With the recent warm weather we have had, my collards have shot up, growing about another foot it seems. They are now making broccoli-like shoots and I just saw some even beginning to flower. My question is - can these shoots be cooked like broccoli or broccoli raabe?
I promise, I will freeze most of the rest of the leaves as soon as I can - I am just too busy.
Collards growing out
Don't know about the taste, but they are edible like broccoli raab. Never know till you try.
Well, Farmerdill, I tried and they were delicious. I cut the shoots and blanched them like I would regular collard leaves, then I cooked them in olive oil with garlic and the rest of the blanched and cut up leaves. They all sort of melted in together. I think next time, I'll cook them separately and not quite as long as the leaves. I have lots more.
Learned something new!!
My collards did the same thing. I cooked them like broccoli raab. I thought they tasted better than broccoli.
The weather suddently got quite warm a couple of weeks ago, and now is cool again.
My brussel sprouts were not sure what to think. The little sprouts became "fluffy" in the heat instead of the firm buds we are used to. We decided to eat the leaves instead. Very sweet and tasty. We also cook the green leaves from the cauliflower as a vegetable as well. No point in wasting the tender tasty greens.
I want to report that I picked a lot of my collard shoots last night and cooked them - I guess the same way as mermaid -, in olive oil with chopped onion and garlic. I added a bit of water when they started getting really dry, cooked them for a total of 10 minutes. They were delicious.
Clementine, A dear friend sent me some Yellow Cabbage Collard Green and some Green Cabbage Collard Green seed. . I understand these seed are seldom shared out side the North Carolina growing area not very far from Chapel Hill. I have germinated some of these and look forward to growing them this year. I am sharing her message below on these.
Gary
Just a few links to info about the cabbage collards. I am actually sending you each two different forms--the Yellow Cabbage Collard, and the green version, usually just referred to as Cabbage Collard. These are fairly unknown outside the Carolina's. Usually they are heavily guarded family heirlooms, having been passed down for more than100 years in the same family. Most folks will not share seeds. After literally years of looking, I have been smiled upon and gained samples of both types in the SAME year! I am sure there are many other lines of both versions because each family and each farm saves their own seeds from year to year.
These particular Yellow Cabbage Collards originated from The Cabbage Shack in Ayden, North Carolina. I have long known that these folks would sell the seed at their farm stand, but would not mail them. Finally I came across a new gardening friend who was willing to make the drive. Now he and I, and all of you folks also, have a new old garden favorite to try!
http://southeastfarmpress.com/mag/farming_unique_marketing_system/
This link is to a page with pictures of Cabbage Collards made by folks who really grow them. Please pay attention to the series of pictures by farmerdill of a Cabbage Collard at various stages of development:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/12902/
I am told that these plants grow to the size of a No. 4 washtub. Normally these are harvested in a progressive manner with the outer leaves first harvested individually, and then the heads as they form. As with almost all of the Brassicas, they have a sweeter flavor after they have been kissed by the frost. I am told that the heads of these are particularly tender.
Yellow Cabbage Collards in the field: http://www.deansfarmmarket.com/page.php?id=12
Just a personal observation...I haven't had the opportunity to grow either of these collard varieties to maturity. I have had the yellow version once before. If this strain is anything like the ones I had before, they will be perky little plants of a bright yellow-green with a tender and velvety texture. I planted them early in the spring, and fought the darned cabbage worms for them most of the spring. I lost when we had to leave town for a weekend. I will probably start a few plants now and keep them covered with netting this time. But I will also save some to start late summer when there will hopefully be less competition with the infernal cabbage stealers!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy these.
Collards are an acquired taste for lots of people. I grew up eating them and the other strongly-flavored southern greens. And to tell the truth, I really only like collards and some of those early greens after the first light frost, or in the early spring when it is still cool. Radishes are better then as well--loosing the overwhelming hot spicy that plagues them in the heat of summer and developing a sweetness that I find very refreshing.
There are many ways to cook collards other than the typical pot of boiled greens--although that is a traditional way to cook them, and can be very satisfying with a nice hot piece of buttered cornbread alongside (or ladled along with the pot liker over the cornbread in a nice deep bowl). However, there are many other ways to serve them ranging from soups to casseroles. In fact, when I started collecting recipes found online, I was surprised myself at the many interesting ways people have devised to serve these sorts of greens.
Gary, thank you so much for this wonderful post and the links. I actually know where that Farm Market is, as we got our blueberries from near there (Finch's). Another poster, Bev, in another collards thread offered me some yellow collard seeds if I could come to the round-up in Ashville in May (sorry, Bev, I haven't responded, too busy), but I won't be able to be there.
Apparently, judging from Farmerdill's pictures I don't have cabbage collards. Mine did not make the cabbagy head, but have grown straight up. But I am not complaining, since the shoots are really delicious.
Not being from the South, I don't cook them the traditional way, so my DH is not very happy with them (I don't like cooking with "seasonings" and I cook them only for 12 minutes), but they are HEALTHY, good for him.
So far, I have only bought plants and set them out in the fall. I also had cabbage worms, but apparently got them early and was able to pick them off. Now, however, one of the plants has an infestation of cabbage aphids, which I doused with a dish detergent solution, and I think they may succumb (although it has been raining a lot lately so I can't really tell). I have read that immediately upon transplanting them one should cover them with a floating cover to keep out the pests. Actually, that seems to apply to all brassicas.
Anyway, collards are a great vegetable and I will also look for more ways to fix them, like you suggest.
Good links, Gary! Right on the mark. Lemme know how you like the Yellow Cabbage collards; I've only grown the green variety (so far!) all these years.
Clementine, my cabbage collards don't always head up so don't feel you might not have the real thing. The heading will be dependent on how early you set them out, the Winter temps, etc, as well as the Spring temps (if warming up a bit too early they'll tend to bolt and topgrowth will be more elongated.
Glad you got to try the flower heads. I look forward to those each year, not just on my collard plants but also on the turnips and mustard plants. (You'll catch me grazing on them right out in the garden at this time of year!)
Maybe one day we should have a "collard greens festival" in our area one day, eh?
Shoe
Shoe, that might be great fun, when would be the best "collards time", do you think?
I'd say during the Winter, when the collards have been treated to a few nice frosts (and sweetened up!), when we all might be itching to have some "gardeners camaraderie" that'll help hold us over to Spring planting time, and when it is highly appropriate to have a nice bonfire lit up so folks can stand around and talk of last years garden, the next years garden, our successes and failures and, and, and, oh yeh, telling tall tales would certainly fit in there someplace too, eh?
(Oh yeh, again...and maybe a big pot of stew or the like simmering nearby, ya know, to contribute to the goodness of the collard plates!)
Yummy!
Shoe