![]() The gardeners on Jake Mace”s Facebook group had lots of suggestions and recipes for me to try. I munched on a larger leaf as I worked outside today and actually enjoyed it. Either the flavor improved now that Albert has had a few days to settle in, or I am just more tolerant of the bitterness. It feels and tastes like chewing on the core of a head of cabbage. The smaller tender leaves taste like cabbage and the larger leaves are tougher and bitter. They are high in soluble fiber and contain multiple nutrients with potent anti-cancer properties: diindolylmethane, sulforaphane and selenium. The leaves are very fleshy, almost succulent like. Perennial Tree Collard leaves are rich in calcium (226 mg per cup, cooked), vitamins B1, B2, B9, and C, as well as beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A). There may be other varieties that I haven’t come across yet. Several seed companies offer the seeds online. ![]() They grow straight and tall, perfect to make a walking stick with after the season is over. The Walking stick kale flower and seed every year, the seeds grow a true walking stick kale. The Green and purple tree collards don’t bolt very often and when they do the seeds may not be true to the parent plant. The 3 types I am familiar with are the Green Tree collard (like mine), The Purple Tree collard and Tree Kale or walking stick kale. Tree collards are Brassica oleracea, like cabbage and broccoli. Fat Albert? I think the big guy has a name! For now, I will just let my big boy grow. I will try this later in the season and let you know how it goes. There are quite a few videos on you tube demonstrating how to take and root the cuttings. His garden looks like a tree collard forest! He said it was an experiment, but hoped they would do well since he put them out when the weather was still cool and they have time to acclimate before the temps in Phoenix hit 110+. He also told me to pinch off the new top growth to encourage side shoots to make cuttings for propagation. Michael had ground planted about 10 of his bigger plants in full sun and mulched with a foot of straw. My larger plant will probably out grow his 15 gal. They will need to on a drip system with a twice daily schedule this summer. With water and sunset he perked up and is doing fine again. Day 3 I didn’t water the big boy enough before a warm day and he wilted. All the info I found said they were easy to grow. It is probably because I live in the desert, but these plants are more particular than I imagined they would be. Finding a shady spot in my garden is going to be a challenge, but I have 6 months to find a way. His advice is to leave them in the pots until fall and then move them to shady spot in the garden. It is only April, but he said it is too hot to put them in the ground now. The plants take a lot of water and shade in the Arizona sun. I learned a lot from Master Gardener Michael. Exciting huh? It is a beauty!! We haven’t come up with a name for him yet. plants from him and as we were leaving he gifted me the huge one in the picture above. He had about 100 plants in various sizes. I found Michael, a Master Gardener in phoenix with rooted plants available He is a very knowledgeable and generous man. For years I have watched you tube gardeners John Kohler from growing your greens and Jake Mace the Vegan Athlete talk about them, but wasn’t confident enough to try a mail order source for cuttings. After some extensive searching I finally found a place to buy tree collards in my area.
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