native to: Asia Minor and the Mediterranean
in season here: all year, except maybe late summer
Let's look at one more brassica as we move into the bounty season. Kale is one of the "superest" of the super foods, with more vitamin C than an orange and more calcium than milk. It can help cure or prevent just about everything, from hair loss (vitamin A helps keep hair moisturized and iron deficiency can cause hair loss) to death (getting plenty of potassium is associated with a 20% lower risk of death from all causes). In fact, there are so many things kale is good for, I won't go into all the details here. Check out any of the "Read more" links below for the full story. What it all boils down to is, as the old phrase goes, kale is "good for what ails you."
Kale does best in cool weather and is generally considered a winter crop; like with most brassicas, a light frost makes it sweeter. However, northwest summers are usually cool enough that some variety of kale is probably going to be available at the farmers' market whenever you want it. This is good because kale tends to hang onto its pesticides when grown conventionally, so this is the time to insist on organic produce.
Read more:
label-style nutrition information for raw kale
label-style nutrition information for cooked kale
medical and nutritional article from Medical News Today
short overview with recipe ideas from Web MD
Nutrition And You
Versión en español: this post is also available in Spanish
Esperanta traduko: this post is also available in Esperanto, because Dana is a language geek
