THE CHINESE CABBAGES - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 85

Growing needs. Ornamental flowering kales grow like common cabbages. Because
they're smaller you can plant them close together for a breath taking display. Give them
plenty of moisture and fertilize every four weeks with a fish-and-seaweed or balanced
fertilizer.
Flowering kale develops on thick stalks above the ground. Hill up the soil so the
head rests on it; otherwise it may topple over and break. If spaced so closely that plants
support one another at maturity, this may not be necessary.
Pest potential. Flowering kale doesn't seem to entice pests and diseases, except for
the green cabbageworm, the larval form of the white cabbage butterfly. Their camou-
flage is almost perfect, so look carefully and hand-pick whenever you see them — even
the tiny ones. Or dust plants with the biological insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis ( Bt) .
How to Harvest
Pick the kale anytime you want after plants have formed loose heads, as early as 55
days. To enjoy their color, leave plants to the point of complete maturity, but use them
as soon as possible after you pick them or store in a refrigerator or cool cellar. They do
not keep as well as other cabbages.
Varieties
Almost every catalog lists it somewhere, often called “ornamental kale” or “ornamental
cabbage.”
CULINARY USES
Use flowering kale like any other kale or cabbage. Shred it, boil it, bake it, stuff it!
Miniatures also make beautiful, unusual centerpieces, alone or combined with other
flowers. Tuck curly parsley or miniture yellow marigolds among the leaves of the
green-and-white varieties.
For a show-stopper buffet salad, break up the head, scald leaves briefly, then re-
form into the original shape (in a bowl). Then stuff shrimp salad between the leaves.
Beautiful!
Chinese Broccoli
J IE L AN , G AI L AN