Perennial kaleor sea kale (Crambe maritima), ancestor of a family of vegetable celebrities, annuals and biennials, is making a comeback today. A perpetual vegetable that you sow once and plant for life. Sea cabbage has experienced several waves of popularity and its intoxicating honey scent is in vogue today.

The Romans preserved them lacto-fermented, like sauerkraut, in barrels that they took with them on expeditions. In France, the Sun King demanded to have this vegetable in his vegetable garden. It emerged in England, where the vegetable was introduced into almost all gardens at the beginning of the 19th century. In Victorian markets, its young blanched shoots can be found. Passionate about cooking and gardening, Thomas Jefferson, declared, in addition to the independence of the United States, that he loved it! Today threatened in the wild, it was nevertheless naturalized on the Atlantic coastline East and West, the Black and Baltic Seas, from Portugal further south to Russia further north.

Sea kale likes light, draining soils and prefers full sun, but does not like heat. Laying a natural mulch prevents heat stroke. The powdery blue with silvery reflections of its foliage refreshes our arrangements with very edible contrasts. We enter a flower bed like a cloud of white butterflies. It can quickly take on the appearance of a sea monster, sometimes flooding the neighborhood. Little affected by insects, holes are rarer than in the average cultivated brassicas.

In all recipes, cabbage can be replaced by crambe. All its parts are edible and have a cabbage taste. Sea Kale, has family resemblances to curly kale. The leaves, bluer, fleshier, with a strong taste, can become bitter, but the cold softens them. From spring to late fall, harvest them as needed, just before the oldest turn yellow. They can measure half a meter, and are used to roll stuffed cigars. A few leaves are enough to prepare cabbage soup. Leave several central leaves to develop at any time, and the plant will regenerate over the seasons. The flower heads can be steamed, like broccoli, if picked before the flowers open. When in bloom, they are a cloud of honey that is delicately spread on raw grills to create a winning combination “roasted with honey”. To be washed down with North Sea mead. The fruits will follow, if flowers have been left. Still green and tender like peas, they are nibbled like pitted olives. The roots, sweet and rich in starch, existed well before the rutabaga or the turnip.

To learn more, read Guillaume Pelland’s article!