Boom Times for Farmers in the United States of Kale

America’s love affair with kale has been good for farmers, who produced nearly 60 percent more of the trendy green in 2012 than they did in 2007, according to new data from the Department of Agriculture.

In all, 2,500 farms reported harvesting kale in 2012, up from fewer than 1,000 in 2007. The kale capital is California, where 390 farms harvested 1,680 acres of kale in 2012, compared with fewer than 100 kale farms and 1,077 acres harvested in 2007. Georgia ranked second, and New Jersey was third, narrowly beating Texas.