more soothing or hopeful than putting your hands in the earth and tucking in some (kale) seedlings.
13. Gardening is a fun way to be with your family, and can be an exciting learning adventure for your children or grandchildren.
14. Kale is a very bee-supportive plant and other beneficial insects also love its flowers.
15. Kale makes for a great gift. Package up the seeds, make seed-paper cards, or give it away as an edible bouquet.
16. Even if you don’t have a garden, kale microgreens grow indoors easily.
17. In addition to being useful and tasty, kale is pretty; black, red, white, purple or glossy green, ruffled, curly, flat-leaved or fluffy, kale can look gorgeous in pots, potager gardens or even as an edible hedge in your front yard.
18. Kale is self-seeding, so if you don’t want to fuss at all, just put it where it can grow at will and you will always have it.
19. Kale is a super easy way to make better use of some of your lawn space. Just layer a lasagna garden over top of it and plant it up with this simple and pretty year-round edible.
20. Every bit of your garden-fresh kale plant is delicious: the stems, leaves, buds and the flowers.