Kale buds are simply the unopened flower heads on a mature kale plant. They appear when kale starts bolting at the first wave of heat in late spring to early summer.
Absolutely, and you’d be missing out on a culinary delicacy if you didn’t!
If the concept of eating kale flowers seems strange to you, you’ve probably cooked with other forms of brassica buds and not even realized it. Take broccoli raab, for example.
Raab (derived from rapa, Italian for turnip) is just a fancy word for the flowering tops of plants from the brassica family, such as kale, broccoli, mustard greens, and Chinese cabbage.
The point is, brassica plants make all kinds of edible parts beyond what you typically see in the store. So then, you might be wondering, why doesn’t anyone ever sell kale florets? It’s simply a matter of demand and the fact that eating kale florets has never been a part of American food culture.