It's Kale Harvest Time!

Kale is a superfood for your body and a super plant for your garden. Not only is it easy to grow, it's also a biennial, which means it can live for two years. The best part about kale is the more you harvest from the leaves, the more the plant grows!

There are many different varieties of kale you can grow in your garden, but you'll harvest them all the same, whether they're the prehistoric-looking leaves of dinosaur kale or the frilly leaves of curly kale.

Let's look at how to harvest kale so it keeps growing and producing lots of delicious leaves for you.

How do you know when to harvest kale?

Kale leaves are ready to harvest when the plant is about 12 inches tall and the outer leaves are about as long as your hand. That typically occurs 50 to 55 days after kale is started from seed. Whenever you plant some kale, mark your calendars about 7 weeks out for kale harvest time.

Harvest the leaves during hotter months when they're young, as older leaves tend to become bitter in the heat.

You want to come out to your garden and harvest your leaves about once or twice a week as soon as your kale leaves are large enough to be harvested. Doing so serves three important purposes:

• It encourages the plant to produce more leaves.
• It deters pests.
• It helps to maintain overall garden health.

Harvest Kale Leaves Often to Encourage the Plant to Produce More Leaves

This may seem counterintuitive, but the more you harvest your leaves, the more energy your plant will spend on making new leaves. Pruning and harvesting is your way of the telling the plant what you want it to do, and in this case, by taking some leaves, you're saying, "More of these, please!"

Harvest Kale Leaves Often to Deter Pests

Regularly removing older leaves from plants (more on that in a bit) alleviates pest pressure. Those older leaves aren't attracting pests to the garden space if they're being harvested frequently, and if pests are already present, they're likely to be on the older leaves, which means harvesting can take care of them (more on that in a bit too).

Harvest Kale Leaves Often to Maintain Overall Garden Health

Harvesting kale frequently also ensures that your other plants have access to the resources they need. If you pack in the plants like I do with my intensive planting method, make sure you come out to harvest and prune frequently so that every plant has the sunlight and air flow it needs. Otherwise, your kale plants can quickly turn into little trees that are taking over your raised bed and hogging all the resources.

If some of your plants look like they could use a little breathing room, that's your sign to grab your needle nose pruners and cut any leaves that are shading interior plants.

Now, let's harvest some leaves! 

You'll use basically the same technique I recommend for other leafy greens to harvest kale without killing the plant: the cut-and-come-again method. Start with the exterior leaves closest to the base of the plant—those are your biggest, oldest leaves. Use your needle nose pruners to cut stems closest to the base of the plant. You can also grab a leaf and twist gently to break it off at its base.

I aim to take about four leaves from each plant at a time. The golden rule of harvesting is to never take more than a third of any one plant at a time. After I harvest from one plant, I'll let it grow for a couple of weeks before returning for more leaves, which grow from the center of the plant.

In total, harvesting from several kale plants takes about 30 to 40 seconds.

What to do if some of your kale leaves have holes in them

Don't panic. Holes on your kale leaves are very normal. They're simply a sign that you have some pests in your garden trying to beat you to all those delicious leaves. Cut away any leaves that have holes in them. Check the underside of the leaves for the pest and remove any visible pests by hand. Like I mentioned, pests focus on the bigger outer leaves of your kale plants, so the newer leaves at the center of the plant usually won't have any holes at all. 

Then, I recommend taking those pest-affected leaves inside, washing them, and eating them. 

I'm serious.

They're actually more nutrient-dense than leaves that haven't had to fend off an attacker.

Read more about what to do if you find holes on your kale leaves and why those leaves are better for you.

What can you do with your kale harvest?

Here are my favorite uses for my fresh kale harvests.

Kale Smoothies

I come and take leaves from different kale plants every morning for my green smoothie. Depending on your preferences, kale pairs well with apple, avocado, carrot, cabbage, celery, chard, lemon, orange, spinach, and sweet potato. 

Kale Chips

If you're craving that satisfying crunch and saltiness of potato chips but want something a bit healthier, give these garden kale chips a try. They're easy to make, and I can get my whole family to eat them, even my kids.

Kale Salad

My family has long been a big fan of Joshua McFadden’s famous kale salad for dinner.

Find even more delicious kale recipes to help you use up your kale harvest from garden coach and health expert Dr. Laura Christine here.

May the Kale Harvests Never Stop!

Harvesting kale is one of those moments in the garden that reminds you why you make the effort. The crunchy-squeaky sound of the leaves as you twist them off the plant is enough to keep me planting more—it's the best kind of ASMR! Never mind all the different ways you can use kale leaves in the kitchen.

Here's to kale-ing it in your garden!