Collard Greens

While growing up in Michigan I had never heard of collards, nor would have cared for them if I had. Upon moving to Georgia I gradually became aware of them but not because I ate them. I avoided green things like that for a long time. I knew I would not like them.

Years ago, while we were on a family vacation at St. Simons Island, Georgia, I awoke one morning feeling slightly ill. The feeling hadn't improved by the time we went to lunch at a small restaurant close to the fishing pier. I have forgotten what else I ate, if anything, but I saw collards on the menu. Somehow I thought, "I'm going to try these things. They'll either kill me or cure me."

I wound up eating two bowls of collards, have loved them ever since, and have grown them in my garden whenever I could.  

Last spring I planted two rows. (The garden had been fertilized with a good dose of mushroom compost, which I had learned about after becoming a Clay County Master Gardener.)

We had collards last year beginning around June and lasting through the fall. I always harvest them by cutting a few leaves from each plant rather than taking the whole thing. That way they just keep on producing.

Because of the "aroma", I boil them outside, with a couple of strips of bacon, in a big pot on a propane camp stove for about two hours. By that time they are tender and ready to eat. We freeze what is not needed immediately.

Normally, at the end of the season, I dig them up. However last winter I decided to let them stay in the ground. I had always heard that they were better after a frost and had noticed that they would survive each bout of freezing weather and then bounce right back and grow some more, so I cooked collards in the fall, winter and spring.

Along about March they started to really get tall and put on bright yellow blooms. I decided to let them grow to see what would happen. I could still harvest leaves as needed but the plants kept getting taller, four to six feet tall. Then a tremendous number of very long thin green pods appeared on each plant - new experience. I let them continue until the middle of May when I figured it was time for them to go to the burn pile. There was more stalk than leaf.

After digging them I left them on the burn pile to dry. The pods were still green when I uprooted the plants, but while lying on the burn pile they dried and almost split open. The outcome was that I got a tremendous supply of collard seed. All I had to do was shake the plant while holding a container under it to get a wonderful harvest. Considering the amount of seeds in the normal packet, I may have enough for every garden in the county. 

If you're a gardener, there's always something new to learn.

Jack Parrish, Master Gardener