![]() ![]() (Edited 4/6/11: I found this at another local nursery labeled tree collard, aka “Jersey Cabbage,” an heirloom brassica from the British Channel Isles. For now, its beauty is nourishment enough. I haven’t tasted its lacy leaves yet, shown just emerging in the photo. And take Crithmum maritimum, samphire, sea fennel, an edible coastal dweller from Great Britain reputed to be amazing with seafood. But it still makes my head spin to think lilies are eaten in China. There’s not such a bright line between edible and ornamental, as some of us have lazily assumed (raises hand). I’m hoping they’ll bloom late summer among some gold-leaved sedges. The garlic chives are distinguished from regular chives by their flat leaf, as opposed to the cylindrical, hollow leaf of chives, A. The local nursery where I found the tree collard (grown by Certified Plant Growers, Inc., Norwalk, California), also has a good assortment of various chives, shallots, elephant garlic, all manner of alliums. Speaking of garlic, I’ve been reading such good things about garlic chives, Allium tuberosum, as an ornamental as well as for the kitchen, that I was about to embark on a costly mail order shipment. Just keep the olive oil and garlic handy. I’m more of a last-minute grazer than a plan-ahead cook, so interesting leaves and herbs are my speed exactly. No tomatoes just yet they’re still grown in the vegetable garden (my mom’s). This is how I’m crab-walking sideways into mixing a few edibles into the main garden. If mine is a hybrid, it might need to be stabilized by culling off-types. Since there is some confusion regarding Kale versus Collards, plus no barriers to hybridization, that might explain how someone might have hybridized them and not realized that there is a difference. Those are more collard-like than mine (some say “like miniature palm trees”). They were bred as livestock fodder (and are currently grown as novelty items, or to manufacture “walking canes” to sell to tourists). Plus that might explain why the California strain is reputedly more tender and palatable than other Tree Collard strains, which are reputedly tough and cabbagy. Note the decidedly purplish leaves with a slightly ruffled margin. The Tree Collards I have are probably of the famous strain that passes from neighbor to neighbor and at certain permaculture plant saleĬircles in the East Bay Area pretty sure it’s a hybrid. It was bred from probably a more northerly strain of the same species that Collards were bred from. Cabbage was bredįrom wild cabbage to have the fat tight bud, so as to be storable through the winter. For this reason, Africans and Afroamericans often eat Collards while northern and eastern Europeans and their descendants far more familiar with cabbage. You can grow them in places like southern Georgia where it is too hot for cabbage. I don’t know why…they might actually have a bit of tropical blood in them. If you ever travel in Europe and get something that looks like salad greens but is a bit tougher and heartier than lettuce, and often fairly pretty shades of blue-green or purple, often with a ruffled leaf margin (varies from highly frilled toĬollards are very commonly eaten in the subtropics and tropical highlands, because they don’t bolt as easily as their domesticated cousin cabbage does. It is not commonly-eaten among the British, which is why they might use the word for something else. “Kale is commonly-eaten on the European continent, especially as you go further east where lettuce is harder to grow due to the severity of the climate. Although they are considered different species, there are no genetic barriers to crossing them. Kale is a more “salady” vegetable, often used as a winter salad green that is available over a longer season than lettuce. Collards are Brassica oleifera var acephala. “ In the UK, people tend to refer to what everybody else in the world calls “Collards” as “Kale”. DiBenedetto’s scholarly insights into collards and kale. This is an abridged version containing Mr. ![]() Image of Cussonia paniculata from Tower Hill Botanic GardenĪnd if you’re savvy enough to be asking yourself, “What’s the difference between Tree Collards and Walking Stick Kale?” Michael DiBenedetto elucidated this distinction in a 5/2/09 Gardenweb post. I’m envisioning an edible cussonia, although the tree collard may possibly fall short of a cussonia’s good looks. acephala, the mighty Tree Collard, a perennial. That’s 8 to 10 feet, with anecdotal reports of 20-year-old plants reaching heights of 20 feet! (And I’ll take mine braised, thank you very much.)īrassica oleracea var. ![]()
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