Kale rises from bitter harvest to popular, healthy 'superfood'

Journey of growth

"I'm a farmer, and I've been working the land since I was a child. Growing crops and vegetables is second nature to me," Wang said.

In the 1990s, many young people in her village left their farms to seek work in cities. Seeing vast stretches of abandoned land, Wang grew concerned. "If everyone leaves to work in the cities, what will we eat?" she thought.

In 1995, she leased over seven hectares of land from 13 households in her village and began growing wheat and corn.

In addition to growing these crops, in 2000 Wang started cultivating spinach for export.

"The soil and water in Shandong are perfect for growing vegetables, so I started with spinach and secured steady export orders," she said. This success led to a new opportunity in 2005, when a client in the United States requested that Wang grow kale.

At first, Wang saw this as a lucrative business opportunity. She imported kale seeds from the Netherlands and began cultivating the crop.

"Back then, we had never tasted kale, but growing vegetables is something we Shandong farmers know how to do. I figured it out through trial and error," she said.

What she didn't anticipate was that this trial-and-error process would take seven years. "We experienced heat waves, floods, droughts and almost every possible disease," she said. Finally, in 2012, she achieved success.

Over those years, she learned the crop's "temperament".

"It thrives in cool climates, and can withstand temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius, and isn't particularly picky about soil, making it suitable for large-scale cultivation," she said.

"We had no manuals or experts to guide us. It was all based on our own experience and wisdom as farmers," she said.

Despite her success, Wang initially found the taste of kale unappealing. "When I first grew it, I tasted it and thought it was terrible — bitter and astringent," she said.

For years, she didn't even mention that she was growing kale, fearing that the demand for such an unpalatable vegetable would eventually dry up. But to her surprise, orders kept increasing year after year. By 2016, her farm exported 1,000 metric tons of kale annually.

It wasn't until she did some research that Wang discovered kale's reputation as a "superfood".

Rich in dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals like calcium, iron and phosphorus, kale also contains antioxidants and anti-cancer compounds such as sulforaphane, she said.

What truly convinced Wang of kale's potential was a personal discovery. One day, she accidentally left a bag of kale in a corner and forgot about it. Six months later, she found the leaves hadn't rotted.

"They had simply dried out and turned yellow," she said. "This was completely different from other vegetables. I realized it must be due to its antioxidant properties.

"That's when I became convinced that kale, as a healthy and nutritious vegetable, had a bright future," she said.