Hi everyone and especially Spain-based readers craving kale. I’m writing with some potentially good news!
First of all, if you really need kale right this moment, in addition to heading to Barcelona you can (as you may already know) take a trip to Galicia. There, in every home garden and nearly every market, you will spot kale, as I did in the photo below taken in Santiago. It has long been a vegetable staple in the province, and is the de riguer green to add to certain caldos gallegos.
However, if that’s not possible, you now have other options!
First, the seed germinating business that works with farmers in Murcia is now selling dinosaur kale plants via its website so you can now grow at home: http://www.suhuertoencasa.com.
Locals can pick up but if you live elsewhere send a note via their contact page to see what they can manage in terms of shipping. Their road to kale happened in the usual Murcian way – the professor to whom I supply seeds uses their service, the now retired father loved kale, and his children who now run the business sell seedlings. The cost? 20 cents per plant.
Even better, yesterday kale got national press when when El Mundo, the paper with the second largest circulation in Spain, ran a pretty decent article about our favorite leafy green . Could it have been in honor of National Kale Day? Who knows, but it was nice to see, and hopefully lots of others saw it as well and will start to ask for kale. Local crops will be ready for harvest soon, and we are working on a “jornada de kale” to take place in Cehegin / Murcia later this fall or winter that will include growers, restauranteurs and hopefully lots of tasters.
Spaniards and expats, keep the faith!