Tag Archives: Brassica oleracea

Botanizing in the kitchen with kale

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The farmer’s market this weekend in late March of 2020 was disorienting, and not only because I was wearing a mask and gloves. It was hard to see which line of widely spaced people was snaking into which farmer’s stand, and many vendors had hung tarps and were helping customers through windows. But everyone was as community-spirited as usual, and many of us were uncharacteristically patient.

Yet again, I was beyond grateful for both the opportunity and the means to fill my fridge with fresh green vegetables, including kale. And I was way more excited than usual to find a bunch of kale that had started to elongate its stem and flower because I knew I could use it in another video in our special COVID-19 series of dispatches from our kitchens.

Here’s hoping you stay in good health and good spirits.

 

For many more details about Brassica oleracea see Jeanne’s many terrific posts from the past that cover B. oleracea diversity, chemistry, and comparative morphology.

The extraordinary diversity of Brassica oleracea

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Before the caterpillars attacked: Red Russian kale seedlings

Jeanne turns her frustration with caterpillars in her garden into an exploration of the botany behind an extraordinary species:  Brassica oleracea.

White cabbage butterflies (Lepidoptera: Pieris rapae) decimated the fall kale crop in our garden.  To be fair, the abundant green caterpillars did not consume the entire blade of every leaf.  The remaining nibbled leaves, however, in my husband’s view, no longer resembled food so much as a caterpillar farm that would be tedious to turn into food.  He ripped out the caterpillar farm, threw it on the compost bin, and replaced it with lettuce.  Unlike kale, which is in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), lettuce is in the sunflower family (Asteraceae) and is therefore not even remotely attractive to white cabbage butterflies.

Caterpillar damage on young green curly kale in the garden at Monticello

I was tempted to save the hole-riddled leaves from their compost fate, in part because I know that the munching of the caterpillars actually increased the foliar concentration of some of the compounds that contribute to kale’s nutritious reputation, and also because plummeting autumn temperatures impart an extraordinary sweetness to kale and the other cruciferous vegetables that are all actually varieties of the same species, Brassica oleracea: cauliflower, cabbage, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, Chinese broccoli, and collard greens.  The details of the chemical consequences of caterpillar consumption will soon get a post all their own.  This post is dedicated to the botany and evolutionary biology behind the amazing diversity of B. oleracea. Continue reading →