Kale is a green and leafy vegetable that is mostly known for the high amount of nutrients contained in it. The plant is from the family of mustard which also includes several other vegetables like brussels sprouts and cabbages. The leaves taken from kales include several medicinal properties that make them a great plant to keep in your garden. These include having nutrients that can help in managing the blood pressure levels inside your body, along with boosting your digestion and protecting people from diabetes by lowering their sugar levels.
When harvesting kale, people will notice that they only have to take off the leaves present on the vegetable, and then they can proceed to eat them. Though, in some cases, the vegetable can also start growing flowers on it. When it comes to this, there are tons of people who question “Can you eat kale after its flowers?”. If you are also wondering about this, then going through this article should help you in understanding everything required about the query.
Can You Eat Kale After It Flowers?
Simply answering the question, the answer is “yes”, kale can be eaten even after it flowers. However, there is some additional information that people should be familiar with. Going through it can help you in understanding how the flowers affect the presence of nutrients on the leaves and how the issue can be tackled. At first, people will notice that most users recommend taking off your plant and growing a new one whenever it starts flowering.
This might confuse some of you but the main reason behind it is that the flowering of kale plants lowers the number of nutrients on its leaves. Not only this, but the vegetable will also slow down the growth of its leaves and start forming small buds that pop into flowers. This can be quite annoying to deal with, but you should note that the existing leaves still have some nutrients on them. As long as you harvest these carefully, new ones should keep on growing without any problems.
Moreover, the flowers growing on your kale plants are edible as well. These have a unique taste that is slightly similar to the leaves, but it is a lot sweeter in comparison. Talking about this, the taste of these flower buds usually varies depending on how cold the winters were. If your plant has been surviving through winters then the colder temperatures it went through, the sweeter its harvest will be. This not only affects the buds on your kale but its leaves as well.
Keeping this information in mind, if you are someone who is growing the vegetable for its harvest then you should plant it before the season. Giving the roots a touch of frozen temperatures can help in elevating their taste. Getting back to the taste of the flower buds, some people will even claim that this taste better than the leaves. While that might be true, it is important to understand why you have been planting the vegetable. Depending on your usage, the plant might require a replacement.
People who only keep kale plants to use the leaves on them as a bade ingredient for their dishes can also try using the buds. These might feel a little weird the first time, but you will notice that the flowers act as a great substitute. Some people might even prefer using the buds over the regular leaves. On the other hand, if you are someone who had planted the vegetable for its medicinal properties then most of these are lost when the flowers start to bloom.
Hence, the better option for these users is to take off the older harvest and grow new seedlings instead of them. Luckily, new seeds or cuttings can directly be taken from the previous kale plants. The only thing that you need to ensure is how you gather the seeds or cuttings. Several techniques can be used for it and most of these are quite easy to follow. Just make sure that you go through the guides provided online carefully before trying any of them out. People who are feeling hesitant about trying to do this on their own can also get new plants or seedlings from a plant shop nearby.