November 05, 2010

Kale Facts


Curly kale
Curly Leaf Kale
 Last night's dinner featured a vegetable I wasn't very familiar with- kale.  When I saw it, I knew I'd eaten it before- in an Olive Garden Toscana soup that I'm particularly fond of.

Today I read up a little on this vegetable. I grew up in a household where grean beans, corn, peas, carrots and lima beans were the usual go-to-vegetables, so I really wasn't sure what kale looked like when Jeffrey described the recipe.  I pictured kind of a cross between celery and cabbage, and although kale is a member of the cabbage family, my mental picture was completely wrong.  I was probably thinking of endive, another vegetable I'm not well-acquainted with.

Turns out, in medieval times, kale was the most common vegetable.  (I wonder what happened to change things so radically?)

A serving provides over 1000% of an adult's vitamin K requirements (!), and it's also good for reducing muscular inflammation.  The taste is pleasant enough, in a green leafy way, and I would recommend cutting it into fairly small pieces, because it can be a little chewy.  It's said to be easy to grow, so maybe we'll plant a few in the garden next year.

I'm excited that it's [almost] the weekend.  Today is the grand opening of the Trader Joe's grocery store in West Des Moines, and hopefully we'll find time to check that out later.  Tomorrow should be fun, too.  I'm going to Albia, Iowa to Cria Fest.  I will see several of these (no, not the guy in the poncho!):

File:Bolivian Alpaca.jpg

That cross between a poodle and a llama is an alpaca.  Aren't they cute?  I'm going to visit  a farm where they are raised.  

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