Kale

One of the oldest types of cabbage, spring cabbage was already cultivated in ancient Greece and Rome. However, its image has suffered at times. Since this winter vegetable, with its high vitamin C content, has become available in the form of baked crisps or as an ingredient for green smoothies in recent years, it has regained some of its importance. Thanks to its diverse range of shapes and colors, spring cabbage is also often used to liven up flower borders.

Sativa works closely with ProSpecieRara to breed spring cabbages with a focus on the further development of old varieties. Sativa is working on breeding different types of spring cabbage, both smooth-leaved an curly leaved palm kales.

Tender and sweet varieties are suitable for raw consumption. Finely curled varieties are often used for cooking. Densely sown as a baby leaf, the young leaves can be harvested several times over the winter. Fully grown leaves are more suitable for cooking because of their coarser structure. Unlike other types of cabbage, spring cabbage only lasts a few days in the fridge but freezes well.

Spring cabbage needs a longer cold period around the freezing point for its sweet flavor to develop. Palm kale does not need a cold stimulus and can be harvested directly in autumn. Fertilize the soil sufficiently, possibly earth up. Cultivate at a density of approximately 5 plants per m². For a continuous harvest throughout the winter, harvest leaves from the bottom up. As members of the cruciferous family of plants (Brassicaceae), club root and whitefly can cause problems in spring cabbage cultivation.