Thursday, December 22, 2011

Collards for Christmas (well, for New Year's Day!)



I have wanted to have homegrown collard greens for New Year's Day ever since we planted our home garden. Collard greens are supposed to be a lucky way to start the year, and it just sounds good. However, every single year I've managed to mess it up by planting my collards too late. Collards don't grow fast in cold weather, and there is no way to cook a big pot of collards if all you have are seedlings.
This year I planted collards in the Spring, and nursed them all the way through the summer. Well, if you consider nursing the same as blasting them with water on a regular basis and picking up nasty cabbage moth larvae from them every week. I had collards full of holes marring my perfect little square foot garden landscape this whole gardening season. I did a lot of looking the other way. But look who's looking now!
I have three huge, happy, healthy big collard plants. I will have enough to cook a whole mess of collards for New Year's Day, and then some. It's like my very own Christmas present from my garden. And since it's the only thing in the garden right now (save for my loyal garlic seedlings), I'll take it!

New Year's Day Collards:
A big bunch of collards (8 cups cleaned and torn in little pieces)
A smoked ham hock
4 cups chicken stock
Cook on low in a crockpot for 8 hours. You can start it the night before and have them for lunch on New Year's day, with black-eyed peas.