Red Russian Kale

Red Russian kale is the most tender and sweet of the kales — the deeply serrated, blue-grey leaves with purple-red stems are attractive enough for ornamental use while producing prolifically for the kitchen from late summer through winter and into spring. It is exceptionally frost hardy and actually improves in flavour after a hard freeze, as starches convert to sugars in the cold.

Sow in late summer for autumn and winter harvest, or in early spring for a short cool-season crop before bolting. The yellow flowers that appear in spring when it bolts are edible and sweet — worth harvesting before the plant exhausts itself.