Now that we have had a killing frost across the entire county, it is probably safe to assume that collards are now at their finest. Although collards are grown year-round and consumed regularly year-round by most people in this county, there is no doubt that collards are most delicious after several heavy frosts.

Maybe frost has something to do with changing starches to sugars in the leaves of the collards. Once they have been covered with a good frost, collards seem to be much sweeter, more succulent, and much more delicious than at any other time of the year -- or maybe it is all in our minds. But either way, the equivalent of a trainload of collards will be consumed in Robeson County during the next several months.

Collards are one of the most popular garden vegetables in the south and are rapidly becoming a delicacy in the north as well. Leaves of collard plants resemble cabbage leaves, except they are more oval in shape. The word collard is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words "coleworts" and "colewyrts," meaning cabbage plants. The collard plant has changed little in form or flavor for the past 2,000 years.

Collards originated in the Mediterranean area and were a regular food item in ancient Rome and Greece. The Romans transported them throughout Europe as they traveled. They were brought to the United States by African slaves and quickly became a staple in the diet of these people. In fact, one of the terms often used for collards is "soul food."

As I searched the Internet for more information about collards, it was surprising to me that I found information about collard production and collard recipes from virtually every state in the nation. I thought the information I would find would be almost exclusively from the southern states.

Traditionally, in the south, collards are eaten on New Year's Day along with black-eyed peas or field peas and corn bread. The superstition is that eating collards on the first day of the year will ensure wealth in the coming year. This belief probably arose from the fact that collard leaves look very similar to folded money.

Collards have taken on a new importance in Robeson County during the past two years. Last year, for the first time, the most popular food at the county fair was collard sandwiches. And then during the second weekend in November, the town of Maxton celebrated the First Annual Collard Festival.

The most popular food at the county fair again this year was collard sandwiches, and just last weekend, Maxton celebrated it's Second Annual Collard Festival. If you did not get a chance to sample collard sandwiches at the county fair, I hope you at least tried them when you visited the collard festival.

In addition to being delicious, collards are very nutritious. Each serving of collards contains 50 calories, 240 mg of calcium, 4 grams of protein, 1/2 gram of fat, and 7 grams of carbohydrates. Spinach is often referred to as a very nutritious vegetable, but collards are higher in Vitamin A, contain 7 times more Vitamin C, and 2 to 10 times more of the other vitamins than does spinach.

Like in many other regions of the south, most gardens in Robeson County contain collards. Southern gardens are not complete without a row of collards. Because of local demand, most of our commercial vegetable farmers provide collards for their customers. Some of these farmers provide collards throughout the year, but many of them produce collards only as a fall and winter vegetable.

Collards are typically sold by the plant rather than by the pound. The entire plant is either pulled from the ground or cut off at ground level, so the root will not be attached. Although it will vary depending upon the size of the plant, collards usually sell for $1 to $2 per plant.

According to our estimates, there are about 100 acres of collards grown in Robeson County each year, generating about $400,000 income for our farmers. This sounds like a lot of collards, and it is considering that each acre contains about 7,500 plants. But not all collard plants that are grown on each acre are good enough quality to be sold, and not all plants will make it to market. Although some vegetable farmers may have two to three acres of collards, most farmers grow less than one acre. Many hobby farmers that do not grow a variety of vegetables will often plant only collards, and then during the fall and early winter will sell them from the farm, along the roadside from the back of their pickup trucks, or at one of the local farmers markets.

Fall is here and we had our first frost last week. This means that the collards are ready. I encourage you to take advantage of this southern delicacy. Stop by the farmers market or one of the many roadside stands in the county and get yourself a "mess of greens."

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 11/27/07