How to grow spring kale as soft as lettuce

Perhaps it is a little perverse to talk about kale when the season is finally allowing us to look ahead to summer. Why talk of winter vegetables when you can start thinking of sweet lettuce hearts? But we surely need to stop seeing kale as being only for the winter; sure, it is a cold-weather vegetable, but it can be as tender as any lettuce.

Kale is ancient stuff: it’s considered to be far closer to wild cabbage than, say, brussels sprouts or broccoli. In case you missed the millennial memo, kale is king of nutrition. It’s certainly the most nutritious vegetable you can grow at home. In fact it’s a multivitamin, without the plastic pot.

Now, there’s a small rub to all these health benefits, which is that you need to eat your kale raw.

Faced with a tough bunch of winterhardy leaves, that’s a daunting task; but kale can be as tender as any other leafy green, as long as it is picked young and small. And the best way to grow it is as cut and come again.

The best leaves are somewhere between 5-10cm high. For a continuous supply, sow roughly every two weeks. Sow direct from now onwards and thin seedlings to 7.5cm apart.

Although kale is more than capable of surviving periods of drought, that’s when you get tough leaves. If you are transplanting young plants to their final growing position, puddle them in with plenty of water and mulch. If your leaves are too tough to eat, massage with salt and oil and let them sit for 30 minutes before dressing with a vinegar or lemon juice; you’ll find they flop delightfully that way.