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No,
not collars, it's collards, a dark green leafy vegetable found in many
gardens and on the plates of discriminating people everywhere!
They have a mild cabbage- like
flavor and come under the heading of greens. For those of you who don't quite
know what greens are, I shall explain. Greens are mostly the leafy parts of
plants that can be eaten raw or cooked. Spinach is a good example that you are
all familiar with. Collards are widely thought of as an ethnic food but more
and more people every year are trying this vegetable and find that they like
it.
Collards tolerate cool weather as
well as cabbage, broccoli and my personal unfavorite, brussels sprouts. You
can plant them first thing in the spring but you may prefer to wait until the
end of May. The directions on the seed packet may say to plant them about
three feet apart and thin to 18 to 24 inches apart. If you have good soil,
you might try planting double rows with plants about one foot apart. Picking
of the lower leaves may begin in August or earlier if you can't wait. Don't
pull up the entire plant to harvest the leaves, you want to keep cropping the
plants until December. Yes, December! I live a few blocks from the Hudson
River which keeps my area warm a little longer than the folks who live in the
mountains so I pick them until about December 15.
If you would like to keep
gardening as long as possible, this the plant for you. Collards laugh at
light frosts that will kill almost everything else in the vegetable garden.
When the nights drop into the twenties, they will look a little wilted in the
morning, but when the sun warms things, they perk right up. Long after the
neighbors have put their tomato and pepper plants on the compost pile they
will be amazed to see you continue to harvest your garden until after
Thanksgiving. Finally when the temperature dips into the teens, it will be
time to pull your plants and put them on your own compost pile. I usually put
about a foot of leaves on the garden over the winter and have sometimes left
the collards in the ground. Surprisingly, some lived through the winter until
spring, when they went to seed. This is one tough vegetable. It's so tough, it
qualifies to be a weed.
Its relatives the cabbage,
broccoli and brussels sprouts are better known but collards have advantages
you should consider. First the flavor doesn't overwhelm you. The neighbors
down the street know when you're cooking cabbage or that bane of small
children, brussels sprouts.
Have you ever noticed those small
white butterflies that flit around the garden on warm summer days? They are
almost certainly the parents of those little green worms that you find on
your broccoli and cabbages .Some books recommend soaking the broccoli florets
in salt water to cause the worms to release their hold and float to the
surface where they can be removed. Never fear, if you miss any, boiling will
kill them and they will come to the surface, I hope they all do. The worms
hide inside cabbages so the best thing might be to put them in the food
processor and make cole slaw. If you want to eliminate the chance of worms,
you could just do what the farmers do, put periodic doses of insecticide on
the broccoli and cabbages, most of it will wash off.
I don't use pesticides on my
collards so an occasional insect may take a bite or two out of the leaves,
but there's never been a problem with cabbage worms. Perhaps because the
collard leaves are so open, the enemies of the worms see them and remove them
before they are a problem. When I pick the lower leaves I usually choose the
perfect leaves and leave the bug bitten ones to continue to nourish the plant
and help it to grow. About every two or three weeks I pick them again.
Keeping the ground around the plants mulched and therefore moist, helps them
to grow even during the dry days of summer (See the article on mulching on
this website). You can pick bags and bags of leaves summer, fall and into
winter and freeze any you don't eat right away. Because of their lengthy
growing season, collards are one of the most productive vegetables in the
garden.
The leaves have a center rib that
can be cut away if you want. The rib has a lot of fiber so there are benefits
to leaving them on as part of the leaf. To remove the rib I just fold the
leaf over lengthwise and with a single cut with a sharp knife it's gone. With
the rib off or rib left on, I place several leaves on top of one another,
roll them into a cigar-like shape, cut down the middle, and slice off pieces
about half an inch thick starting from the end of the roll. This gives you
bite sized pieces that can then be cooked or frozen with little work.
They cook down to a much smaller
amount than when they are fresh so they won't take up much space in your
freezer. Remember to only blanch the leaves that will go into the freezer.
Don’t overcook them, as you will cook them again later. These greens cook
quickly so be careful and don't let them become mushy.
My mother-in-law was raised in
Louisiana so she prefers them cooked with salt pork. A little too salty for
my taste, so I cook them with other flavorings. Collards are so mild they
easily pick up the flavor of other things that are cooked with them such as
pork or chicken. They can be served alone as a side dish or in soups and
stews. In almost any recipe that uses spinach or other greens, try collards
as a substitute.
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