I grew them last year. Johnny's has the seed. Semi-successful though my kale and chard beds do so well all summer and I pick the baby leaves from the base of those plants for salad adds.

not a chance to get them in this year or even Brussels. I like them fine though a better climate might get a choice harvest. So I have nothing to compare.

I would have toasted mine if I had a big harvest...just did a classic quick sauté.

Surprised they are making it to market already! Maybe not...second year offered seed...an aggressive farm will jump quick for a new product getting top dollar.

I think they've actually been on the market, grown, for a couple of years here, but, yes, a Trader Joe's sized crop is a big leap up. :) It freaks out chefs from Northern cities, when they first get to urban California, that special here is interesting vegetables, not odd bits of meat, and that they're considered the important part of the meal, not just garnish for proteins -- and that garnish veg are fine for a composed dish, but there had better be full servings of vegetables on the side.

Johnny's seed does show a a trademark and mentions development of the F1 cross. And may just be three years. I was just intrigued from the get go as i love brussels and kales. I just remember year two for this...but my brain does not remember much beyond a week sometimes.

I even looked for TraderJoes in NYC this morning (on my phone) but i think only three locations exist...i do keep trying to visit but too crowded. I was in Chelsea and saw a fella with the 'Joe's' bag after a walk on the HighLine and he had just taken a 20 min walk like he does every friday morning to stock up for the week. Too far away. Later i was in mid-town 56th-ish and the up-town location is up in the 70's. (traffic was horrid with ComicCon in town, lol)

I've got a three day weekend now ahead of me and still dealing with buckets of garden harvest but i do love my greens. The only harvest left is carrots that i'll dig a month from now.

Any small leaves of kale and collards and tiny brussels i do like to crisp in a low oven...275-ish and watch it. Retains the color and not unlike a good potato chip in texture.

Two years ago at a family reunion Thanksgiving, i harvested some tiny odd heads of kales that should have been softballs or larger but were golf-ball sized and a bit like garnish. I used the leaves like a garnish under some serving plates, but after the meal my sister and i used residual heat from cooking to toast the garnishes. We rinsed them of the stuffing and oily veg dishes but they retained some of the massaged and saturated fats and became a later snack after roasting...just fun discoveries that we do.

We love our meats but it is probably just 10-20% of our diet these days and also my friends and family. I do spend much more time on the veg dishes than the meats.

Kalettes are welcome here. Hope to see more of these crosses. I need more crosses for a shorter growing season.

Okay, I've seen the High Line in a children's book, and do get the part about TJ's being far. The rest could have as easily been about Kamchatka, given how much I know about New York. :) TJ's has things that come and go, so if you're making a special trip, it might be worth calling ahead.

I do the same with kale, in the low oven, but I cut out the heavy stems. Can't do it with kale sprouts, so did the hotter. They were probably too hot, but they got nice and crunchy. :)

Your toasted garnish sound great! I was thinking more of the little shreds of veg that you're supposed to eat with the meat, which they also call garnish, but so much better yet to make the decorative bits into a snack!

I think plenty of people in New York, at least among the people I know, are more like you with the less amount of meat. It's the chefs who don't get it! Or maybe not even the chefs there, but the ones who come here from there--maybe their fare wasn't what the New Yorkers wanted anyway. Or maybe an Eastern thrift thing of if you're paying $$$ or more, it should be for something with Calories. :) The French and German chefs seem to have at least a good acquaintance with vegetables. The Italians--the fine dining chefs here here--use them in the cooking, but it seems if you want one to actually bite into, it's in a salad, and the Brits promise all kinds of delightful veg, but it's really just a smear of puree meant to be eaten with the meat (high class substitute for ketchup) with a few micro greens and three twigs for color on top.

The other fun thing that TJ's had this last year was "heirloom red spinach". I love that they're getting in these oddities, half cleaned and ready to use. :)

I admire your vegetable garden. I have herbs and peppers, but I'm not a great gardener, and am not ready to commit to vegetables. Are there any you're planting now for the Spring?

Good to know. I left three plants in my garden last year and this year they grew and made seeds! I have a lot so I am going to try this out.

I intended to grow them but ended up buying seed at Fedco not Jonny's this year. Both are in my general neighborhood. It looked like there were two different series. One looked more predictable as far as harvest time which is important in the frigid north.

I love kale and brussel spouts. Kale usually just gets sauteed with garlic, carrots and maybe ginger.

Fedco is Maine? I'll add them to my wish list this winter. Some good things to try i see. Thanks for the tip.

My garden is not what it used to be but has evolved over the years to accommodate my energy and time. I give just enough to be therapy and not a chore. If something fails it is not a tragedy. Something else will do well.

I started some sugar snaps in early August but not enough growing time though do have a healthy crop of shoots and a hearty spinach that is looking good...no real hard frost yet. Lots of purple carrots that i'll pick in a few weeks and they are about all i have left besides some salads. I'll start my micro greens tomorrow that i keep going in rotation all winter.

The only thing i started for next spring are lots of leeks. And replanted garlic.