Quantity: 50 Seeds

Purple Island Kale is an amazing new variety that I've been developing since 2015. It originates as a mutated variety of Red Russian Kale, but is superior in every way. Compared to Red Russian Kale, Purple Island is more vigorous, the leaves grow significantly larger, taste better, and are more tender. The last 3 photos show a comparison of Purple Island and Red Russian Kale. 

Kale is related to broccoli and cabbage, as it's a member of the brassica family. The Leaves can be eaten at any stage of life. They can be sautéed, steamed, fried, added to soups, roasted into chips, and the young leaves can be added into salads. Also, the flowering shoots make an excellent substitute for broccoli; they're just as good, if not better. Kale has a sweet, savoury, and almost pungent flavour that lends itself nicely to so many dishes. Purple Island Kale is an especially resilient variety, and it can handle frost and snow quite well. In fact, frost and snow make the leaves taste even sweeter. Kale truly is one of the most valuable plants to have growing in any winter garden, as it's one of the last plants to provide a harvest, and one of the first to start producing in the spring.

Growing Instructions:

Sow indoors a few weeks before last frost and set outside when danger of freezing temperatures have passed, or direct sow anytime until August. Plants can be harvested as baby greens in under a month, but larger leaves can be harvested in about 45-50 days after sowing. It's best to harvest the leaves in order of growth, from the ground up, as this will encourage the plant to grow upwards, and develop a beautiful palm tree shape. Under ideal growing conditions, it will grow to be 8 feet tall in its second year, and 3ft wide. regular harvesting can help maintain space and avoid overcrowding. These plants are resilient, and don't need much beyond mulch and regular watering. Kale is hardy down to zone 6, so can tolerate frost and snow quite well. It thrives best in full sun, but will also yield a decent harvest when grown in partial shade. It likes to grow in just about any type of soil, and doesn’t seem to be particular to PH, but the soil needs to be free draining of water. These plants are drought, flood, disease, and somewhat pest resistant, and depending on your region, can provide high quality food for 12 months of the year.

All seeds are organic and open pollinated.

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