Curly kale

I pass fields of cabbages and sprouts each day and they can look pretty bleak at this time of the year. I saw this field at a distance and could not identify the vegetable. It looked quite impressive in comparison to the fallow land, the crops waiting to be harvested and those that are rotting because the price is not good enough or some such depressing reason. You can tell a bad year by the smell of rotting vegetables, a smell that is both unpleasant and distinctive. It is damp and gloomy today and not good weather for those whose health is not robust. Our low lying countryside, much of it below sea level, was until recently a breeding ground for the fen ague or marsh fever (malaria). Drainage helped to eliminate it but it is still an unhealthy climate.