Colored Kale got all the looks in the family – not only is it super nutritious, it’s so pretty people buy it just to plant in their home gardens.
Colored Kale availability is transitioning from Mexico and California’s southern regions up into Salinas and the Central Valley, says Frank Ratto of Ratto Bros. “We’re just starting with our first rotations (as of last week) of the season,” he said. “In the next two weeks, we’ll have some really vibrant and beautiful colored kale for our customers.” The product will be nearly perfect and without seeder, which is something customers don’t care for, according to Ratto. The potential for seeder is common for most commodities in springtime. When plants experience drastic temperature changes from winter to spring; this confuses the plant, causing them to think it’s time to reproduce, this produces seeder. “In the spring, suppliers tend to pick colored kale when it’s smaller/ on the young side to avoid or minimize the seeder he said. “But going into summer we’ll see nice, beautiful big heads – and the brilliant colors of white and purple/red hue.”
Salinas is in production now. “They’re facing the same issues were having – picking on the young side to avoid seeder,” Ratto noted. Supply tends to be sporadic at this time of year. That is typical because we can only plant when it’s not raining. There will be gaps in production. This spring has had a lot of rain.” Around June 1st, customers can expect very good supplies. Prices are stable and Ratto says kale could become cheaper through oversupply. Right now 24 counts are going for $18-24.
The Kale Family (Green, Red, Lacinato and, colored Kale) is somewhat overproduced in general because of its popularity. But Ratto says in the winter months it’s challenging to find consistent quality because adverse weather affects multiple growing regions.
In the growing region of Modesto, CA, water is plentiful and quality is excellent. Other areas of California may still have their water challenges despite above normal rainfall. Ratto says it’s unfortunate that California’s reservoirs don’t have additional water storage capability to capture the extra water from the exceptional Sierra Mountains snow pack. His company is positioned to have more than ample water supplies and will look forward to offering their beautiful and healthy vegetables to their customers this season.
