kale

When I first moved into this house, I was so excited. It would be the first time I would have a real garden. It would be a very small garden, to be sure, but at least there was a few square feet of ground to get plants into. It wouldn't be a community garden, where the land turns over every year to a new owner, and it wouldn't be a set of pots on a balcony. There would actually be ground that I could plant in, and use in any way that I wanted. Unfortunately, there wasn't room for a vegetable garden. At least not one like the acreage that I grew up on. But I mailed away for $70 worth of vegetable seeds. I tucked in a few Swiss Chard seeds. I grew a dozen of kale seedlings ('Red Winder', 'Lacinato'). I planted a half dozen varieties of tomatoes. I swore that the other seeds would get their chance some day. I spent about $100, fought the rabbits, worms, birds...and had a few meals with the kale and swiss chard. I gave up.

But this year. I decided to plant some kale in a pot. At Aqua Fria nursery in Santa Fe, I found some seedlings of 'Redbor' kale. I don't know why everyone doesn't sell seeds of this kale. In the photos, it is always such a great purple color. And at the grocery stores, there is a dark purple kale. But at the nurseries, and in most catalogs, there is only 'Lacinato' (aka 'Tuscan' or 'Dinosaur'), and 'Red Winder' (aka Red Winter) and 'Dwarf Blue Curled Vates'. None of them with that great purple color. So I had to have the 'Redbor'. In a pot they grew quickly, the cabbage worms found them, but were quickly destroyed. The color was...green. Certainly there was a bit of purple, but nothing like the ones at Whole Foods.

In the last few weeks, the temperature has dropped. Shelob, the spider that made huge webs over the pot has gone. And 'Redbor' has turned purple. I'm lovin' it.