PlantFiles: Siberian Kale
Brassica napus var. pabularia 'Red Russian'

Not only do I love the flavor of this plant, but I have an interesting thing to report: I left a few Red Russian Kale STALKS in the garden last summer. This summer - it's actually... putting out new leaves. Amazing! Talk about a plant that's cold hardy. It went through a long snow covered winter in the rockies - and I actually just harvested a bunch of leaves for lunch the other week. HA! =)

Have grown this one for 3 years now. Has always produced large plants that tolerate the heat well. Harvesting the outer leaves, we have been able to harvest from a plant until into the early winter in central Illinois.

Odd. I purchased this species of Kale from Sustainable Seed Co, however, mine turned out quite a bit different from the photos. I'll add a picture. Wonderful plant. Leaves were longer than my arms (I have long arms). Delicious in stews/soups/saute's. Highly recommend.

Puget Sound area, so relatively mild conditions but we over-wintered this plant. It was very productive and a delicious addition to the garden. When it went to seed, we added the blossoms to the salad and enjoyed that also. It produced a lot of seed (which got into our compost!) and so I expect seed saving strategies would be successful. Delicious (we do cut out the heavier stems) as a salad and I presume also cooked. I strongly recommend this plant.

Red Russian Kale is mild, tender, yet flavorful and easy to grow. Relatively pest free compared to the other greens in my garden. I'm growing some in full sun and some in part-shade. Both locations are doing well.

Great kale to grow. I love to use it in salads, but you can cook it as well. Very versatile plant and winter hardy.

I planted this kale in San Marcos, TX during the fall and accidentally dropped some of the seeds outside the garden. The plants outside garden grew larger and faster than the ones in the garden. We have a blackland clay here and it seemed to love it. I threw some more seeds on the ground this spring and sure enough, they are taking off much faster than the ones I just planted. They are good if cooked in olive oil with a bit of soy sauce. Fast growing. I havent tested them in the Texas summer heat yet.

Hardy to -10 degrees. Also known as 'Ragged Jack'.

The leaves of Russian Red are a blue green with reddish veining. The deeply lobed and ruffled leaves are extremely tender to eat. This is an heirloom variety and gets its name from the belief that Russian traders brought it to America. Harvest: 50 days.