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Kale Italian Nero Toscana Organic Seed
Brassica - oleracea
$1.89

Item #3100

This Italian heirloom is also known as Dinosaur Kale, Black Tuscan Kale, Black Cabbage, and Black Palm. A hearty, nutritious kale with vigorous dark green to black leaves, it traditionally is used to add rustic flavor to soups, stews, but also blends wonderfully in grain dishes. Try sautéed in olive oil with garlic and tossed with pasta. Delizioso! If you plant it in the spring, you can harvest the first shoots as tender young salad greens and achieve full-sized plants in two months. But, you must also try growing it in fall, because a little kiss from a fall frost only makes it sweeter! Plants may over winter in mild climates. Rich in nutrients such as Vitamin A, C, K, calcium, folic acid, and powerful anti-oxidants. Intense nutrition to fuel the passionate gardener! See recipe inside packet for Tuscan Kale Pesto.

When to plant outside: Early spring when soil temperatures are at least 60 degrees for a late spring/summer crop, in late summer for a fall crop, or (in USDA zone 7 or warmer) you can sow in fall for a winter or very early spring crop. Seed can also be sown in successive plantings every 3 weeks starting in early spring.

When to start inside: 10 weeks before the average last spring frost and transplant outdoors 6-8 weeks later.

Special Sowing & Germination Instructions: Easy to grow from seed. Thin seedlings by pinching off plant at soil surface, thus decreasing damage to other seedlings. Protect seedlings with caps in early spring if temperatures fall below 30 degrees. Rotate crops, so you don’t have any members of the mustard family in the same place more than once every three years. (Mustard family incudes: alyssum, iberis, nasturtium, arugula, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, kohlrabi, kale, and mustard).

Harvesting: Kale can be harvested two ways: 1) Cut the entire plant off at ground level 6-8 weeks after seeding or 2) strip the lower leaves off the plant periodically. Plants often over winter outside (even in the north). Mulch thickly when the ground freezes, and you can harvest again in early spring.

(To view more information about growing kale, click here.).