Collards Delivery or Pickup

Collards are the same vegetable species as cabbage and broccoli and are mostly grown in countries like Portugal, Italy, northern Spain, Brazil, and the southern United States. They have long and dark green leaves with a light green stem. Collards are documented to have been eaten since the time of the Ancient Greeks, who also cultivated them. Today, popular cultivar types of collards include Blue Max, Top Bunch, Butter Collard, Vates, and Georgia Southern.

Collards are especially important in southern cooking and are key to the southern collard greens recipe, which creates a famous broth called pot liquor, where garlic, onions, collard greens, and ham hock are used. The broth from this can be used to flavor other dishes or used to make soups. Collards are also mixed with other green vegetables and are combined with smoked and salted meats.

In India, collards are used, especially in the Kashmir Valley, where a common dish, Haak Rus, is made from them. It's a soup with whole leaves cooked with green chilies, spices, oil, and salt. This is usually eaten with rice. In Brazilian and Portuguese cuisine, collards usually accompany fish and meat dishes. Collards are the main ingredient in the Portuguese soup Caldo Verde. 

Zimbabwe often eats collards with Sadza, which is a porridge that is a staple food. They are usually fried with sauteed tomatoes and onions. Some people add beef or other meat to create a stew. Collards in East Africa are sauteed in oil until soft and served as the main dish or as a side to meat or Ugali, the staple maize porridge. In eastern and southern Europe, collards have a history dating back to the Romans and Greeks. In Montenegro and Herzegovina, they are often cooked in a stew with sheep or pork and potatoes.

To prepare collards, wash the leaves thoroughly and, with a knife, take out the harder stem part of each leaf. Cut the leaves in pieces by putting them together and folding them in half. When cooked, the leaves will shrink, so they don't have to be cut in a specific manner. The leaves can also be rolled individually and cut into strips.

Collards can be cooked whatever way you wish once they are cut and washed. They can be pan-fried, sauteed, boiled, and then eaten alone as a side dish or incorporated in soups, broths, rice, noodles, pasta, or pies. 

Collard leaves should have a dark green color to them and are best when young and tender. If the leaves are too old, they have a tough and stringy texture to them. The young leaves, when they are most tender, are about 10 inches long.

Wrap the collards unwashed in an open plastic bag in the refrigerator. These can stay in the fridge for about five days. Once they're ready to be used, they need to be washed. If they are placed alone in the fridge without being wrapped, they tend to wilt much sooner.