I started growing Kale this year - because I felt I ought to. Also the "idea" of Cavolo Nero was somehow all Italian and moody. In short I thought that if I grew exotic Italian Kale I would turn into a brooding Italian type myself - floppy hair - a tuscan villa - possibly with the "Bella Figura" to match.
So I planted out a whole tray of little plugs from seed and off we went. Dramatic success - Kale grew. - my hair didn't. I still have to eat all the stuff to get thin again and fit into an Italian tailored suit.
The Chiltern Seeds catalogue is a joy - it's only the second year I have bought anything from it. Jane is a devotee and pores over all the flowers. The little seperate vegetable supplement is just a treasure. The cartoons make it.
There are perhaps half a dozen different Kales in the Chiltern catalogue - I am "using" Cavolo Nero "Black Magic" in my quest to become an Italian dream - the kind of guy who sips his coffee from a teeny tiny cup and discusses local political corruption and the state of the flyovers - but looking stunning and well tailored. Perhaps I should try "Nero de Toscana" this year - play some Arias while I scatter it with wild abandon over my first raised bed.
I do actually eat the stuff - for breakfast even. Below is Kale and French beans steamed and then mixed up with some Clear spring Unami paste (Great stuff - the one I use a kind of miso and ginger type concoction). I flipped up a couple of pieces of Halumi to tag along with that. I read a book called Clean and Lean Warrior a few years ago - somehow the habit of eating vegetables at breakfast seems to have stuck. Its certainly good for me to get away from carbs and sugar as I try to slim down. I have a long way ago but have lost 5 kg this year so far. Its all one isn't it so if I can grow and eat my own Kale and avoid toast and cereals thats a start.
This morning Jane left Dubai with the boys - they are back to school after a half term and most excitingly Jane is off to put the finishing touches to the house in Hale which sells on Wednesday. I fly back tomorrow lunchtime.
I made a silly kind of promise to myself a few years ago. One I really want to follow through on. Having so much "stuff" now and never really having wanting for anything I really should take a year at some point in my life and just try and feed myself. Obviously thats probably impossible to the degree of 100 % but the new house is certainly a part of that plan, With over 4 acres there is no reason why I should not be able to put an awful lot of food on the table.
So apart from making me feel a bit more Italian the Kale is part of that plan. If I can start to think about laying out a number of raised beds I think Kale is both good for you and most importantly looks fantastic. I don't just want to grow lines and lines of food - crops. I want to make something that is far more like a pottage or cottage garden. I have got to thinking that Kale is almost like a shrub and could be used in a long raised bed to add some architecture and interest. Perhaps broaden out into two or three different types and set off some flowers against the stuff to make the whole thing pretty - some annuals.
So as a gesture of grand hope I am going to make my vegetable seed order using my new address. Even if I can get a few pots on the go around the house while I start to think about where the Pottager is going in that would be a good "colonial" step. Thats the definition of colonisation - growing a crop - if I take Matt Damons word for it in The Martian. Stepping out but not quite that far.
Kale is beautiful. It definitely has a place in my New World.
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