Collards, Vates

Brassica oleracea

The classic collard green, with thick leaves the size of your thigh, just begging to be boiled up with a ham hock and shoveled into your gullet. Exceptionally cold-hardy and mildly drought-tolerant, these beefy beauties will keep you stacked on greens through a good portion of the year, but only if you plant them straight away. Step lively!

Collard Greens have a long culinary history as described in this article by culinary historian Michael Twitty. They are native to Eurasia and traveled south to West and Central Africa sometime around the Middle Ages, where they became a popular food among Africans. There are stories of Collard Greens traveling to the U.S. from Germany, and possibly by way of African slaves. Collard Greens were one of the few foods they were allowed to cultivate for themselves on plantations. They have become a staple of Southern cuisine, but we in the North are a bit slower to catch up...cook them a bit longer than kale and they'll act similarly. I love how well they can hold their own in soups.

Seeds grown by Bluebird Forest Garden in Orofino, Idaho and Titbout's Seeds in Missoula, Montana.

145 seeds.

Directions: Direct seed in spring or start indoors in early spring & transplant outside after 4-6 wks. For fall crop, seed indoors in May and transplant outside quickly. Give 'em room!