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Post by Alan on Feb 17, 2009 18:50:38 GMT -5
Recently sourced some marrow stem kale from AlKapuler mostly out of curiosity and for use as a feed stock here on the farm. Trying to find some more information on it's uses and it's unique marrow qualities. Any thought AlKapuler? ;D
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Post by Hristo on Feb 25, 2009 18:24:15 GMT -5
Tried it last year. Looks like tall Brussels sprouts plant without the miniature cabbages. Has very big leaves. Last week saw that the plants I left for seeds are frozen and this winter was not the coldest here (probably around -12-15 C at worst). What about the taste - honestly I expected something more. The taste is good, but I have eaten and (much) better cabbage stalk cores. I tried it and steamed... not so good!
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Post by ottawagardener on Feb 25, 2009 18:50:47 GMT -5
All I've heard is that it makes great 'broccoli' in the spring.
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Post by Alan on Feb 25, 2009 21:22:41 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies guys, e-mailed Al Kapuler about it and he described it as being similar to Kohlrabi. Got some plants growing now, should be interesting.
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Post by Hristo on Feb 26, 2009 7:00:26 GMT -5
Obviously his variety is quite different than the original Marrow-stem. Lets hope it is better too.
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Post by ottawagardener on Feb 26, 2009 8:32:39 GMT -5
Hristo, do tell about the original variety. I'm very curious. I remember going on a frantic search for this a couple years back but with no luck. Now I have any number of 'kales' to try and back then I didn't know this great group!
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Post by Hristo on Feb 26, 2009 19:23:16 GMT -5
Hm... my mistake... I should say original type, not original variety, because there are more than one variety of marrowstem type kales (like these home.limagrain.co.uk/files/kale-2009.pdf ) and I do not know which variety I grew (bought the seeds from Australia). I do not know much about these kales. For first time I read about them 5 years ago on futurefoods.com (back then they had excellent catalog, but the next year they disappeared!!!). Here is citation: "A very old variety—pre 1865—often used as cattle fodder. It forms a tall stalk, often more than 1m tall, that can be up to 15cm across. The inside of this stem contains a tasty “marrow”. Thinly sliced and stir-fried it is too good for cattle, especially if harvested when the stem is young, no more than 8 cm across. Not altogether hardy, so best sown in early spring for a late summer harvest." It was very hard to find seeds, and as I see they are still very rarely offered (in small quantity). Found this site shop.reinsaat.at/cgi-bin/katalog.cgi/sorten?art=CVDiverse&id=&lang=eng but this variety looks smaller. |
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Post by alkapuler on Feb 26, 2009 21:33:49 GMT -5
-the seeds i sent to Alan were for plants that get 3-5' tall with large leaves, the stems are swollen towards the top of the plant and they have a mixture of traits as if a tall kale crossed with kohlrabi and was selected for what is now called Marrowstem Kale
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Post by Hristo on Feb 27, 2009 7:05:32 GMT -5
Your variety sounds really very interesting. Is lodging a problem? I had such problem with my plants even without extra weight on top (they were as high as yours).
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Post by alkapuler on Feb 27, 2009 16:22:45 GMT -5
plants stand up well without staking
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Post by Hristo on Feb 27, 2009 18:14:26 GMT -5
No doubt, very interesting variety!
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