Rinse/wash in water, salad spin, then straight to freezer, most of stem too, in order to preserve nutrients and antioxidants. Lots of nutrition in the stems/more than in leaf. Eat raw and frozen in green smoothies. Like liquid sunshine. One of best, if not THE best, sources of potassium. Helps lower blood pressure, balance electrolytes, lots of other benefits.
You can use your thumb and index finger, pinch the stem at it's base, and drag your fingers up the stalk. The leaf comes right off. Any stem that's left is soft enough to eat. You can make a stack of leaves, roll them up like a burrito and then slice once long ways ---- and then several slices across IIIII. You can process TONS really quickly this way.
I sort of do the same thing. After it's wash I fold it in half length wise and just tear the leaves off the stem with my fingers. I use to cut them but found it faster to ripe the leaves off the stem.
I only have 8 plants or so. Both my sinks are full at this very moment lol. I’m soaking it in cold water with a little vinegar to kill anything that might be on it. First time I’ve grown this much. Holy moly my plants were huge! I picked everything but the new leaves. I grow organic too. Sink one I rinse it off,then fill and soak. Took out a couple tiny spiders and some little fly thing. Oh yeah I found a white worm that looked like a small piece of rice. What is it?. Sink two, fresh cold vinegar water. Soak again! Thank you MI Gardener for this video! I live in Michigan too. I’m south west so it’s warmer here for about two weeks longer. I got some work to do lol. Well worth it. Let’s all stay healthy all winter long! Please make more how to preserve your food videos! Please please please!!!
I haven't been growing kale before, and I have a bed planted with kale, with winter on the way I want to store my kale just like you showed in this video. Thanks
Thank you so much for this awesome video. We grew Kale this year and have so much and it's getting cold now. I've seen other videos for freezing kale and ur's was the best,, very clear simple instructions. I know what I will be doing this coming week. Again Thanks!!
Great video! A basic question... how do you incorporate Kale into your diet, particularly frozen kale? What does it go well with? This is the first year I've grown and eaten it, and I've got a ton of it myself. Thanks again for the great info!
Do you cut out leaves chewed up by bugs? Or do you worry about that? During the the summer I take kale leaves after they are washed and slightly dried, and those them on a cookie sheet. I freeze them and then when I make smoothies I break the leaves off the stem, which is really easy because they are stiff, and toss it in to blend smoothies. It makes a colder smoothie!
I'm about to freeze our end of summer kale and much of it has been chewed through, but I figure if the caterpillars like it, must be good stuff! #organic
omg I wanted to know how to freeze it without blanching... over 3 minutes of rambling on about a plant we've been growing and then you blanch it. Thanks to you and Google for giving me exactly what I didn't want!
Good video. I didn't know you can blanch greens (why, I don't know). My nephew is wanting me to grow him some kale, so now I can do that and preserve it for him.
Thanks for the video! I will definitely try this method with some of the excess kale we've got growing in our garden. I never thought kale would be freezable. One winter I still had so much kale growing in my garden and I didn't want to let it go to waste, so I invested in a good masticating juicer and made fresh organic kale/carrot/apple juice. Another great way of using up a lot of your kale and super nutritious! One thing I'd like to know though is if after freezing the kale and you want to use it in a dish, do you have to thaw it or do you just add it still frozen?
Nice video Luke. I am really just learning about how to preserve food and you seem to be producing videos just ahead of when I'm asking myself the same question... My winter garden will be getting ready to harvest soon and the Kale will be ready to store. Thanks! Wayne
I make kale chips and store them, its easier. Don't know if the nutrients are still there but I love the taste. Like Ken Jenkins descript of the enzymes. We are sometimes too focused on "freshness" being all important.
She offered me Kale. Didn't know what it was or what to do with it. If eating it was a possibility, I couldn't have consumed it all even if I liked it. Your video has given me hope.
btw, does the kale have to be quite dry before you toss it into the freezer? or can it be wet? if it has to be as dry as possible, would you recommend using a salad spinner to dry it?
Question: I don't have a garden. I live in the innercity and in apartments. No land to till :). So, I have pretty stuck buying my veggies, so they won't be as fresh as yours. I buy a lot of Kale. But, they sell them in huge bunches, more then I use at a time. Would your method work for store bought Kale as well?
I've had great success just: de-stemming, rip the leaves to smaller pieces as described by Migardener, wash in cold water, shake excess water, pat dry, stuff in recycled Chinese take-out containers (of course any container will do!), pop the containers into the freezer. I use these frozen Kale on a salad. Take when needed by removing an amount I'll use in the salad. Put the rest back in the freezer. Take the now frozen Kale selection give it a slight squeeze. The frozen Kale will crumble easily into smaller pieces (the stuff is chewy; smaller is less chewy). NOTE: at room temperature the Kale will soften in a matter of minutes. It can't be crumbled then. The remaining frozen supply will last at least 4 weeks.
Very informative!!! I appreciate your help and look forward to finding ways to use my frozen kale this winter. PS: this is the first time that I added kale to my vegetable garden varieties.
Thanks for your video, after freezing can we use the kale normally for steaming and stir fry, and can you please advise for how long to do this for, because I am supposing cooking time will be less, am I right. Thank you!
(I'm sitting here watching the video and wondering about the canned goodies sitting next to the heat from the boiling kale.) Aside from that, I need to try to preserve some kale. I don't have lots...but surely enough to save.
I live in central florida (zone 9). This is our first time having a full garden (we used to only grow tomatoes and some herbs) and we have tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower (a beautiful purple variety that is just starting to get a head!), peppers, rosemary, basil, parsley, lettuce, kale, an assortment of flowers, mint and then a few other odds and ends. So far everything is still doing pretty good despite our high temps. The tomatoes (heirloom purple Cherokee) are starting to going down some however but we are still getting plenty of tomatoes off of them. The only thing that no longer is producing is our lettuce; I probably could have gotten more out of them if i had planted them differently. I tried to do them under my tomatoes and we let our tomatoes get waaaay too bushy so they pushed the lettuce down and it was very hard to care for the lettuce at the center of the bed because i had to all but crawl underneath the tomatoes to get to them. I let my basil go to seed because i wanted to harvest them but other than that, everything else is going fantastic! We just harvested the last of the broccoli and I'm gonna see about cooking up the leaves. They taste so good! Kinda like collards!
I cook my collard greens that way, I notice less bitterness when the color is preserved. On my list of things to try is to steam in bamboo stackers instead of boiling, in order to preserve more nutrients. The stacks can be transferred directly to an ice bath and then pulled for draining before adding more ice for the next batch. When done draining, a stack fits into those plastic bags perfectly. At least that's the idea I have. I want to reduce the processing time while maintaining as much quality as possible.
+todd germaine I am almost sure it would, however the food saver is something that makes you buy an expensive machine, and then buy expensive bags. I am not about that kind of living. but you can totally do it! Whatever works for you :)
Laszlo Horvath It is not the best to juice it because you won't get much juice out. It is honestly better in pastas and soups. You can also put it in smoothies too
***** Oh no!! Yuk!!..I bet you're gonna find that spider in your bag too because he disappeared & you picked up a piece of kale out of the sink - right where he was- & threw it in the bag!...lol
I don't mean to argue, but enzymes are not organisms. They are proteins catalysts that serve specific functions. An enzyme from a plant is doubtful to have any effect on your own bodily functions. You digest them like any other protein and use the amino acids to build your own proteins. Aside from that, they are extremely sensitive to temp and pH, so they will be denatured in your stomach and lose function.
Manny G no, it’s actually better for access to vitamin A to break down the cellulose so the A is available, like cooked carrots vs raw, makes for higher vitamin A availability. Also, extended blending, liked doctor berg On TH-cam kale shake goes 4 minutes in blender. But eating it any old way is better than nothing. I prefer the red Russian, less curly. So sweet!
Rinse/wash in water, salad spin, then straight to freezer, most of stem too, in order to preserve nutrients and antioxidants. Lots of nutrition in the stems/more than in leaf. Eat raw and frozen in green smoothies. Like liquid sunshine. One of best, if not THE best, sources of potassium. Helps lower blood pressure, balance electrolytes, lots of other benefits.
This was our 1st year growing kale. We were shocked at how much just 10 plants produced. This was a very helpful video. Thank you!
You can use your thumb and index finger, pinch the stem at it's base, and drag your fingers up the stalk. The leaf comes right off. Any stem that's left is soft enough to eat. You can make a stack of leaves, roll them up like a burrito and then slice once long ways ---- and then several slices across IIIII. You can process TONS really quickly this way.
I sort of do the same thing. After it's wash I fold it in half length wise and just tear the leaves off the stem with my fingers. I use to cut them but found it faster to ripe the leaves off the stem.
I need more freezer room! I have kale like yours, and its beautiful also. They are good for green smoothies also!
I only have 8 plants or so. Both my sinks are full at this very moment lol. I’m soaking it in cold water with a little vinegar to kill anything that might be on it. First time I’ve grown this much. Holy moly my plants were huge! I picked everything but the new leaves. I grow organic too. Sink one I rinse it off,then fill and soak. Took out a couple tiny spiders and some little fly thing. Oh yeah I found a white worm that looked like a small piece of rice. What is it?. Sink two, fresh cold vinegar water. Soak again! Thank you MI Gardener for this video! I live in Michigan too. I’m south west so it’s warmer here for about two weeks longer. I got some work to do lol. Well worth it. Let’s all stay healthy all winter long! Please make more how to preserve your food videos! Please please please!!!
Perfect info for what I was needing! Luke is the BEST!
May be an older video--but I'm glad it was here for when I needed it. Thank you so much.
Sir, you have the garden of my dreams! Very nice!
Nice! I grow several kinds of Kale and use them for smoothies. I have been wanting to freeze the kale for winter use, thanks!
💐Kale bouquet 🤣😂😂 Your Kaling me!!! Great idea to store-thanks!!
Thank you for the great info! I have a ton of kale and didn't want it to go to waste.. this is PERFECT! THANKS.. :)
I haven't been growing kale before, and I have a bed planted with kale, with winter on the way I want to store my kale just like you showed in this video. Thanks
Kale's flavor improves with cold weather. After a couple of light frosts, the leaves lose all their bitterness and become almost sweet.
Thank you so much for this awesome video. We grew Kale this year and have so much and it's getting cold now. I've seen other videos for freezing kale and ur's was the best,, very clear simple instructions. I know what I will be doing this coming week. Again Thanks!!
Now I know what to do with my old kitty litter boxes. Re-use them for cold kale baths!!! Awesome idea.
I have more kale than I can use, and only 6 plants??! So grateful to be able to save it!😊🌿
Thank you for the great video. I'm heading to the farmers market and now I feel better about buying in bulk...😊
Buying in bulk is the only way to go. It is so expensive.
Now I don't have to freak out about what to do with all the kale I over-bought today. Thanks for the tip :)
Thanks for this easy video. I just harvested my kale and now I can get to work to better preserve it.
+Theodore Roberts So glad it helped!
Thanks! Very informative and conscience video
Great video! A basic question... how do you incorporate Kale into your diet, particularly frozen kale? What does it go well with? This is the first year I've grown and eaten it, and I've got a ton of it myself. Thanks again for the great info!
Do you cut out leaves chewed up by bugs? Or do you worry about that? During the the summer I take kale leaves after they are washed and slightly dried, and those them on a cookie sheet. I freeze them and then when I make smoothies I break the leaves off the stem, which is really easy because they are stiff, and toss it in to blend smoothies. It makes a colder smoothie!
I'm about to freeze our end of summer kale and much of it has been chewed through, but I figure if the caterpillars like it, must be good stuff! #organic
omg I wanted to know how to freeze it without blanching... over 3 minutes of rambling on about a plant we've been growing and then you blanch it. Thanks to you and Google for giving me exactly what I didn't want!
Freeze raw, keep stems, blender for green smoothies. Healthiest way to eat it. Been doing it for years. (Rinse first, dry in salad spinner optional).
I just blanch all greens with hot water right in the sink and they last for months
I don't have any kale, I'm going to give this a try with some spinach-like wild greens I always miss in the winter!
Thank u I'm going to do mines now I have so many left I dont want them to go to waste happy holiday's to u and your family
This video was SOOO helpful, thank you!!!
I love your remark. I too am Dutch but in Wisconsin. I LOVE boerenkool.
You've got sooo many great videos. Keep up the great work.
Good video. I didn't know you can blanch greens (why, I don't know). My nephew is wanting me to grow him some kale, so now I can do that and preserve it for him.
I was lucky to have a salad spinner. It works great.
Thanks for the video! I will definitely try this method with some of the excess kale we've got growing in our garden. I never thought kale would be freezable. One winter I still had so much kale growing in my garden and I didn't want to let it go to waste, so I invested in a good masticating juicer and made fresh organic kale/carrot/apple juice. Another great way of using up a lot of your kale and super nutritious! One thing I'd like to know though is if after freezing the kale and you want to use it in a dish, do you have to thaw it or do you just add it still frozen?
Nice video Luke. I am really just learning about how to preserve food and you seem to be producing videos just ahead of when I'm asking myself the same question... My winter garden will be getting ready to harvest soon and the Kale will be ready to store. Thanks! Wayne
Trying to figure out why you planted so much kale! Thanks for your tips.
I make kale chips and store them, its easier. Don't know if the nutrients are still there but I love the taste. Like Ken Jenkins descript of the enzymes. We are sometimes too focused on "freshness" being all important.
I am wondering why you didn't dry the kale after blanching. Won't it be covered with thin ice when you remove it from the freezer? Thanks
Great and easy tip, good way to have fresh greens in the middle of winter :-)
Great video
Thanks Luke!
She offered me Kale. Didn't know what it was or what to do with it. If eating it was a possibility, I couldn't have consumed it all even if I liked it. Your video has given me hope.
I like the stems with the leaves for zuppa soup
btw, does the kale have to be quite dry before you toss it into the freezer? or can it be wet? if it has to be as dry as possible, would you recommend using a salad spinner to dry it?
Question: I don't have a garden. I live in the innercity and in apartments. No land to till :). So, I have pretty stuck buying my veggies, so they won't be as fresh as yours. I buy a lot of Kale. But, they sell them in huge bunches, more then I use at a time. Would your method work for store bought Kale as well?
Gina Pocan i dont see why not as long as they are fresh and crisp they should be fine and you can grow veggies in flower pots in small spaces
I've had great success just: de-stemming, rip the leaves to smaller pieces as described by Migardener, wash in cold water, shake excess water, pat dry, stuff in recycled Chinese take-out containers (of course any container will do!), pop the containers into the freezer. I use these frozen Kale on a salad. Take when needed by removing an amount I'll use in the salad. Put the rest back in the freezer. Take the now frozen Kale selection give it a slight squeeze. The frozen Kale will crumble easily into smaller pieces (the stuff is chewy; smaller is less chewy). NOTE: at room temperature the Kale will soften in a matter of minutes. It can't be crumbled then. The remaining frozen supply will last at least 4 weeks.
Very informative!!! I appreciate your help and look forward to finding ways to use my frozen kale this winter. PS: this is the first time that I added kale to my vegetable garden varieties.
Emily Smith I am so happy for you! kale is an amazing vegetable but it is so expensive in the stores. Really is worth growing your own.
Easier way to separate stem from leaves. Just hold the stem place fingers around and strip it off. Thanks for this info! I love kale.
Right now, i can go for a dish of kale and macaroni {Sicilian style}
Thanks for your video, after freezing can we use the kale normally for steaming and stir fry, and can you please advise for how long to do this for, because I am supposing cooking time will be less, am I right.
Thank you!
(I'm sitting here watching the video and wondering about the canned goodies sitting next to the heat from the boiling kale.) Aside from that, I need to try to preserve some kale. I don't have lots...but surely enough to save.
Great video. Hey don't throw those precious stems out. You can juice them. they're filled with nutrients too!
Hi! Thx for info. Was wondering also if u can grow all summer with high heat?
I live in central florida (zone 9). This is our first time having a full garden (we used to only grow tomatoes and some herbs) and we have tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower (a beautiful purple variety that is just starting to get a head!), peppers, rosemary, basil, parsley, lettuce, kale, an assortment of flowers, mint and then a few other odds and ends. So far everything is still doing pretty good despite our high temps.
The tomatoes (heirloom purple Cherokee) are starting to going down some however but we are still getting plenty of tomatoes off of them. The only thing that no longer is producing is our lettuce; I probably could have gotten more out of them if i had planted them differently. I tried to do them under my tomatoes and we let our tomatoes get waaaay too bushy so they pushed the lettuce down and it was very hard to care for the lettuce at the center of the bed because i had to all but crawl underneath the tomatoes to get to them.
I let my basil go to seed because i wanted to harvest them but other than that, everything else is going fantastic! We just harvested the last of the broccoli and I'm gonna see about cooking up the leaves. They taste so good! Kinda like collards!
@@Addicted2Muzic94 oh thank you!! And goody, I love collards!!😋 I am trying the Cherokee Purple this yr for the 1st time! 🤞 I am in 6a in KS!🌻
Fantastic! Love Kale! :)
I cook my collard greens that way, I notice less bitterness when the color is preserved. On my list of things to try is to steam in bamboo stackers instead of boiling, in order to preserve more nutrients. The stacks can be transferred directly to an ice bath and then pulled for draining before adding more ice for the next batch. When done draining, a stack fits into those plastic bags perfectly. At least that's the idea I have. I want to reduce the processing time while maintaining as much quality as possible.
garyrich2000 I like the sounds of that. I may give it a try! Thanks!
Thank you 🙏
Awesome, thanks! 💚
The enzymes don’t actually boil off, the heat just denatures them making them inactive.
Truth!
A salad spinner works great for getting the excess water out. I think about the only time I use a salad spinner is for kale and collards lol
Thank you for your video!
Thank you
How long can cooked kale stay in the freezer?
Haha, in The Netherlands (where i'm from), kale is quite cheap and considered a peasants/farmers food. "Boerenkool Stamppot", look it up! :D
Been a garden staple for centuries. Bound to get that stigma somewhere. One of the most nutrient-dense plants you can grow.
I enjoy the stems. Never understood why people discard them.
how do you feel about using a food saver machine, it would last longer in the freezer if needed
+todd germaine I am almost sure it would, however the food saver is something that makes you buy an expensive machine, and then buy expensive bags. I am not about that kind of living. but you can totally do it! Whatever works for you :)
Did you wash the kale before you blanched it? Or was that the cleaning process?
I did wash it off. I did not think that would need to be a step, but I am so sorry for not mentioning it!
He said to wash it at 4:24
maybe try some baked kale chips?
After the kale has been in the freezer can it be juiced also rather than just using it in soups and pastas?
Laszlo Horvath It is not the best to juice it because you won't get much juice out. It is honestly better in pastas and soups. You can also put it in smoothies too
Thank you for your quick reply. Keep up the good work.
Do you get all the air out of the baggie before freezing the kale?
dymondwillow2 I get as much as possible. It helps to increase the shelf life of the kale. Or in this case, the freezer life.
In the Netherlands we mash it up with tators, and some fried cubes of bacon... noms.
can I juice it after
Does anyone know how long kale chips would last on their own
I have a food saver machine. I guess I can do this step before sealing.
question: are you from canada??
Jmoney sr nope! :) sorry, close to it though!
We are supposed to eat 7 cups of vegetables a day, so growing a lot of kale is worth it
thx u
Starts at 3:25 for processing
Nice video, but at 7:49 there is a tiny spider that falls in the sink.
Giulio Vismara haha that spider just ruined the entire video! grrrr
***** Oh no!! Yuk!!..I bet you're gonna find that spider in your bag too because he disappeared & you picked up a piece of kale out of the sink - right where he was- & threw it in the bag!...lol
Protein
So wait, it's safe to boil? Wouldn't all the nutrients be left in the boiling water?
+Ray Obando Blanching is much shorter than boiling it. Blanching is quick.
I wouldve liked to see the frozen kale
Thanks for not showing if you squeeze all the air out or not...im guessing yes...
9:00-He goes inside and starts the process.
Hell yeahs!
I don't mean to argue, but enzymes are not organisms. They are proteins catalysts that serve specific functions. An enzyme from a plant is doubtful to have any effect on your own bodily functions. You digest them like any other protein and use the amino acids to build your own proteins. Aside from that, they are extremely sensitive to temp and pH, so they will be denatured in your stomach and lose function.
arent you killing most of the nutrients cooking the kale?
Manny G no, it’s actually better for access to vitamin A to break down the cellulose so the A is available, like cooked carrots vs raw, makes for higher vitamin A availability. Also, extended blending, liked doctor berg On TH-cam kale shake goes 4 minutes in blender. But eating it any old way is better than nothing. I prefer the red Russian, less curly. So sweet!
are you vegan or vegetarian?
You look so young here 😂
First
If you give it to your GF just make sure your wife doesn't find out.
bug in the sink.
bizzle187 I washed off the kale, so I would expect there to be some ;)
***** 7:52
Were you married when you made this video?
N u make a tortilla.mmmm