The Best Kales

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Start this cold-hardy crop now for sweet soups and salads this winter.

by John Navazio

Count kale as one of the true treasures of the fall garden, with its sweetness revealed only after old Jack Frost has kissed its leaves a time or two. This ultra-cold-hardy, leafy green vegetable is a reliable deeply satisfying addition to any cool-weather garden. Some types have tender leaves perfect for salads. Some are great steamed or in stews, and some are so hardy you can harvest them even in the dead of winter almost everywhere. And, they're beautiful, too.

Many of the folks who buy their produce in season from local farmers have learned to love this unusual, old-fashioned fall and winter vegetable — even though they may not have grown up eating it. Kale is a little-known relative of broccoli and cabbage, with a taste that appeals to both adults and children. During my years as a kale lover, I've run into a number of kale-eating families with young children who relish the vegetable steamed and served simply with butter or perhaps vinegar, with salt and pepper to taste. Deb Kaldahl of the Abundant Life Seed Foundation in Pots Townsend, Washington, says steamed kale is one of the few cooked vegetables her children will eat.

An elite member of a highly nutritious family of foods called the "dark-green leafy vegetables," kale is kin to broccoli and collards, which are its closest relatives; spinach: Swiss chard; and beet, mustard and turnip greens. All are good sources of vitamin K, the B-vitamin folic acid, and betas carotene, which is converted to vitamin A in the liver. Darkgreen leafy vegetables also are exceptionally. high in other carotenoids, including zeaxanthin and lutein, which are powerful antioxidants that protect us from degenerative illnesses like cancer, cardio-vascular disease and age-related macular degeneration (the leading cause of blindness among the elderly).

For years, kale also has been touted as one of the best vegetable sources of calcium — which is especially important for vegans and others who don't consume dairy products. The newest research on calcium's role in human nutrition sheds even snore light of how important kale, collards and broccoli can he: It shows that, in order for the body to assimilate dietary calcium, magnesium also must be present in a meal. Dairy products are rich in calcium but have relatively little magnesium kale and its relatives have substantial amounts of both nutrients.