“I … HATE … KALE !!!”
Seems that’s what half our neighbors say when hubby and I offer free kale from our garden. Judging from the contorted twist in their faces in those particular moments, we’ve no doubt they mean it. 🙂
I guess it’s no secret that kale’s an acquired taste for some.
It’s green, for one. Some folks just don’t like eating their greens!! Healthy benefits be damned! Go figure!
It’s also bitter. (I can’t argue that point. It is. For sure.)
So why do we bother growing kale? Why do we eat kale?
For hubby and me, it’s primarily because dark greens like kale and its kin are really good for us humans. Kale, for instance, is very high in Vitamin K, is a great source of Vitamins A and C, and has a long list of health benefits, especially as relates to heart disease, cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, weight management, brain health, bone health and even digestion. There are really far too many benefits for me to cover in depth here. I’m still reading up on it myself. (Click HERE to check out a super interesting article I read recently on the potential health benefits of kale. I’m NOT a health professional nor a dietician, but if you have any interest in the possible benefits of kale relative to a particular health concern or condition, you may wish to conduct your own research on the internet to determine if kale could be of benefit to you. Unless you have to really watch your Vitamin K intake (such as folks taking certain blood thinners), most people benefit from at least TRYING a fruit or vegetable they’ve never had before. With thousands upon thousands of choices out there and every single fruit or vegetable packed with it’s own wonderful nutritional benefit, you simply can’t go wrong.
In the meantime, hubby and I don’t try to peddle our veggies with any particular vigor to folks not open to it. We’ve been on OUR OWN journey for several years, trying many new foods since we decided to eat mostly plant-based foods. We have good friends who own an organic fruit and vegetable farm, so have access to produce grown without pesticides. This past year, we even had success in breaking in a vegetable garden in our backyard. It was a sometimes frustrating labor of love since it took a while to tweak out the soil, but we have been able to eat organic veggies from our own backyard all winter long here in Arizona, including these lovelies…
With each year, we get a little older and grow a little stronger in our commitment to eat healthier. The year+ of a world-wide Covid-19 pandemic inspired us to do what we can to be kinder to our bodies when there are many unknowns that can throw us for a loop… in the blink of an eye.
So we sauté our kale and we bake our kale and we chop our fresh kale and throw it in a salad. For as long as the kale wishes to grow in our backyard garden, we will find ways to enjoy it for all the benefits it may bring us…
… and when push comes to shove and we’re just not finding that perfect kale recipe we keep coming back to, we’re gonna drop that kale in a blender with apples and cucumbers and ginger and anything else we can think of to make sure we get the benefits of kale without contorting our faces, to make sure we receive the benefit of some of these exceptional foods created by God and hosted by Mother Nature, all here to keep us healthy as possible.
But really, it comes down to this: there are far more reasons to eat kale (and swiss chard, and spinach, and broccoli, and on and on) than there are NOT to. We know it’s good for us. It’s here… FOR us. And that’s good enough for me!
Happy, healthy eating, folks!
FOOD for thought:
What’s a veggie (or other food) that you simply cannot eat? Does is make you turn green? Has that always been the case all your life? (I’ve found in recent years that I just can’t handle eating eggs like I used to.)
Related posts:
Getting Down n’ Dirty on an Urban Organic Farm
Blossoming VS. Disappearing in the Rabbit Hole
Life is the Adventure: If You Don’t Say YES, You Don’t Win the Prize
Teardrop Adventures 