Preserving the Kale harvest

The super cold forecast prompted me to pick the kale that I planted back in August. The Lacinato type has grown well, but I was afraid that the super cold weather would damage it, so I harvested all the viable leaves and left the rest. We’ll see if any of it survives.

So I started with a pretty huge pile of kale.

The first step in the process is to carefully wash all the leaves. Then I removed the stem from each leaf by cutting on either side of it. This is a kind of tedious task, but necessary because the stems are really tough.

Here’s about half the kale with the stems removed. You can see how much less space it takes.

Then I brought a boil of water to a boil and added the kale to blanch it.

Once the leaves softened, I removed them and put them in ice water to cool them quickly.

Once they were cooled completely, I drained them in a colander and then repeated the process with the other half of the kale.

Here’s all the kale that I processed. It’s not very impressive given the huge pile I started with.

Stay safe during this dangerously cold weather.