Siberian Kale 'Red Russian'

I 'm also very, very positive. Its taste is so much sweeter than other cabbages. Young leaves are delicious in salads or on a sandwich fo...Read Morer lunch. I use it in different recipes: stews, quiches and so on. Yoo can cut and come again for more new leaves. The plants are healthy and do well in any weather.

For this extraordinary plant, I wish there were a higher category than 'Positive'. I have about 6 plants of this growing in a 2ft D pot w...Read Morehere it has been growing beautifully since I planted it some 10mo ago! I have eaten tons of it and have lots in the freezer, and it is still growing.

I planted this as part of a packet of seeds labeled Mesclun salad blend. A more detailed list of the seed contents showed that it included Red Russian Kale. As I live in an area where winters are usually quite mild, I planted the seeds in a 2ftD pot in Dec for early spring salad greens. In late spring when the temperature started to climb, the rest of the plants in the salad blend quickly went to seeds leaving behind only the Red Russian Kale, about 6 small plants which grew quite large by early summer.

This AMAZING kale has continued to grow beautiful, healthy leaves all through our very hot, humid summer (temps in the low triple digits), something I have never seen any other 'greens' do - and all w/o going to seed. It is now October. The kale has been growing strong for 10mo and is still going.

In spring when the plants were still very young and immature, I ate the tiny leaves in salad. Later as the plant and its leaves grew much larger, I started to cook it. I harvested leaves from the bottom of the plants. When the bare stems were about 3ft high (leaves at the top), I chopped them down, and the plants quickly sprouted new leaves/branches from lower on the stems. Now they are nearly that high again.

In 2mo these kale plants will have been growing and producing for a full year! Oh, and it's also delicious, I think maybe even better than the regular kale. I will definitely plant this kale again - if the current plants ever die, that is.

It will overwinter here in a sheltered bed. It's the most tender of the kales, and keeps its flavor. My fave!

Not only do I love the flavor of this plant, but I have an interesting thing to report: I left a few Red Russian Kale STALKS in the garde...Read Moren last summer. This summer - it's actually... putting out new leaves. Amazing! Talk about a plant that's cold hardy. It went through a long snow covered winter in the rockies - and I actually just harvested a bunch of leaves for lunch the other week. HA! =)