Harvesting the Collard

Among my favorite plants in the vegetable garden to date have been the collard greens. I love these cruciferous vegetables because they're hearty and durable. Early on in the spring weather, we had cold snaps followed by lots of rain. The growth habit of these wonderful plants wasn't affected.

Here are some steps I took to prepare a basic collard dish. We ate it, and it was good.

A partial view of our garden. The collards were grown in large patio pots. I used organic vegetable fertilizer on them twice during the 3 months or so that it took to grow them.

I collected the mid to younger leaves from the plant.

Cut the spines off to improve the flavor of the greens when you cook them.

Slice the collard leaves into bite-size strips.

Boil them in water for 15 minutes.

In a separate skillet, sauté onions, garlic and jalapeño-smoked turkey sausage in olive oil and a little water. Bacon is of course good to use, but I prefer Turkey.

Mix in collards and sauté together with other ingredients for 5 minutes longer. Spice to taste with a little butter, pepper, paprika & salt.

Serve. Enjoy. Plant more.