A bed of my winter kale
Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone”. Still, as my observations chew mostly on non-bread matters, I thought I’d put in a good word for food today.
I grow and harvest kale all year around here in California. As far as I know, this is the most nutritious veggie on the planet. Kale just boiled and served soon gets old. Chinese stir-fry is great. Then there are kale chips: chopped kale, chili, soy, tahini, lemon, garlic. Juicing kale is my favorite. Adding lemon juice or citric acid turns it into a delicious kale fruit juice.
Examine the nutrient chart below to see just how perfect kale is. RDA is the USDA’s recommended daily amount. If you only ate kale, you’d have to eat 8 pounds of it to give you the 2000 calories you need daily. But just look at the incredible surplus of essential minerals and vitamins you’d get. Even if you only ate a fraction of that 8lbs. you’d do far better nutrition wise than before.
Kale is extremely cold hardy, which made it a staple for Siberian serfs; they needed all the nutritional help they could get! Kale is also remarkably insect and disease resistant.
So, if you have a plot of dirt handy, do your biology a favor and plant kale. It is easy to grow, and if you let some go to seed, little kale sprouts will pop up here, there and everywhere. To optimize this, all you need do is pluck the seedlings out and replant them with enough space between each plant.
Well, that’s all from farmer Carl (Carl actually means farmer in Swedish as I recall… or was it strong man? Maybe it was strong farmer man. Thanks kale!).
| KALE | RDA | gram/3.5 oz. | gram/8 lbs. | % Surplus |
| Calories (c.) | 2000 c. | 50 c. | 2000 c. | |
| Protein | 50 | 1.9 | 76 | 152% |
| Fats | 2 | 0.4 | 16 | 800% |
| Carb | 250 | 5.6 | 224 | 90% |
| Fiber | 22 | 2 | 80 | 364% |
| Calcium | 1200 | 72 | 2880 | 240% |
| Phos | 1200 | 28 | 1120 | 93% |
| Iron | 18 | 3 | 120 | 667% |
| Magn | 400 | 40 | 1600 | 400% |
| Zinc | 18 | 0.5 | 20 | 111% |
| Pota | 5500 | 380 | 15200 | 276% |
| V-A | 5000 | 10000 | 400000 | 8000% |
| V-B1 | 1.5 | 0.15 | 6 | 400% |
| V-B2 | 1.8 | 0.26 | 10 | 578% |
| Niacin | 22.0 | 2.10 | 84 | 382% |
| V-B6 | 2.2 | 0.30 | 12 | 545% |
| Fola | 0.2 | 0.03 | 1 | 580% |
| V-C | 60.0 | 180 | 7200 | 12000% |
| V-E | 11.0 | 1 | 40 | 364% |