January 1, 2008

Collard Greens Bring Luck or Health?

Collard greens are supposed to bring luck if eaten on New Year’s Day because they are green like greenbacks.

But even though he’s been growing 12 acres of collards to sell for 27 years, Ricky James won’t be eating any today.

“I don’t eat them, I hate them,” he said with a laugh during an interview at his farm. “I’ve tried them every way you can try them and just can’t get a taste for them. I guess that’s why I have to feed everybody else.”

James planted the collards around Labor Day and started harvesting them Nov. 1. Customers have come to his farm since 1980 to buy them as well as sweet potatoes. He also sells them to the Piggly Wiggly stores in Hartsville and Darlington.

“My uncle and them’s back there now, cutting them and bringing them to us,” James said Thursday afternoon. “We’re trying to get them bundled and ready to go. I just loaded one truck with 28 dozen and another with 20 dozen. I’m trying to get them cut ahead of the rain that’s supposed to be coming.”

It’s hard work to cut the collards. James uses eight-inch bread knives with notches on them.
It’s a tradition for many people to come to the farm every year, chat with James and take off with their collards.

But James got a little choked up when a loyal customer from Pomaria in Newberry County arrived. He buys about 20 boxes of sweet potatoes and some collards every year.
“He showed up this year and gave me the money,” James said. “He said ‘Ricky, I guess this is the last time you will see me. I was supposed to be dead two months ago.’
“He just dumfounded me, I didn’t know what to say,” James added. “I kind of got a little teary eyed. I told him I expected him to be around next year and if he couldn’t get here, I would bring them to him.”

People hear about James through word of mouth. The nickname “Collard Man” has even been hung on his oldest son, Ryan, a senior at Clemson.

“Ryan don’t like it, either,” James said with another guffaw. “But everybody knows when he’s on Thanksgiving and Christmas break, he’s going to be helping me with the collards.”

James’ younger son Mark, a University of South Carolina sophomore, was working away along
with Linda Kennedy, Dana Stevenson and L.J. Coward. They were giving James a hard time about not eating collards, while arguing about the best way to cook them.

“I eat collards because I eat everything green except money,” Kennedy said. “I wash them, put them in the pot and let them steam.”

“No, you don’t, that ain’t the way you eat them,” Stevenson fired back. “You fry the fatback and ham hocks first, steam the collards down, put the fatback and ham hocks in and let them simmer down until they get good and done.”

“Well, you can also boil you some ham hocks while your collards is cooking, cut them up, put them in the collards and it will be right delicious,” Kennedy said. “I know what I’m talking about, ’cause I been eating collards since I was borned.”

James also grows cotton, soybeans, wheat, and a “little bit of cabbage and broccoli.”
“Collards is just our hobby, I guess,” he said. “It used to be my golfing money and then it paid the light bill and some of the grocery bill. But this year, it’s going to help pay for college for Mark and Ryan.”

But there’s also a downside to growing collards.

“It takes your Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays away,” James said. “Everybody else is having fun and I’m working. I had people calling me on Christmas Day wanting collards, but I didn’t even answer the phone.”

Source: SCNow

Collard greens are high in Vitamins K, A, C, manganese, folate, fiber and calcium and low in calories.