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A good idea to keep from running out of food: let one really nice kale plant or collard plant mature and go to flower. The tiny seed pods can become fragile and shatter, losing you your seed, so keep an eye on them for the best time to harvest. The pods have been air dried, spread on a sheet, and pounded with a shovel. Here, the results have been poured off into a colander to sift the seeds into a bowl. From there they will go into an airtight container in the cold room. Kale seeds don't always keep well, so figure on using them next year, year after.
Only one? The whole patch is in bloom; brussels sprouts and two kinds of kale. Was going to tear them out this weekend, but they're swarming with many kinds of bees, so they stayed, for the moment at least. I have designs on that bed, though; will have to try to leave at least one to go to seed, if I can work around it. Wonder what it will turn out to be, what with all the cross pollination presumably going on.
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Well, didn't want to overwhelm beginners, y'see -- I got a cup of kale seed from that one plant in 2009 (shown above) and that would have been enough to set me up in business had I the land. Perhaps it will be cabcolkalebroc -- might be worth pursuing! ^_^
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