How do you check kale?

Strudel

Tue, Apr 23 2013, 12:18 pm

Can anyone tell me how to check for bugs in kale?

amother

Tue, Apr 23 2013, 12:51 pm

I buy triple wash kale with a hashgaha K ORC, Taylor Brand.
I rinse it well in a white bowl and check the water.
I never found anything, but ask your LOR.
I use it for green smoothies, so I don't worry about drying it well like for salad.

black sheep

Tue, Apr 23 2013, 1:12 pm

just like I check lettuce, but it takes a bit longer because its darker. wash each leaf under running tap water while checking for bugs. in addition to bugs, dark leafy greens need to be washed really well for risk of salmonella, so I don't skimp on washing time. I don't bother spending the extra money on prewashed because, although it reduces the amount of bugs you find, it doesn't reduce risk of food poisoning and it needs to be rewashed anyway.

Mevater

Fri, May 29 2015, 3:43 pm

Im reading how healthy kale is. Is a checked Kale available in BP stores?

spring13

Fri, May 29 2015, 5:16 pm

If you can find Tuscan kale (also called lacinato kale), the leaves are less kinky and therefore easier to inspect. Or you can use collard greens (depending on the purpose), which are flat and therefore very easy.

STovah

Sat, May 30 2015, 10:09 pm

Mevater wrote:

Im reading how healthy kale is. Is a checked Kale available in BP stores?

I saw checked kale in Gourmet Glatt before pesach, I haven't been there recently to know if they still sell it.

amother

Silver

Sun, May 31 2015, 1:35 am

Very hard to check the trips are so tiny and stick to the leaves need a light box-I buy only the checked with hashgacha

Mevater

Sat, Jan 02 2016, 11:27 pm

Has anyone seen checked Kale in BP lately? and around how much does it cost for a bag?

yidisheh mama

Sat, Jan 02 2016, 11:31 pm

I buy it in breadberry or goldbergs. its the same price as bodek romaine lettuce bag, but it is only 5 oz... here is link to see/buy from breadberry.
https://breadberry.com/#!/hb/c/10364-0/c/10373-10364/r/36326/he/kosher-produce/kosher-salads/kosher-garden-baby-kale-greenhouse-5-oz

TeachersNotebook

Sat, Jan 02 2016, 11:53 pm

It's so funny I was just having a conversation about this with my father tonight! According to the Star-K, you only have to wash them, agitate them in soapy water, and then check the water for bugs. Here's the link for the step-by-step instructions: http://www.star-k.org/checking

Mevater

Sun, Jan 03 2016, 12:56 am

yidisheh mama wrote:

I saw a pic of baby kale on the breadberry website and it looks pretty light colored. Ive read that the darker the greens, the healthier.

seeker

Sun, Jan 03 2016, 2:38 am

I buy the kind that is not as curly because I have found that the curly ones, at least locally to me, were so buggy that the time it took to clean them was so not worth it. Kale comes in many varieties and it seems the bugginess level is hit or miss. Sometimes I get a bunch that I need to wash 500 times and then check and it still has bugs, and sometimes I get a bunch that the water is clean on the 2nd try and I don't find anything on the leaves (never once found kale that didn't have bugs on the first soak though.)

You put it all in a basin with water and some veggie wash and vinegar (some lady at the farmer's market told me to use vinegar, so I do...I think it helps) and swish it around for a good couple of minutes. Then you fish out the kale and shake it off, and look at the water. It will definitely have bugs because you only did this once. You rinse off the kale and repeat the process but this time look at the water more closely because hopefully it will be harder to find the bugs, but they're probably still there. It helps to use a bowl that is white, or a clear bowl and put it on a solid-colored counter or stovetop. Then you do it again until the water is clean. If you are lucky the third try is good, if you got a buggy batch you will do this until your fingers are more shriveled than the kale is. When the water is perfectly clear of bugs, you rinse the kale one last time and pat dry. You carefully inspect 3 of the leaves and if you don't find any bugs the whole batch is considered fine. If you do find bugs then you need to check each leaf, or just throw the lot in the garbage because you're exhausted by now anyway.

I don't remember where I originally did my research to come up with this method, but I believe it may have been star-k. In general the OU tends to be more stringent than the star-k with regard to bug checking. Therefore it totally boggles my mind when I see commercial bags of organic kale chips with OU on them. I mean I realize that there are stronger industrial cleaning methods, but how is this even possible? Organic kale gets SO buggy! And those suckers hang on like I have never seen with regular lettuce - I never have to wash romaine more than twice!

Anyway just from my own personal experience, no halachic reason, I find it easier to check kale by shining a bright light ON it rather than through it. The leaves are more opaque and the bugs can be pretty translucent. When you shine the light OVER them the light bounces off the bugs and makes them show up more easily. Romaine lettuce is thinner and lighter so when you shine the light behind them the bugs show up darker but with kale I find a regular but very bright light is most helpful.

Though I only do kale maybe twice a year because half the time it is so frustrating that I swear off it until the memory starts to fade. Much like childbirth in that sense.

Mevater

Sun, Jan 03 2016, 10:01 am

seeker wrote:

Though I only do kale maybe twice a year because half the time it is so frustrating that I swear off it until the memory starts to fade. Much like childbirth in that sense.

Makes you wonder how many bugs people eat when eating commercially "checked" veg, who Ive read have heterim for checking only one box of a huge shipment, etc or restaurants whose checkers are certainly not spending all day with a few bunches of kale.

I dont recall the exact quote, but I think I remember R Blumenkrantz (a no-nonsense Rov) saying that balebustas at home check vegetables way better than others in commercial establishments, even if they dont do every step.

Imho, at least theyre looking at every piece of kale without many heterim not to.

amother

White

Sun, Jan 03 2016, 11:15 am

Your best bet is to blend it into green smoothies and then you only need to rinse in soap or veggie water. It is extremely difficylt to check. The greenhouse ones are sprayed with tons of fungicides and pesticides. Not even worth eating. Buy organic and blend...

Mevater

Sun, Jan 03 2016, 11:30 am

amother wrote:

Ony thing is, I got tired of eating iceberg lettuce a long time ago, and now Im getting tired of romaine and looking for variety in salad.

seeker

Sun, Jan 03 2016, 12:51 pm

Mevater wrote:

Ony thing is, I got tired of eating iceberg lettuce a long time ago, and now Im getting tired of romaine and looking for variety in salad.

I wouldn't use kale in salad, it's bitter. Try radicchio, arugula, I don't even know what the other things are called but there's a mix that comes in a bag that's darker than romaine and has a nice flavor, if you read the ingredients on that it will give you ideas of what greens to use.

Mevater

Sun, Jan 03 2016, 2:30 pm

seeker wrote:

I wouldn't use kale in salad, it's bitter.

I ate out and had a "Kale salad" and it was yum.

MagentaYenta

Sun, Jan 03 2016, 2:32 pm

Mevater wrote:

I ate out and had a "Kale salad" and it was yum.

I eat kale every day. The secret is to bruise it before adding it raw to salads.

seeker

Sun, Jan 03 2016, 9:51 pm

Well, you learn something new every day. I still don't think I'd waste my time but it's still interesting to know that's an option. Maybe I've been using less-tasty varieties of kale. Maybe that's what I get for not having the patience to clean the curly kind more than once in a lifetime.