Kale (incl. Dino)

The longest-running crop on the calendar: kale picked from June straight through December snow. Spring plants carry the summer, and a July round grows the sweet after-frost leaves that are the real reason to bother.

Growing

Start indoors in early April, six weeks ahead, and transplant out in May; kale takes light frost at either end of the season without complaint. One plant per 5 to 7 gallon bag, or a foot apart in the bed. Start a second round in July for fall, which yields cleaner, sweeter leaves once the cold arrives. Harvest outer leaves and leave the center working; a plant treated this way runs for months. If leaves pale midseason, feed lightly; it is a leaf crop and can use the nitrogen. Water is a texture question: kale survives an August drought without drama and then makes you chew the consequences.

Varieties

Lacinato is the Dino on the card: dark, savoyed, best texture of the lot. Winterbor supplies cold-proof volume, and Red Russian gives tender leaves for salads.

Pests

Imported cabbageworms arrive as soon as the white butterflies do; check leaf undersides weekly and squish, or keep the planting under insect netting from day one. Gray colonies of cabbage aphids tuck into fall plants; a hard hose blast repeated a few days running usually ends it. Flea beetles pinhole spring seedlings, but transplants outgrow the damage.

In the kitchen

Raw and massaged when the leaves are young, braised with garlic when they are not, and chips whenever the oven is on anyway. December kale cut from under snow is the sweetest of the year.