Food

Food Information

Vegetables

Leafy Greens

COLLARDS

Collards are also known as collard greens. They look like large, flatgreen cabbage leaves and taste almost exactly like green cabbage but witha slightly smoother texture.

Collards are primarily grown and sold in the rural areas of the southernstates and in the large industrial cities of the Midwest and Northeast,where there are large groups of people who have migrated from the South.

The traditional Southern recipe for using collards is to cook them alongwith smoked ham hocks or salt pork, a dish that is traditionally referredto as "A Mess of Greens." This may explain why the collards seldomappear on restaurant menus up North.

Collards keep well for about a week or so if stored in a refrigerator, butit is advisable to buy them as you need them to ensure top flavor and nutritionalvalue. Select young, green, velvety-feeling, crisp leaves. Avoid those thathave started to discolor (by turning yellow), look limp and wilted, or showtraces of insect damage (holes in the leaves). Collards are available twelvemonths of the year but, like most other members of the cabbage family, areat their flavor best when they have been exposed to cool weather.

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