This morning I read an article about kale, the latest wonder food. It was written with tongue firmly in cheek and resonated with me.
I have noticed how many folk are talking about kale ... that leafy green plant I thought was grown for cattle fodder. Not that my Dad grew it; instead he grew its close relation [well I think it is a close relation] chowmollier which smelt a lot like cabbage. It also looked a little like cabbage but with an extremely long stalk.
Chowmollier was planted as a winter fodder crop for cattle and sheep, along with swede turnips that played an important part in my childhood diet as a table vegetable mashed and sweetened with a little sugar; or plucked directly from the ground, the mud cut off with a pocket knife that fathers and brothers invariably carried in pockets, was a firm winter favourite. Sadly swede turnips in Australia are a poor relation to their New Zealand cousins. It was always said that a swede turnip was no good until after the first decent frost; frosts are not commonplace in this part of Australia.
Upon reading the article it struck me how vegetables come and go in favouritism. I remember spring cabbages that were leafy and green [no doubt in the same class as kale for goodness] whereas today supermarkets favour pale insipid looking cabbage, often cut in half and wrapped in cling foil.
I think I will give kale a miss and look forward to whatever is the 'in vegetable' in future. I hope it isn't mushrooms!
I also read recently about the kale. I did not know what it is and were told that we do not have it in israel.I think mushrooms was "in" few years ago (the japanise mushroom), so you are saved:)
ReplyDeleteKale has always been eaten by a minority of people in Europe, Shirley, though i much prefer spring cabbage which is widely available here.
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