Picked 16 heads for my church family yesterday. Have twice that many left. Have to go to the store for smoked hog jowl but have peas in the freezer. Looking forward to New Years Dinner and great crops this year. This cultivar is Blue Max, also have some Top Bunch for comparison.
Beautiful collards! Yummy! When you say you picked 16 "heads", does that mean you harvest the whole plant? We usually harvest the larger leaves of the plants and let the plant keep growing. They do turn into mini 'tree' by the end of the season.
Hoping to find some fresh black eyed peas for New Year's Hoppin' John.
Those are the best looking collards I've ever seen, farmerdill! The peas in your freezer? Are they black eyed peas? Out here in the wilds of Washington State, I still have potatoes under a foot of shredded leaves mulch...they'll be part of our New Year's dinner. I'm afraid that my black eyed peas will come from the grocery store this year. Wishing you a fabulous 2007.
Bill
I have several different kinds, will use either Big Boys or Blackeyes for New Years dinner. Yes I grow the bunching types and cut the whole plant. Some folks here grow the "Georgia" collards and do pick them one leaf at a time from the bottom. Look like a mop head in the spring. I have tried it but much prefer the flavor of the bunching types. The inner leaves are the tenderest and most flavorful.
Looking good Farmerdill.
Wifey is picking ours this weekend. We grew Georgia and Top Bunch as well. Georgia was far superior but it may have been the bed.
I've been waiting all week for our New Year's dinner
BB
Great looking row of greens. I wasn't familiar with the bunching type at all. I've seen many a mop head of collards while driving around the south in the wintertime. My black eyes will be from a dried bag from the store but I will be eating them come New Year's Day. Good eating! All the best in '07 to all.
That does it! I'm collard-hongry again! Gonna go out and take a few pics! This year has been such a great year for collards, kale, cabbage, broc, etc...I sure love my greens.
And yes, have my field peas in the freezer to go right along with the collards on New Year Day! Yummy!
Shoe
Hey Rose:
How are you? Where are the southern mountains? I took my wife to Blue Ridge to celebrate her 50th. Lovely area
Had to post my collards!
Best I ever grew
Hey BB, I'm fine, Hope you and wife had fun in old timey downown Blue Ridge. I'm about 16 miles from there, near forest service land. Your collards look good.
What a dilemma... :>)
Weather is getting cold again (finally!!) I just gotta put on some more collards and a pot of peas, too!
The dilemma? I was given a smoked hog jowl and although I've cooked 'em before in a pot of field peas my friend says to put it in my collard pot. (Usually I just put in some "streak-a-lean" or a hamhock or fat back in my collards.)
Think I should give it a try? Sure would hate to mess up a good batch of collards (or mess up this smoked hog jowl wishing I'd a'put it in the pea pot!).
Shoe.
The flavor is very similar to that of a hamhock. I usually use one or the other in my collards. Since I use fresh frozen peas instead of dried ones 99% of the time I seldom use it in peas. It is good in a pot of dried peas tho. The jowl became traditional because it was one the cheaper cuts. Ham was reserved for company, and bacon ( streak of lean, sidemeat) was used for frying with eggs and sawmill gravy for breakfast.
Shoe:
My wife has used it, primarily to add some flaor to the water she'll be boiling for stuff.
She has used it for Rutabagas and various greens. She always takes it out before she puts the veggies in though. I think it's because since it's mostly fat, it'll cook apart.
BB
F-dill and B-boy...I ended up putting about half of it in some fresh-picked collards. Pretty tasty! Think I like fatback or sidemeat a little better but then again maybe I shoulda put in a bigger piece for that extra flavor!
B-boy...this jowl was kinda like streak a lean, fat but with hard meat in the center, and smoked. It didn't fall apart but that is most likely cus the collards didn't need to cook very long since they were so tender and fresh to begin with.
Thanks for the input, Folks! (I still have some more of it so will try it out again...hmmm, maybe gonna pick some cabbage when the pot of collards is gone!)
Shoe.
Happy Eating!
