Last year I grew two garden boxes of kale: one was Curly Blue Scotch and the other was Red Russian. Everyone I knew, including my friends at the local fresh food bank, received big bouquets of it (whether they wanted it or not). At home, we made it into chips, stir fries and smoothies. We even froze it to eat all winter in soups and sauces. But that was just the beginning.
In the fall I cleaned out the box of red kale and left the box of green. We ate it well into November, even while the plants grew lean and spindly. It was still growing when the snow arrived in December, but eventually died back and looked sort of brown and forlorn. I felt sorry for it on cold winter afternoons.
In the spring, I glanced out the window and discovered that it had turned green again (the kids and I named it Jesus kale because it once was dead but now was full of life again!). Then, while I was still feeling smug about all the work of seeding and planting I wasn’t going to have to do this year, it bloomed. Four foot high wands of little yellow flowers made the plants pretty much inedible. But I didn’t want to tear them out–they were so pretty in my spring garden. And besides, the bees loved them.
Then, just when I was enjoying the flowers, they ran to seed–back to the brown and ugly. Still, I let them stay and take up an entire garden box, mostly because I’m cheap. I knew that if I harvested the seeds, I wouldn’t need to fork out $3.95 for packets of kale any time soon.
It took far longer than I expected, but I have finally managed to harvest those Curly Blue Scotch kale seeds. All eight million of them (that’s my best guess, anyway).
Some of the pods–many of them, actually–had cracked open before I got to them. Dozens of brown husks had spilled their tiny black seeds on the ground underneath them in the garden box, in the garden boxes next to them, and on the path. As I took the long stems to the compost, I realized that stray seeds were being dropped all the way along, too. I can only begin to imagine how many tiny kale plants are in my future!
This afternoon, I ran my fingers through a nice big bowl of dry kale seeds and marvelled at their abundance. I noticed the birds pecking at my now empty garden box–I even noticed a purple finch I’ve never seen before–and they were enjoying the seeds, too.
All I did was let my little box of plants do what God intended them to do. That kale lived each season in its turn: growing up, weathering the hard bits, finding resurrection, and blooming when I least expected it. It leaves behind a legacy, too, with enough seeds to plant generations more. All of this from ordinary kale that lived out its generous mission in the world.
I think there must be a life lesson in there somewhere. At the very least, there is encouragement: Bloom where you’re planted. Give yourself away. Wait for resurrection.
My Jesus kale turned out to be a wise teacher.
