How to Harvest Kale

• Kale has become a very popular and easy plant to grow and the dark green leaves are super healthy!
• It goes on and on in the garden with months of eating, but I thought you might like to know how to care for the plant when harvesting the leaves so it just keeps on producing. The white butterfly loves them so I have a  finely wired cage where I grow mine along with my cauliflowers and cabbages, so I don't require any sprays and the leaves don't get chewed by caterpillars ! It works perfectly.
• I love to put 3 or 4 leaves in my smoothie or juice but it also makes a great salad; finely chop or just tear into pieces the leaves, massage in some lemon juice, salt and olive oil & Voila..it's ready and a great accompaniment to any meal ! I sometimes add some nuts, cranberries or sultanas and pomegranate seeds ( they are delish!) but you can add anything really if you so desire, to make it more interesting.
• My real favourite are kale chips; I made a whole batch this week & are they yum oh! Just break or tear the leaves into fairly big pieces & coat with a sauce of your choice.The sauce I poured over was a blend of cashews, sundried tomatoes, lemon juice & zest, maple syrup and a red capsicum, onion & garlic powder, salt all mixed in the food processor to taste; I sometimes add some nutritional yeast which gives it a cheesy flavour. Dehydrate or put in a very very low heat in the oven for a couple of hours on a tray, turn til dry; they won't take long so don't leave them overnight as an example, or they will be ash in the morning !

 “MORE KALE PLEASE”

Here’s Dinosaur Kale – aka Lacinato Kale, and it’s ready for the first picking. It has around 12 mature leaves, and five immature leaves which we won’t pick until the next harvest.

Dino Kale - bend down

First, hold the plant steady and grab the bottom leaf and push down, like in the picture, until the joint between stalk and stem snaps a bit.

Dino Kale - bend right

Next, bend the stem to the right, until it snaps again. You’ll feel it, and probably hear it too. Just bend it, don’t tear – you’ll be able to take it off at this step when you get really good, but not yet – unless you want to hurt the plant.

Dino Kale - bend left

Now bend the leaf to the left, and it should snap again, this time maybe completely off.
You’re trying to separate the leaf from the stalk, right at the joint, without hurting the plant; so you can get around 100+ more leaves off  it.

Dino Kale - bend up

The last step, if the leaf is even still connected, is to bend up, which should break any remaining connection the stem has to the plant. You should see a nice clean break. If all else fails, just cut the stem close to the stalk with scissors.
Then you move on to the next lowest leaf, and then the next one up, and so on, all the way to the top…

Dino Kale - before

Don’t pick the topmost leaves, because they’re the little “solar panels” that are going to drive the plant to grow more leaves for you to harvest… and the cycle continues.

Dino Kale - after

This plant got picked a bit too far, but it’ll live. It still has leaves that’ll grow to maturity and the main bud is still there, so new leaves are being made every second, and you can keep picking for months.
Now you just need to do something with it all. Start with something like a simple kale salad.