The Shed

The Shed
The Shed

Monday, January 23, 2012

FARM GIRL'S CORNER - collard greens

Hi! I'm Farm Girl and I help Uncle Mac in the garden and around the shed and things like that. I'm the first one he calls upon when he feels the need to stake a tomato.  ;0)




FARM GIRL

Today I'm going to tell you about one of the crops that was a huge success in last years garden, "Champion" collards. Champion is a variety of Vates style collard that has a long growing season and great resistance to both bolting and frost. It is prolific and produces some very large leaves that are perfect for stuffing. Of course they are also terrific in more traditional southern dishes as well.

Uncle Mac likes to cook them in a crock pot with corned beef, adding potatoes to the mix to make corned beef and collards. It sounds heretical but since collards and cabbages are both Brassicas a dispute about which to use is much ado over nothing and the flavors blend very well indeed.

Collards are easily started directly in the garden once the danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed and been prepped with ample amounts of compost. Plant four or five seeds in one spot that you could cover with a silver dollar for each individual plant that you wish to grow. Plant them about 1/4" deep and pat the soil down gently. When the plants germinate thin to one plant in each spot. Allow each individual plant 4 square feet in which to grow. This sounds like a lot of space but Champion produces large plants that will benefit from the extra growing room. Plants will generally max out at about 36" tall and spread out until their leaves interlock.

CHAMPION COLLARD

Care is minimal. Keep the plants weeded and when the weather warms in late spring mulch well with sifted compost. Fertilizer is not required except in the poorest of soils and the plants do not require staking or trellising. Keep them well and consistently watered.

Take the large leaves from the bottom of the plant first and the plants will continue to produce. Here in north Jersey we slow cooked a mess of collards at Thanksgiving, after several moderate frosts with fine results. A hard and protracted freeze in early December finally ended the collard patch, long after every other plant had gone to the Great Compost Heap in the Sky.

Of course, you can get a two to three week jump on the season by starting the plants indoors four weeks before the final frost date and transplanting them to the garden four weeks after germination, which will take perhaps ten days.

MR. GOAT

                                                                       
You will enjoy your collards immensely but you need to fence them in. It isn't that they'll make a break for freedom, it is just that a wide assortment of critters both domestic and wild enjoy them as much as you and your family do. Woodchuck, bunnies, goats, sheep, cattle, deer, the list of collard fanciers goes on and on.

Find a spot for these long term, tasty (and by the way healthful) crops inside the wire and enjoy them from early summer through early winter.  They are widely available but here are three suggestions for potential suppliers: Hometown Seeds, Jung Seeds, and Territorial Seed Co.

Enjoy your collards and thanks for visiting Farm Girl's Corner!









2 comments:

Glorygarden@msn.com said...

Mac, you (and farm girl) take the cake...I mean Collards.

Raymond Alexander Kukkee said...

Mac, those collards look just fine to me. ":)