No. 0794 · Brassica oleracea
Storm Kale
- Crop
- Vegetable
- Climate
- Cold
- Season
- Winter
- Origin
- Isle of Lewis, Scotland
No. 0794The variety
A short, purple-veined kale from the Outer Hebrides, grown inside stone walls and picked through the worst of winter.
Grows best inWind, rain and cold, poor soil
Seed passport
Perennial Seed Library · Season 2026
- Origin
- Isle of Lewis, Scotland
- First documented
- 1890
- Days to maturity
- 60 days for leaf, two years for seed
- Height
- 50 to 70 cm
- Hardiness
- Hardy to −15 °C
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Spacing
- 45 cm
- Flavor notes
- Sweet after frost, with a gentle mustard bite
No. 0794Growth timeline
From sowing to saving seed.
Stage 01 of 06
No. 0794Story
The story of Storm Kale
On the Isle of Lewis, kale was grown inside small round stone enclosures called planticrues, which kept off the wind and the sheep. Storm Kale is short and stocky, built for a place where anything tall gets flattened, and its leaves sweeten after every frost.
It flowers in its second spring, with yellow blossoms that the island’s bumblebees come out for on the first warm days. Like all kale, it crosses freely with cabbages and broccoli, so seed is saved from plants grown well apart.
Grown by
3 growers this season
Eamon Keane
Connemara, Ireland
Hanne Mortensen
Jutland, Denmark
Liesl Brunner
Valais, Switzerland
Lending list · Season 2026
Borrow this seed.
Members borrow up to twelve varieties a year. Seed is posted on the first Monday of the month in a hand-numbered paper packet, and all we ask in return is a little of your harvest and a few lines about how it grew.