Hi sapphires3 - The new growth should be fine to eat. The freeze or snow will not have any effect on the greens as far as being safe. Not much different than freezing them in your home freezer, really.

I had some forgotten turnips that I just recently dug up and they were great (leaves and root).

I have also harvested some leftover kale and am very interested in seeing how for next year I can exploit fall-planted kale and collards for early spring growth. I have trouble getting seed started early enough and/or getting enough sun and warmth to get them off to a good start, and don't like laying out the $$ for transplants. Also am looking into some new greens I've never tried, such as mizuna, for just this purpose. Our winters are not super-mild but are mild enough for some of these greens and I think I could have more overlapping crops in my very small areas and in containers than if I just did traditonal fall and spring plantings.

After the last two storms have come and gone and it's finally warmed up, I was able to poke around in the garden. Not too much yet. The chives are just starting to come up and I'm hoping the mustard greens won't be far behind. But I forgot that parsley is a biennial and that great parsley patch I had last year wintered over and is already putting out lots of new growth. At this time of year when everythhig is still so bare, any little bit, no matter how small, seems like a gift!

I have been harvesting all those beautiful greens....once the beds were harvested, I tidied them all up and gave them a big healthy supply of fertilizer and have new growth coming on like crazy...they will all be fighting to bolt before too very long but I foresee some good eating before I let that happen.

I have posted about it before, but I am totally amazed at the plants I left in the ground last fall. I tried for a fall garden, but couldn't succession-plant behind my summer veggies soon enough, so the fall stuff didn't produce much before winter came on. It got down below zero in early December, and basically all of the unprotected veggies except the Brussel's sprouts and kale "burned down" to the ground, and I wrote them off. The sprouting broccoli and tiny spinach and lettuce seedlings I had in containers in the greenhouse just sat there all winter.

We're having an early spring, and I should be able to pick myself a lettuce and spinach salad this weekend. I'm also very close to having a batch of Brussels sprouts and some broccoli. The thing I find most amazing is that the arugula stayed green through most of the winter, and began growing earlier than anything else in the garden. Most of the purple kohlrabi did die, but a couple seem to be coming back. The leeks and green onions have also made a comeback, and my carrots have resumed growth, as well as the mustard greens. The kale has been fairly constant, and the radishes have even sprung back to life. I am interested to find out if there is any quality/taste in these veggies after their harsh winter, but overall, I am astounded that everything survived so well. We usually don't get below 10F all winter, so I'm thinking with some plastic hoop houses, everything will do even better.

One of the main reasons I plant Winterbor kale for a fall crop is that it usually winters over, though this winter, with the steady snow cover, all of the plants made it. After you pull off the rotting leaves, the spring flush of small leaves and eventually little broccoli like buds begins. Tender and sweet. A great, great way to get greens early early in spring!

OOOh - thanks, everyone - not only for the feedback that my kale and collards are indeed edible, but for the growing list of things I can experiment with leaving in the ground all winter!

We eat a lot of greens at my house, and they are getting expensive at the store now that they are trendy. That's why I was so excited about the idea of harvesting them all winter - I was seriously saving about $10 a week. That was cool enough.

But if I could add in some of the other things mentioned above - Well, they would all get used, lol.

Thanks

lananascape, that is exactly what I am finding. My "fall "crops don't seem to get up to speed before frost.
Of course, I am figuring out finally that I need to plant some of them much sooner--in late July or very early August, for example. But I am working on a whole new vision of wintering greens as being the key to my growing conditions and cooking style.