Move over winter kale... spring vegetables coming in soon! - Shifting from winter salads to spring salads..

Yesterday I harvested all of my winter kale.  This photo is a bit deceptive in that there is A LOT of kale here... it's about eight inches or more deep:




On the left side is Red Russian Kale.  The variety originally came from Siberia and it is hearty to up to -10 F. 

The seeds came from Seed Savers Exchange:

http://www.seedsavers.org/onlinestore/kale/Kale-Red-Russian-OG.html

The flavor of this kale is sweet (evidently frost causes this variety to sweeten).  Our family LOVES it.  The stems are even sweeter than the leaf.  My daughter and I chew on the fibrous stems like sugar cane.  The more tender parts of the stems are very easy to eat.

To the right of the Red Russian is Dwarf Blue Kale from Botanical Interests.  It is also super cold hearty and to me it tastes a bit like broccoli.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EPLXWZU/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Finally, on the right bottom corner is Levewa Spinach.  This is a very tender variety with a delicious flavor (has a bit of a tart bite).  This also came from Botanical Interests.  This spinach came out with the kale because they were planted close to each other.  I think I still have some mileage on the remaining spinach before it's time to plant something else where it presently stands.  This variety is supposed to be heat resistant.

We have been eating off of our kale and spinach all winter long... it's delicious in salads.  Example of one of my special family dinner winter salads below (my wife took some of the rainbow carrots and also made ribbons with a potato peeler).  Lettuce is made up of some store-bought romaine lettuce as well as some of my own cool variety microgreens (my own winter pansies added for color):




Today I used my final kale harvest to make my Cod and Kale Soup.  Our family can't get enough of it and the crop of Red Russian Kale gives it a new and wonderful flavor.  I also put in celery, onions, potatoes and great north beans.

Looking good Windmere

windmere, beautiful! I eat our kale, but can't say i really enjoy it. I guess it doesn't get cold enough around here to make it sweet, but it sure grows well and is soooo good for you. That pic of your salad is gorgeous! Mind if I copy it?
Nice job!!

Love the pictures.  It gives us northerners hope that we'll be harvesting crops from our own gardens in the next couple of months, even if its just lettuce, radishes and greens.

wow what a very creative and beautiful salad your wife made for your family!!! Thank you for sharing some pics with us!

we noticed our kale flowers have a broccoli flavor to them and enjoy those over fresh kale.....

we were able to dehydrate 2 pints full of kale, 1 pint full of swiss chard and 2 quarts of cabbage last year from the garden....it was wonderful to add to stews, soups and casseroles over the winter and now our new baby chicks are enjoying these dehydrated treats as well   

for some reason we like the kale and swiss chard dehydrated over fresh.....not sure why?? maybe because of smaller pieces as we run it thru the blender before putting it into the glass jars.....

happy gardening
rose

Beautiful salad and harvest Windmere!

GG

Great color combo in the second picture!

Thank you all for your kind comments.  Each positive result gives motivation to try even more varieties!

FamilyGardening... I would love to try dehydrating some of my kale.  None left now, but I will try next season!

Nice looking kale!

I grew the dwarf blue kale from Botanical Interests that you did, too, but all of it either failed to germinate or never got over an inch, then died, except for a I think two plants which are only just now a few inches high. Our winter got down to 15 degrees, which I thought they were supposed to be able to handle, but I guess not.

Love the flowers in your salad.

Gorgeous looking salad!

You have been keeping secrets from us! WOW! What an awesome looking harvest and great job you have done. I may have to come visit you for some lessons   

REALLY nice, Windmere!