Redbor kale
Brassica oleracea 'Redbor' · Brassica
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Redbor kale is the dramatic deep-purple curly kale — an F1 hybrid of the Brassica oleracea Acephala group whose tightly ruffled, finely curled leaves are a saturated burgundy-to-near-black magenta rather than green. It grows upright into a tall, frilly column up to a metre high, prized as much for the ornamental garden as for the kitchen, where its mild, earthy-sweet curly-kale flavour and sturdy crinkled leaf hold up to braising, soups and roasting into chips while keeping its colour.
Picking a good onedrag
Stiff and blue-greenYellow and limp
Shop freshEveryday bestThe all-rounder: raw or massaged, sautéed, braised, blitzed into soup.
LeafEven green, bloom rubbed off
The bendRib bends, leaf still stiff
Cut endRim drying, pale inside
SmellNeutral, a little cabbagey
These cues are Kale's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
71%
Edible part
355 g · ribs and stems stripped
500 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
A domestic fridge holds it about 5× longer than the counter.
95–100%
Humidity
Loose, never sealed
Airflow