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Welcome to the Food Forest Farm plant shop! Here you’ll find many of the plants we’ve been growing in the nursery since 2010. These plants will come to you healthy and ready for their new home.
All of our plants are multi-functional, that is, some perennial vegetables can be eaten by a human, or livestock (leaf hay), or be grown as mulch for biomass, and more! You can look at “All” of the plants, or filter with the navigation bar.
Perennial Vegetables: edible roots, leaves, shoots, buds, seeds that come from perennial herbs, shrubs, and trees
Fruit: edible sweet goodness
Leaf Hay: plants to grow and feed to livestock like cattle, sheep, goats and rabbits
Biomass: herbs, grasses, shrubs and trees that grow fast and can be cut and used as mulch, grow soil, fuel stoves and compost piles
Purple Paradise Perennial Kale
Purple Paradise Perennial Kale
A Food Forest Farm original - Limited Supply - Experimental in cold climates
Eric Toensmeier and I grew out a genetically diverse mix of kale seeds in 2014 from Graham Jenkins-Belohorska. After years of observing those plants for perennial hardiness and flavor one of the seedlings stood out, a wonderful hybrid between its ‘Purple Tree Collards’ and ‘Daubenton' kale parents. Although vigorous and delicious when cooked, it turned out to be only slightly hardier than its parents.
Try our cuttings of this perennial kale outside in hardiness zone 7, or zone 6 if deeply mulched, or well protected in an unheated greenhouse (will die down to its roots each year and resprout). This kale will not survive outside in climate zone 5b unprotected.
The name comes from the plants purple stem, and the fact that it originated from the Paradise Lot garden in Holyoke, MA
Please let us know if you have success growing this experimental new kale!
Purple Paradise Perennial Kale
Scientific name: Brassica oleracea ramosa, seedling of a cross of ‘Purple Tree Collards’ and ‘Daubenton’
Habitat: Full sun, to part shade. Grows best in rich garden soil, can take some drought but prefers ample water for good leaf production
Uses: Very nutritious cooked vegetable, more tender then traditional collard greens. Very vigorous grower, great for livestock forage or some years could be used as a chop and drop mulch (we can only eat so much kale!)
Challenges: Like all kale and broccoli family plants, this kale is loved by cabbage eating caterpillars. If you have these critters in your garden there is a little maintenance to keep the leaves from turning in to lace!
Thanks goes to Graham Jenkins-Belohorska and the kale crossing work he’s done in the UK and where the genetics and seeds originated for this wonderful kale!
If you’d like to learn more about another amazing experimental perennial kale project, check out the work the Experimental Farm Network is doing.