How to Harvest and Cook Collard Greens |Make ANYONE Love Collards!|

what's up everybody it's Justin at SNK Greenhouse I am here with the legendary expert Gardener Bruce Duncan I'm so glad that you're you're doing these videos with us I'm telling your audience is learning so much from you and I had mentioned in one of my videos that you might be interested in showing us how to harvest and even cook collard greens maybe we can get Bruce to show us a little cooking lesson and harvesting lesson on these collards a lot of people are doing it wrong and I want you to show them how to do it the right way well it's not hard we'll talk about getting your leaves first but you can see I have my Collard plants here you remember I told you about how hurricane Ian tore up some of my stuff yes there's a good look at that leaf there there's a good example of where with these leaves but I tell you what we'll just go ahead and take it now you could snip these off if you wanted to use a pair of pruners or scissors or something what I do uh I don't sniff them off or cut them off I just break them off where the stem of the Collard Leaf is attached to the trunk of the plant you can just pop it down there and it'll come right off and that's what I do and that's a nice looking Leaf when you wait till the leaves get some size to them is there a certain point at which you want to pick them off can they get too big they can it the size is not so much as whether that leaves tough or not most of the leaves out here today are pretty tender here's kind of an example now here's this is not a big leaf but it's not one I would plant or I would cook uh okay well you can see yeah it's it's turning yellow it's got spots on it okay so we don't want to eat that and it's not so much the color that's the problem the color just indicates that that's going to be a tough Leaf now my Grandmama uh all son my Grandmama my mother's mother was known for her cooking and she raised four girls one of them being my mother and the the wootens and those Wooten sisters can flat out cook up some food let me tell they can hurt you uh but my Grandmama who taught us all how to cook when she picked her Collard leaves for a pot of collards she always liked to get the younger the ones that are about this size here and uh she she would not take the outside leaves and you know one day uh because she's the one that taught me how to cook now I'll tell more about that in a minute but one day I was picking some leaves and I thought man why am I wasting these big leaves you know so I thought well heck it can't hurt I'll cook them if they're not good I'll know in the future I'll just do like my Grandmama didn't leave them alone pick them off throw them away but I cooked them and I thought God those are good yeah yeah let's let's go ahead and here's a good Leaf we'll go ahead and pop that off and uh let's see I'll get that one and uh I like I like to harvest the outside leaves so that the young newer leaves can come on and grow we'll take that one let me come over here and get a few of these I'm gonna I'm gonna take see this one's already been eat on by something so I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and take it won't hurt to eat that even though some worms eat on it and my wife may beg to differ but it won't hurt you and Julie Julie's already told me when I told her y'all were coming she said Bruce whatever you do when you show how to cook those collars please wash them make sure you wash them and make sure people we don't want no grit make sure people see that you're washing them and I've told her before honey they'll get washed in the pot but she she don't believe that now when we get into the house to cook these I'm going to show you uh something about what you want to do with these leaves that my Grandmama uh taught me ever since College Julie and I have lived here in Western North Carolina I told you I was raised in the low country of South Carolina and I always could I could not wait to get home uh for a family reunion down in South Carolina to eat my Grandmama's collards and one day this was back in the 80s I was sitting around the house and we were anticipating going to Grandmama's for Thanksgiving and my Grandmama was then in her mid-80s and it hit me I thought my grandmom was probably not going to be around long by golly I need to know how to cook like she does because I after eating her collards I won't want anybody else's collards so I I actually rode down to South Carolina and said Grandmama I'm bringing you back to the house you're gonna stay a few days with us and you're going to show me how to cook and I I praise God every day that I did that I do too the benefit from your cooking as well well you can and the knowledge she passed down to you you can thank Grandma Ruth for that we're gonna go we're gonna do another trick okay I do when I cook collards uh collards are best after they've had a good freeze on them the colder the weather gets the sweeter and better the collards are okay but before that when you're growing collards this time of year before Frost or freeze comes they can be bitter and and I think that's why some people uh you know I encounter a lot of people when you say collards they're like oh I don't want any collars well number one they've never they never had your car they've never had them fixed right but number two they may have eaten when they were more bitter like this time of year but my grandma taught me ways to cure that and I'm gonna show you right now okay so we need to walk up here where my cabbage is I guess this is one of those moments when you'll do that [Laughter] here in the summer I was explaining why I did this these uh box beds right here I remember you had tomatoes and cucumbers and watermelons all kinds of stuff growing right here I did and of course now all of that's out and we're transitioning into cool weather plants I have I have more savoy cabbage here and I have curly kale over there and uh and and this was done uh back I told you I wasn't a school teacher by trade but I did teach some school in between chemo treatments some people I don't I guess your audience doesn't know this because we haven't talked about it but I was diagnosed with leukemia 15 years ago I was told I might only live three to five years and I'm still here I still I have some issues but God's Grace has been so wonderful because to keep me here but on that previous video that I said back when I taught Horticulture well I didn't teach Horticulture and I don't want to sound like a liar but let me explain because I've seen some comments about it I taught math and chemistry when I was doing that school but I wasn't a school teacher by trade I just did that in between chemo treatments because I couldn't do okay the principal at the school I was teaching at came to me and said she knew about my gardening and what I do in gardening and she said Bruce I would really love for the kids to be taught how to grow a sustainable garden and like in an urban setting that doesn't take up much space which I think is a great idea absolutely so so I wasn't a Horticulture teacher and I didn't mean to mislead anybody mislead anyone on that previous video all right now the reason we're here I told you down there that collards can be bitter this time of year and my Grandmama had a cure for that and that is she mixed cabbage in with her collards okay until cold weather came so we're going to come over here and we're going to harvest and you can pop these leaves off just like the collards that I showed earlier they just pop right off and we're going to take about seven or eight of these leaves here and this is savoy cabbage that we talked about in the previous video all right I think I've got what we need now let's go in and cook these bags oh man we're getting to go inside and cook yes before we go in on behalf of S and K we got you a little something oh no yeah yeah I got it in the back of my truck I saw that umbrella pine this is uh so what do you call a sea doppitys verticulata oh yeah verticulata um we'll get it right now I gotta get the Latin right that's right get it right but I know that you don't have one of these in your landscape I appreciate it and you've been so good to us with your time oh and uh showing us how to do stuff that's a nice treat just um it's not cheap either no but the thing is when it's hard to appreciate now but when this thing gets about eight or ten foot tall it's unbelievable you'll have you'll have traffic going by about ready appreciate you Alex big hug my man I appreciate it yep love y'all all right well let's go in and cook some collard greens oh hey Lulu if you want to get Lulu in here Lulu there you remember back in July when y'all came and did that video you might remember we were in the backyard and I said you hear that my baby's crying is this the baby that's the baby this is Lulu this is a miniature schnauzer miniature schnauzer oh goodness well we're in the kitchen of my home oh yeah so we're going to talk about cooking collards the first thing to make a good pot of collards I believe what my Grandmama taught me is how you cut them okay cutting them makes all the difference now two things about cutting collards one is the stem if the stem Alex I don't know if you need to get closer in so I can explain this but here's a Collard leaf with a big stem and here's one with not so big it's it's uh much you can see the difference this stem will be fine like it is you don't need to worry about it okay and and some people cook their collards with these big stems in it and that's fine but I prefer not to now what I do when I have a lead that has a big stem like that I'm going to cut that stem out and I'll take my knife and I'll cut let me turn that board over boy that sounded like it was ripping the island apart and I'll I'll come down both sides of that stem and just slice down the edge of that stem and then I'll just pull it apart right there now I've heard that if you leave that stem in there it's a little bit bitter is that why you don't want to cook it it is or it just don't get as tender maybe it's a combination of being a little bitter but for me the biggest thing is I just don't like uh when when you see me slice these leaves in a minute you'll understand okay the rest of these leaves I don't see any other stems that I think is going to be a problem so what we're going to do is we're going to take these leaves uh and and I just remember y'all hang on my wife made me promise I was going to wash them okay so we will wash this one to show you how we're going to wash the rest of them okay so just gonna rinse that off there we watched the collard greens didn't we we washed the greens my wife can go to bed with a smile on her face now she can rest all right now what I do is I'll take these leaves excuse me I will wash that off anyway didn't getting off chasing a rabbit there all right I rolled my leaves I stacked them up you saw what I did stacked them up we got the big stems out and we rolled it like a cigar okay we're rolling a cigar and and this was a big deal with my Grandmama uh and I'll tell why in a minute but once I start slicing this roll I want to slice it in about quarter inch pieces as you can see and we will just continue slicing this rolled up cigar of Collard leaves I'm not a professional chef by the way so if you're watching this video and I'm I'm cutting this like oh lord I can't believe he's cutting like that hey it's how I do it don't worry about it I've only sliced off one finger so far no I actually did that on a table saw but that's another story I'm down to the stemi part I'm not going to keep those there's something about this process after you cook them in the pot and then eat them they just seem to be more manageable by cutting the Collard leaves this way you're getting you're cutting more of the leaf you're uh cutting more cross-section and that cutting of the leaf according to my grandmother would help take the bitterness out and and that's why sometimes when you eat greens at a restaurant or something and sometimes they're almost mushy they've been cut so much oh yeah and and I don't like them cut too much but I think I think this process Cuts them enough to help take that bitterness out but still give you that's a good balance a good balance yeah okay I agree through the magic of video that's right we said we're going to show you how to go from this to this well the thing about collards they take a long time to cook if you're going to do it right for them to get really tender well they need to boil for several hours when I say boil you can boil them for a little while and then turn it the heat down and keep a good simmer on the pot but it gets them down to a tender consistency gotcha that makes it more palatable if you eat these like they are now you'll be one of those persons that will go oh I hate collards gotcha because you don't want to eat them like this right we're going to season them I boil them down for a couple hours at least or a little longer now I'm going to add my seasoning and I like bacon but I have used country ham at the grocery store they sell a pack of what's called country ham pieces those are after the ham is cut and delivered to the grocery store the supplier who cut the country ham will have all these little pieces left over rather than throw them away they package them up and sell them as side meat or seasoning meat and us and that's very good I love country ham pieces to season my collards with fatback was my Grandmama's Choice yeah and that's good too yeah I'm telling you something put some flavor in there could do it but I'm partial to bacon over the years of cooking collards I just like bacon so I have my bacon here and uh we'll get our pot going and it'll take a minute for it to get hot I buy bacon from a store that is frozen because it's it's not breakfast grade bacon it's cheaper cuts and you can buy it cheaper because for collard's sake I'm not I'm not going to be cooking this bacon for breakfast I've got my bacon where I want it right now it's not completely cooked but it's good and tender we've got the bacon juice going real good so now I'm going to take my onion that I chopped up okay uh when I cook collards I like to take one good size onion coarsely chop it and then we're going to add this to the bacon and we're going to do what's called sweating the onion and that's just cooking it just enough till it's soft in this video of anybody watching happens to notice that my kitchen's a little unorganized a little messy it's because we started filming before I had time to clean it up we we didn't give you a chance we started filming after he cooked so thank you for letting us know oh absolutely but I I guess I'm saying it because Justin knows me so he knows what I'm about to say is true I if I have a fault and I have many but one of them is I'm a neat freak am I not oh I know we can look at your yard and know that one thing Grandmama was big on and I picked up her habit uh when I cook I clean as I cook yeah that's a good practice if I could give anybody a tip uh when I get through like with this frying pan for example after we sauteed this I'll bring it over to the sink I'll wash that and clean it up and put it back and so it'll be ready that way you're not so overwhelmed when you're done when you're done okay now we've got our onions weighted it's good and soft uh all these the onion the onion uh flavor the onion juice the bacon juice the grease it's oh it's just I mean if you can put a piece of cardboard in there and I'd probably eat it right now I guarantee you son I promise you another thing we're going to do all right folks this is this is where it's where it gets free this is this is where it gets real right here uh and now sometimes once the collards have been through some real cold weather you don't have to do this I do it anyway I just like it but I like to add some brown sugar to my seasoning so we're going to put some brown sugar in there and and somebody's probably I know somebody's watching this video going well how much how big on what size onion was it how much bacon was that how much brown sugar folks when I cook I don't measure anything that's right I don't either I don't measure I just go with what I know is good and and I'm gonna say this I'm gonna add a little bit more sugar to this when my my former football coach used to say if you practice scared you're going to play scared so when we practice we practice like we were really minute yeah same thing with cooking if you cook scared you're going to eat scared so when you're cooking so be confident be confident at it just go to it don't worry about it you think oh is that too much it don't matter now we're going to take all that and we're gonna mix that together this is ready to add to the collards but before I do I'm going to take my pot of collards that we've had bowling over here now most of the water has a lot of the water has boiled off now I'm going to pour most not all of it but at least half of it out all right see how good I did that without spilling the green beans you've done this a couple times I've done it a few times all right so we've got a good deal of our water don't pour all the water out but keep some but when you add your seasoning too much water will water down the season and you don't want that to happen so we're just going to take I could have done it that way so the camera can catch it now we've got our seasoning in here with our collards now I'm gonna turn that eye off come over here and I'm gonna run some water in my frying pan and then we're just going to take our collards and mix all this together I like to let it cook after I do this for at least 30 minutes to an hour or let it simmer and that'll get the flavors mixed in real well one more process and we're three okay one more thing I like to do is my favorite is seasoning salt now some people use regular old table salt um but I like seasoning salt Lowry's seasoning salt okay now I'm funny about my seasoning salt it's got to be Larry it's got to be Larry's if you bring another brand of seasoning it's all in here I'm gonna throw it in the trash can but I'm gonna add some seasoning salt and uh give it a good sprinkling and we're not going to be scared that's right you just season with confidence you don't season a little bit more now I think that's good so we got our C and uh and some of you watching this may go whoa boy he laid the salt to that seasoning salt isn't is salty as like table salt so keep that in mind if I was adding table salt to this I wouldn't have put a fourth of what I just did but seasoning salt is not real salty I'm gonna stir it a little bit and we're done you're just gonna let that simmer for about uh 30 minutes to an hour 30 minutes and you're ready to eat some collard greens collard greens is a must on college game day okay all right that's right on on when Clemson's playing football there's three things we're going to have in this house for our tailgate if we're not at the game uh and if we're at the game we take it to the game with us but we're gonna have a pot of collards we're gonna have a low country boil we're going to have some shrimp we're gonna have some corn on the cob some Adelaide sausage uh crawdads catfish whatever else we can throw in there I can I can feel South Carolinians right now shouting you down I get a tambourine out I'm telling you want me to preach on it I appreciate it I feel the I feel the energy from the Low Country just uh just uh and then the third thing we're gonna have is some boiled peanuts oh yeah uh now when I one thing the culture is different where I grew up I grew up in what I call the real sound and I'm sorry North Carolina but Western North Carolina Virginia it's just not it's not the same it's just different it's uh but that's okay I don't mean that ugly now I will say I've got some kin people in eastern North Carolina and that they are they're more like where I grew up the way they eat and everything right but uh this area is is I don't call it the Deep South now somebody from New York's snickering but uh but where I grew up you don't watch football without some boiled peanuts all right folks we've got our collards finished they've been marinating for a while they're ready to eat so let's dig in and see what you think let's look at look at that got the onions and the bacon and see how the way the onions cook you can see them but they blend in so well but oh feel how tender they are about before it goes right through it uh-huh give these a try oh shut your mouth son oh my goodness hang on hang on did I just die and go to heaven I think so I'm up here I'm about ready to sing in the choir I feel bad they're sitting here watching to see if I listen if I could get it through the camera into their mouth just an honestly I wouldn't because I want to keep I know some of you watching are probably thinking okay this is all about you know make it look good and everything there's times you brought callers to the greenhouse and we ate we made it a whole meal a lot of people use it as a side dish we use it as the main course Alex son eat some get your son thank you thank you thank you let me try this tell me what you think Al's not big on vegetables no but I'll sure try them so if he if if he's eating Garlic they are good because he's not dead that's actually really good all right really good all right granny Ruth my Grandmama's been dead for some time now but did she know what she's doing yes she did and I think you've made her proud I think I have too well Bruce thank you so much again this is blessed me and I know it's going to bless our audience and uh well you want to tell them until next time be a plant person [Music] [Music]

Channel: S&K Greenhouse

Views: 196,725

Keywords: vegetable garden, garden, gardening, collard greens, how to cook collard greens, how to harvest collard greens, raised bed gardening, growing collards in raised beds, cooking collard greens, low country collard greens

Id: 0JP9oliJZxs

Length: 26min 3sec (1563 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 25 2022