The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowThe Field Guideby Moss & Marrow
Also called palmkool, cavolo nero.
In the Netherlands, kale is in season October to March, at its best in December, January and February. Kale is in season now, in November.
Kale is a winter crop that sweetens after the first frost, which is when Dutch growers prefer to cut it. Summer kale exists but has less flavour.
Dark, firm leaves without yellowing. Bunches picked after frost taste noticeably sweeter.
Vitamin K in large amounts, vitamin C, beta-carotene, lutein, calcium and some iron. The calcium is well absorbed because kale is low in oxalate.
To get the most: Chopping and a light cook, or massaging raw leaves with oil, make the carotenoids and vitamin K available; both are fat-soluble, so cook or dress it with fat. Frost makes it sweeter and does not cost nutrients.
On our nutrient density chart, a normal serving of cooked kale (130 g) gives 6 times a day's vitamin K and about a third of a day's vitamin C, counting what your body absorbs. That puts it in the top 10% of the 244 foods we scored.
Content per NEVO, the Dutch food composition database. This describes what the food contains, not what it does for you.
Strip the leaves from the stalks. Chop finely for stamppot, or massage with oil and salt for a raw salad.
Stalks are fibrous but not waste: chop finely and start them in the pan before the leaves, or blitz into a soup.
26 producers in The Field Guide sell kale, according to their own website or shop list, each checked against our inclusion criteria and listed by province. Another 153 growers passed our bar for this food group; we have not yet recorded what each of them grows, so ask them or search the map.
Open on the map →Dates read on 2026-10-11. If a window on this page is wrong, tell us with a source.
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