So sad to see food waste :(

[Branching Out]

I have never saw collards. They sound terrible!

They are dark green, and shaped just like ping pong paddles. Kind of taste like ping pong paddles too if I remember correctly.

 

[digitS']

Finished the second breakfast which included a slice of last night's pizza. Yes, the "sustenance" cartoon showed up at just the right time, shoulda shared with the delivery guy .

Advice:

I am wondering whether the collard greens should be harvested young when they are still tender, or else braised so the savoury cooking liquid tenderizes them as you would with southern mustard greens. Either way, I told my husband we are going to learn to like them (I hope).

I tried collards a couple of times and later tried them after hard freezes. Then! They Tasted Just Fine.

Many folks do this with kale and that's fine but we use kale so much through the growing season, there are few to no big tough leaves that need the frost treatment. I was just noticing the other day how we managed to kill several kale plants, or we in combination with sub-zero Winter weather. There just wasn't enough strength gained with steady harvesting for them to make it through the cold.

Collards should not be eaten in that traditional Southern method of 2 hours simmering with a ham hock. I've had that before and have had it with mustard greens also. Green mush - no thanks! Just allow the hard frosts of the North to tenderize the leaves. They are really quite good.

Steve

 

[AMKuska]

And AMKuska, a friend used collards in place of pasta noodles when she made lasagna for us a few years ago and it was memorably delicious, and probably one of the best lasagna I have had. I am wondering whether the collard greens should be harvested young when they are still tender, or else braised so the savoury cooking liquid tenderizes them as you would with southern mustard greens. Either way, I told my husband we are going to learn to like them (I hope).

I've never had it that way. My neighbor told me I'd never had good cooking till I had a mess o' greens and brought me cooked collard greens. It was like chewing sticks greased with bacon. I later got some collard green from the store a few times and experimented with cooking them for longer/tenderizing them, but they were always super tough and woody.

I'd love to hear the recipe and perhaps try younger greens.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Finished the second breakfast which included a slice of last night's pizza. Yes, the "sustenance" cartoon showed up at just the right time, shoulda shared with the delivery guy .

Advice:


I tried collards a couple of times and later tried them after hard freezes. Then! They Tasted Just Fine.

Many folks do this with kale and that's fine but we use kale so much through the growing season, there are few to no big tough leaves that need the frost treatment. I was just noticing the other day how we managed to kill several kale plants, or we in combination with sub-zero Winter weather. There just wasn't enough strength gained with steady harvesting for them to make it through the cold.

Collards should not be eaten in that traditional Southern method of 2 hours simmering with a ham hock. I've had that before and have had it with mustard greens also. Green mush - no thanks! Just allow the hard frosts of the North to tenderize the leaves. They are really quite good.

Steve

I found that we will eat them if we pick young. I made the mistake of thinking that I should wait and pick after they were big, so as to get more, but nobody would eat them and with collards you do not have to worry about not having enough.

 

[flowerbug]

...
Do any of you cook with bacon drippings? And will that perhaps be part of my learning how to cook 'a mess of greens??'

no, we generally do not have bacon fat here since we buy the precrumbled stuff that the fat has already been removed. there's no waste or me having to deal with the fat that ways. i'm ok eating some fat from ham or bacon but there's nothing i regularly cook that would use that much up.

when i cook it is usually a bit of butter and olive oil or one or the other. depends upon what i'm cooking.

colards are not eaten here. Mom is too picky for any kind of green that is bitter or too much like cabbage. she'll eat brussels sprouts once in a great while. otherwise it is mostly onions, garlic, squash, tomatoes, beans, peas, corn and apples, bananas, etc.

anything that goes off will end up in the worm farm or on the weed pile out back for the wild animals to pick through.

 

[digitS']

brussels sprouts once in a great while.

Ack, Brussels Sprouts!

Aren't tastes interesting? I think of my diet is varied but there are several "items" on the menu to be only sampled but seldom, several to be avoided. I just can't eat much of this or that while other foods are nearly a staple or are, for months at a time. Often, they come close to being bland, at least, with my taste. Example: For several years, I would make waffles every morning. Not from a mix but with no special ingredients.

Growing up on a farm, I must have had almost too much beef. It's not that I dislike it but I all but insist on bbq sauce at the table or, better still, that it has been in a marinade for half the day before cooking. With that, I will delight in varying the ingredients. Think about it. Ingredients found on every supermarket shelf with additions as complex or simple as desired at the moment. The flavor variations are astronomical.

Something of this sort is pleasing to me just anticipating. It need not be only beef or meat. Recently, we had Portobello mushrooms in a marinade for only a half an hour at most. Rice, greens. Maybe some toasted zucchini bread with cream cheese. An Especially Delicious Dinner for ..

. digitS'

 

[flowerbug]

Ack, Brussels Sprouts!

Aren't tastes interesting? I think of my diet is varied but there are several "items" on the menu to be only sampled but seldom, several to be avoided. I just can't eat much of this or that while other foods are nearly a staple or are, for months at a time. Often, they come close to being bland, at least, with my taste. Example: For several years, I would make waffles every morning. Not from a mix but with no special ingredients.

Growing up on a farm, I must have had almost too much beef. It's not that I dislike it but I all but insist on bbq sauce at the table or, better still, that it has been in a marinade for half the day before cooking. With that, I will delight in varying the ingredients. Think about it. Ingredients found on every supermarket shelf with additions as complex or simple as desired at the moment. The flavor variations are astronomical.

Something of this sort is pleasing to me just anticipating. It need not be only beef or meat. Recently, we had Portobello mushrooms in a marinade for only a half an hour at most. Rice, greens. Maybe some toasted zucchini bread with cream cheese. An Especially Delicious Dinner for ..

. digitS'

it all sounds good to me right now since i've not even had first breakfast (rarely do i get a 2nd breakfast - i just can't eat that much).

it will probably be a cereal morning since i have it and don't feel like cooking. if i want warm cereal the microwave knows how to do that after i push in a few numbers. my brain is tired today...

 

[Branching Out]

All of these perspectives on collards are quite thought provoking. Despite the fact that none of us seem to like them, I am still keen on growing them to see if there is a way to make collard greens taste good- so good that I will want to eat them, and share them as well. My fascination stems largely from what I have read about The Heirloom Collard Project, https://heirloomcollards.org/ and from this seed listing that I found on The Experimental Farm Network, https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/collections/brassicas/products/ultracross-collards
It would appear that collards, like Rodney Dangerfield, 'don't get no respect'. Lol. As is often the case with me it is not just the seed, but the story behind the seed that compels me to grow them. So while collards may taste awful, I want to be part of this attempt to elevate the status of the lowly collard to that of a welcome vegetable garden addition, and therefore I need Joseph Lofthouse's Ultra-Cross Collard Seed Collection. At least that's what I plan on telling my husband when I put in the seed order.

All kidding aside, Jaime at Quail Seeds says that her mom survived the Great Depression because of collards. That is quite a statement. Given that I am not planning on saving seeds for purity but rather for production of lots of vegetables, this kind of mix is very appealing for me. I would love to plant the mix just to see what overwinters in our climate, and then save seeds without too much concern about how they might cross. At the moment I am starting seeds of Cascade Glaze, which is an old heirloom from 1820 that has been further developed by Carol Deppe, Alan Kapuler, and Jeff McCormack. Hopefully I will be able to plant other varieties in the coming months.

One of our local seed suppliers offers a hybrid cultivar called Top Bunch, and in reading the reviews customers say it is 'delicious', 'tastes better than kale', 'loved this crop', 'survived heat dome and -15C', and even 'can't wait to grow more of it!' Is it possible that we are on the cusp of a collard revolution? If so, I want to get in on the ground floor.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

I have never saw collards. They sound terrible!

It is terrible. I dislike collards. And that is after I've tried many different ways of eating it. Everyone says to add some bacon but being a vegetarian that would be difficult 😂.
So, I've decide that I rather eat chard and spinach which grow beautifully here.
Oh and @seedcorn will appreciate this, I also dislike kale as much as collards.

I still grow collards and kale, for the chickens and bunnies.

 

[AMKuska]

All kidding aside, Jaime at Quail Seeds says that her mom survived the Great Depression because of collards. That is quite a statement. Given that I am not planning on saving seeds for purity but rather for production of lots of vegetables, this kind of mix is very appealing for me. I would love to plant the mix just to see what overwinters in our climate, and then save seeds without too much concern about how they might cross. At the moment I am starting seeds of Cascade Glaze, which is an old heirloom from 1820 that has been further developed by Carol Deppe, Alan Kapuler, and Jeff McCormack. Hopefully I will be able to plant other varieties in the coming months.

I am interested in this. Why specifically collards? What happened here? I'm actually expanding my garden in part because I worry something similar is about to happen. Perhaps a few collards need tucked in despite their flavor and texture.