Kale

After years of being relegated through the purgatory of forgotten foods, kale has found itself in the spotlight for the first time in decades and is ready to prove it belongs there permanently. A crop of the ancients, kale has been cultivated for over 2,000 years and was the precursor to modern-day cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. Easy to plant, harvest and propagate, kale was a favorite of both the Romans and the Greeks. The leafy green fell out of favor in many cultures in the last century, as more exotic cruciferous vegetables became popular.

After years of being relegated through the purgatory of forgotten foods, kale has found itself in the spotlight for the first time in decades and is ready to prove it belongs there permanently. A crop of the ancients, kale has been cultivated for over 2,000 years and was the precursor to modern-day cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. Easy to plant, harvest and propagate, kale was a favorite of both the Romans and the Greeks. The leafy green fell out of favor in many cultures in the last century, as more exotic cruciferous vegetables became popular.

On January 2, 2005, REBECCA M. "BECKY" (nee Schline) of Parkville; beloved wife of Nathan A. Kale and loving daughter of Evelyn I. Schline (nee Tillery) and the late William H. " BILL" Schline; devoted mother of Nathan Scott Kale and Lindsey S. Daniels; loving grandmother of Katelyn Kale. The family will receive friends at the family owned and operated MCCULLY-POLYNIAK FUNERAL HOME, P.A., 237 E. Patapsco Ave. (Brooklyn) on Thursday, from 10 to 11 AM at which time services will be held. Interment Cedar Hill Cemetery.

Does it cost more to eat nutritious food? A University of Washington researcher found that customers who spent the most on their groceries were most likely to come close to meeting the federal Food and Drug Administration's recommended nutrition standards, particularly for potassium and fiber, according to this MSNBC story . (Thankfully, most were already within the range of calcium.) They also were more likely to stay within recommended levels of fat and salt. I was surprised by this finding, because I think there are plenty of things that would cost a lot of money --- like cheese and meat --- that are also high in fat and salt and sugar.

Winter is the time for cooking greens, and among greens, kale is one of the mildest. Nutritionally dense and low-calorie, it can break the boredom of pale winter salads and add flavor to soups. Kale has a mild, cabbage-like flavor and comes in many varieties and colors. Most kale is easily identified by its frilly leaves arranged in a loose bouquet formation. The color of the leaves of varieties commonly available in the United States is deep green. There are ornamental varieties in gorgeous shades of lavender, purple and celadon green.

If you eat out or shop the vegetable stalls, the chances are you've seen it. Kale is often treated like the ugly duckling of the greenery field, ignored by otherwise budget- and health-conscious shoppers.Actually, the vegetable, a sort of green cabbage, has a long history of fitting into hearty international menus -- not just braised with chopped onions, meat stock and pork fat, Dixie-style -- but as an ideal ingredient for balancing casseroles.The only preparational trick is cutting out tough stems of the leaves.

When a bag of kale showed up on the doorstep, courtesy of our neighbors departing on an unexpected trip, it raised the age-old question: What to do? What to do? Somehow Asian flavors came to mind, a departure in our house where almost everything has a Mediterranean influence. With ginger root and a few other flavorings, this dish quickly came together. Pork chops were in the fridge, so they became the protein - but chicken would be a delicious substitute. Joe Gray writes for the Chicago Tribune, which provided the recipe and analysis.

The gardener's never-ending search for color, even in the bleak months of fall and winter, has brought cabbage and kale out of the kitchen and into the garden. With the help of hybridizers, these peasant vegetables have been transformed into the colorful stars of late fall. Their blue-green outer leaves can enclose gem-like centers that run the rainbow from creamy white and yellow to deep red, touching on pink and lavender in between. Or their deeply cut and spiky foliage can look like something fanciful from a coral reef.

The addition of stuffing creates layers -- of flavors and textures, of color and form -- that add new dimension to vegetables. The gorgeous longboats of purple Chinese eggplants get a faintly Middle Eastern treatment: here, a stuffing of walnuts and black kale flavored with cumin and pomegranate molasses. The walnuts give both structure and a nutty depth, and the spice notes provide intricacy; together, they allow the dish to play off the classic Mediterranean mezze muhammara, a creamy walnut and eggplant dip. Amy Scattergood wrote this article for the Los Angeles Times, which provided the recipe analysis.

Gay H. McCormick of Westminster wrote that she was seeking a recipe for Potato-Kale Soup. "It was once available from a company called Walnut Acres Organic Farm in Penns Creek, Pa., which has now gone out of business. Ingredients such as kale, potatoes, onions and more were listed on the can. I would greatly appreciate a recipe." Nancy Gabriel of Eldersberg responded with a recipe and a note: "I have used so many recipes over the years that were cut from newspapers - I'm glad to submit one."

Though it's nearly freezing outside, fresh arugula, kale and more greens are flourishing in Hoop Village. That's the name given to Baltimore's newest urban farming venture - a trio of plastic-skinned hoop greenhouses on the historic Lake Clifton schools campus. The structures, finished in October, are already yielding harvests that will provide wholesome snacks to some city elementary students this winter. And students at the three Lake Clifton schools are helping to raise the food they'll be eating.

The gardener's never-ending search for color, even in the bleak months of fall and winter, has brought cabbage and kale out of the kitchen and into the garden. With the help of hybridizers, these peasant vegetables have been transformed into the colorful stars of late fall. Their blue-green outer leaves can enclose gem-like centers that run the rainbow from creamy white and yellow to deep red, touching on pink and lavender in between. Or their deeply cut and spiky foliage can look like something fanciful from a coral reef.

A team of four Cradlerock School students won second place at the 2009 MESA USA National Engineering Contest in Denver last month. The middle-schoolers - Alexis Ligon, Caroline Pyon, Xinxin Guo and Ben Kale - placed for design efficiency and accuracy in the Trebuchet, a catapult competition. The students represented not only Howard County, but the entire state of Maryland during the competition. At the national competition, the team competed against both middle and high school students from across the nation.

During winter, people might eye cabbages and kales for eating, but their relatives, ornamental cabbages and kales, can fill a different kind of hunger -- visual cravings on cold, gray days. "They're grown strictly for the foliage and the different texture they add for the winter months," says Leonard Ichimoto, retail manager at Belmont Nursery in Fresno, Calif. So make sure your landscape isn't devoid of color by planting ornamental cabbages and kales. Not only will they thrive in the cold, their showy leaves will become more vivid as the temperatures become cooler.

On its own teen-horror terms, Disturbia has the cozy delectability of a flapjack flipped just right. When a disgruntled adolescent cracks open a missing-person case by training his binoculars on a neighbor, The Breakfast Club meets Rear Window. The result should satisfy dating crowds from high school to night school. The intriguingly named Kale Brecht (played by Shia LaBeouf) pops his Spanish teacher after the man asks what his father would make of his general misbehavior. Because his dad died in a car wreck - with Kale at the wheel - an understanding judge sentences him to house arrest, complete with ankle bracelet.

The addition of stuffing creates layers -- of flavors and textures, of color and form -- that add new dimension to vegetables. The gorgeous longboats of purple Chinese eggplants get a faintly Middle Eastern treatment: here, a stuffing of walnuts and black kale flavored with cumin and pomegranate molasses. The walnuts give both structure and a nutty depth, and the spice notes provide intricacy; together, they allow the dish to play off the classic Mediterranean mezze muhammara, a creamy walnut and eggplant dip. Amy Scattergood wrote this article for the Los Angeles Times, which provided the recipe analysis.

Today, something will be missing from Ed Clark's diet -- kale.For nine weeks, Clark and 14 other volunteers at Beltsville Agricultural Research Center shoveled down helpings of the green leaves to help scientists determine why Mom was right when she told you to eat your vegetables.Kale for breakfast. Kale for lunch. Take-home kale for the weekend.Today is liberation day. Time for Clark and the others to go back to their regular diets. Time for the scientists at the facility's Human Nutrition Center to gather their data and begin their analysis.

The strawberries and citrus fruit that Joe Bartenfelder is unloading at the Waverly farmers' market this bitter cold Saturday morning come from far away. But his deep-green, tightly curled kale is from right here in Maryland. "It's still our kale," said Bartenfelder, who operates farms in Fullerton, in Baltimore County, and Preston, on the Eastern Shore, where this batch of kale was grown. "Which is unusual, since it is February." Even for kale, a cold-weather crop for which Maryland's climate is perfect, harvests past Thanksgiving Day are noteworthy.

When a bag of kale showed up on the doorstep, courtesy of our neighbors departing on an unexpected trip, it raised the age-old question: What to do? What to do? Somehow Asian flavors came to mind, a departure in our house where almost everything has a Mediterranean influence. With ginger root and a few other flavorings, this dish quickly came together. Pork chops were in the fridge, so they became the protein - but chicken would be a delicious substitute. Joe Gray writes for the Chicago Tribune, which provided the recipe and analysis.