"New" Vegetable

[henryh]

Where have you seen kale for sale (poet and don't know it) in PK area?

Haven't tried it for years and afraid last experince must have been some pretty mature stuff.

[rinso]

Where have you seen kale for sale

I think my wife buys the seeds it at Agri or K-maatalous in Kuopio.
As a vegetable I have seen it (once) in citymarket.

[henryh]

What are they calling Kale in Finnish?

[littlefrank]

lehtikaali

I know because my ex grew loads of it on her allotment, ate the bloody stuff for weeks, hate it now.

http://www.ipsitilla.fi/Reseptit/oksida ... opuksi.htm

But is kale worth growing, isn't it very cheap? may not be worth it.

[henryh]

But is kale worth growing, isn't it very cheap? may not be worth it.

I think you are exactly right in terms of dedicating 0-2 ha for it, but did wish to try it again.

[littlefrank]

When I was picking up my daughter today I mentioned kale to my ex, she said last time she saw it on sale it was expensive and you can also dry it and it still tastes good. Hey when I worked on farms I just drove a tractor.

[Hank W.]

Well, it seems that one thing (if you cater to the expat crowd and hit a deal) is to grow "halloween pumpkins".

My dad used to grow (old skool might remember the giant marrows) onions and potatoes to the excess. He got into the "biodynamic farming" in the 80's - I remember as a kid we used "apulanta" and I still have a bagful of the artificial guano, but then he switched to making his own nettles fermented into urea for extra nitrogen. If you have a greenhouse you can grow a lot of stuff.

However if you look into the calendar, and the season lengths, and costs, then you must face you need to put the land growing date palms. And then ask for EU subsidies for not growing dates due to the overproduction.

And the best "bang for the buck" you get is either direct selling to restaurants or privates or then going to the "tori" at 5.30.

[henryh]

Well, it seems that one thing (if you cater to the expat crowd and hit a deal) is to grow "halloween pumpkins".

That was probably true up until the last couple of years. They now are very available at 'decent' prices most everywhere. And it's a one-time shot. And the other problem is that Jack O'Lantern pumpkins are really not suited for eating. You can. But the meat is not as good as other less JackO types.

This chap grew JackO's for me for a couple of years with seeds I got from US and all was fine.

I just don't think this is anymore suitable

And the best "bang for the buck" you get is either direct selling to restaurants or privates or then going to the "tori" at 5.30.

Mind you, this whole deal is hardly to really make money but just to have some fun with something that would be economically feasible. My own idea is that it should be a product with sufficient intrinsic value(ie non biomass), can be sold fresh, frozen and pickled/preserved, sensible harvesting costs - and sufficiently 'exotic' to be interesting.

[Hank W.]

So why don't you sow in those 50cl Koskenkorva bottles and wait until they grow up to 1,5 litre bottles then

[henryh]

So why don't you sow in those 50cl Koskenkorva bottles and wait until they grow up to 1,5 litre bottles then

Sure would solve the pickling aspect, especially for the consumer

[littlefrank]

From kale to ale.