Red Russian flowerspike

Kale ‘Red Russian’ Brassica napus

Right now it’s season for the flowerspikes of kale. I guess the chinese call it kailan? They are crisp and delicious, a gourmet treat in food. You pick them by hand, snapping them off like an asparagus, in this way they break where tenderness have matured into fibres. I’m fond of broccoli, but these flowerspikes are even better – tempting to eat freshly cut. Could it be because ‘Red Russian’ is a cross between kale and black mustard with a doubling of the cromosomes? Extra cromosomes are known from a lot of species, right now I remember the two great and very different apples ‘Gravensteiner’ and ‘Belle de Boskoop’. No genetic engeneering, just results of natures strange ways.

In the toad's garden