Kyssäkaali eli kaalirapi - Kohlrabi

Kyssäkaali eli kaalirapi
Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes L 

Bras­si­ca­ce­ae – hei­mo, Ris­ti­kuk­kais­kas­vit

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Kys­sä­kaa­li muis­tut­taa ul­koi­ses­ti hie­man lant­tua tai nau­ris­ta, mut­ta se kas­vaa maan pin­nal­la var­si­mu­ku­la­na. Leh­tien pois­ta­mi­nen pa­ran­taa säi­ly­vyyt­tä roi­mas­ti. Kys­sä­kaa­lit ovat vä­ril­tään vih­rei­tä tai lii­lo­ja. Kys­sä­kaa­lin ulko­muo­to vaih­te­lee la­jik­keit­tain, joi­ta on ole­mas­sa muu­ta­mia kym­me­niä. Kys­sä­kaa­li kas­vaa no­pe­as­ti ja vuo­den ai­ka­na sii­tä voi­daan saa­da jopa kol­me eri sa­toa.

Vil­je­ly­kas­vi­na kys­sä­kaa­li on mel­ko uusi, sil­lä sen vil­je­ly on aloi­tet­tu vas­ta 1500 – 1600- lu­vun vaih­tees­sa. Suo­mes­sa kys­sä­kaa­lin vil­je­ly on vä­häis­tä, vaik­ka se so­pi­si­kin kas­vu­vaa­ti­mus­ten­sa puo­les­ta vil­jel­tä­väk­si maas­sam­me. Suu­rin osa mark­ki­noil­la ole­vis­ta kys­sä­kaa­leis­ta on sak­sa­lai­sia, sil­lä kas­vin vil­je­ly on to­del­la yleis­tä Sak­sas­sa.

Muis­ta kaa­leis­ta poik­ke­a­van ra­ken­teen joh­dos­ta, sen käy­tös­sä on eri mah­dol­li­suu­det. Kys­sän, eli syö­tä­vän var­si­mu­ku­lan voi naut­tia joko sel­lai­se­naan tai kyp­sen­net­ty­nä. Se so­pii nau­riin ta­paan keit­toi­hin, tai re­tii­sin lail­la sa­laat­tei­hin ja raas­tei­siin. Kys­sä­kaa­li si­säl­tää vi­ta­mii­neis­ta eni­ten C-vi­ta­mii­nia ja sitä voi­kin olla kaa­lis­sa jopa 60 mg.

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Kohlrabi
Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes L

Soon af­ter the young kohl­ra­bi plant be­gins to grow, its stem be­gins to swell, fi­nal­ly for­ming an of­ten slight­ly flat­te­ned sphe­ri­cal sha­pe. From this light­ly wa­xed green or li­lac swol­len stem the leaf stems grow as from a nor­mal stem.

Kohl­ra­bi is of­ten re­a­dy to eat 50-60 days af­ter plan­ting, when stems are about 7-12cm in di­a­me­ter. At har­ves­ting the plants are pul­led from the ground and the root re­mo­ved by cut­ting at the point whe­re it meets the stem. This re­qui­res a strong sharp kni­fe or some old ro­bust se­ca­teurs. The le­a­ves which will not last long post­har­vest are best re­mo­ved by ca­re­ful trim­ming.

The most com­mon qu­a­li­ty prob­lem is to al­low the stem to be­co­me ´woo­dy`, this hap­pens more ra­pid­ly to some va­rie­ties than to ot­hers and ma­kes the stem al­most ine­dib­le. To avoid this, le­arn to grow the best va­rie­ties or har­vest the ol­der va­rie­ties in good time. Ot­her qu­a­li­ty prob­lems are split­ting, in­sect da­ma­ge, and har­ves­ting when they have be­co­me too big and poor­ly sha­ped.

A com­mon mis­ta­ke is to con­fu­se a kohl­ra­bi with a root crop such as tur­nip or swe­de, and pre­su­me it sto­res as well as the­se. Most kohl­ra­bi va­rie­ties do not sto­re well, and we have all seen the shri­ve­led dry spe­ci­mens for sale in the su­per­mar­kets. sto­ra­ge in the frid­ge for 1-2 weeks af­ter har­vest is pro­bab­ly still safe, but to en­joy kohl­ra­bi at its best it should be ea­ten fresh.

Nut­ri­ti­o­nal­ly kohl­ra­bi is ex­cel­lent and si­mi­lar with ot­her bras­si­cas, con­tai­ning a good se­lec­ti­on of mi­ne­rals and vi­ta­mins. Its cris­pi­ness and de­li­ca­te fla­vour make it an easy ve­ge­tab­le to en­joy raw.

Gro­wing kohl­ra­bi is re­la­ti­ve­ly easy so long as you pro­tect it with flee­ce or in­sect net. When grown from a transp­lant, you must re­mem­ber not to rep­lant too deep­ly, avoi­ding that the lo­wer part of the stem does not la­ter con­tact the soil as it swells. This en­su­res a cle­an stem, with an even co­lour that is easy to har­vest.
Re­mem­ber also that this is a fast gro­wing ve­ge­tab­le and can be plan­ted as late as ear­ly July gi­ving a fresh supp­ly of Kohl­ra­bi well into au­tumn. kohl­ra­bi is avai­lab­le from mid-sum­mer to ear­ly No­vem­ber if plan­ted in sta­ges from ear­ly May to mid-July.