Collards (Brassica oleracea)
OUR WORK
The Utopian Seed Project is a collaborating partner with The Heirloom Collard Project. This project has been an excellent way to work on a national platform to further our work of exploring and celebrating diversity in tradional southern crops. In 2020 we partnered with The Culinary Breeding Network for a week of virtual presentations (See the Collard Week videos below.
Collard Week Videos in partnership with the Culinary Breeding Network
As we continue our work with the @heirloomcollards project and our #collards2020 trials, we thought we'd jump into testing out some Tree Collards from @projecttreecollard
Collards are looking great. Emmy and I met up with Ashleigh Shanti (@foodordeath_) to discuss plans for cooking up some collards for the @heirloomcollards project, and then we headed to the #experimentalfarm to check in on each of the 21 varieties. First harvest will be next Friday ❤️
Sharing some candid shots of Chef Ashleigh Shanti as we filmed a 4-way Collard Salad demonstration for Collard Week. I was lucky enough to take home the 'demonstration' and it was delicious. Very excited to share the video during #collardweek, after which there will be a live Q&A with Ashleigh. Register for free via @heirloomcollards.
Some Sunday morning collard harvesting ahead of #CollardWeek, which kicks off tomorrow with Michael Twitty (@thecookinggene).
Today at 1PM EST board member Chef Ashleigh Shanti (@foodordeath_) will be presenting a 3-way collard salad demo with greens from the #collards2020trials. Straight after Chris Smith (@blueandyellowmakes) and Ashleigh will go into a live collard tasting and culinary evaluation and there will be a Q&A open to everyone! All available to watch for free via @culinarybreedingnetwork YouTube Live. It's going to be so much fun.
Just casually seeding 21 varieties of collards for a collaborative and far reaching trial (the trial is 20 varieties, but I snuck in another one that Yanna Fishman has been working with!!). Proud to be working with @seed_savers_exchange @workingfoodgnv @southernexposureseed @melbelle206 @culinarybreedingnetwork and a lot of citizen scientists across the USA.
It's looking like nearly 100% germination after just a few days. @seed_savers_exchange did a great job expanding seed if these rare varieties, and now they've been shared across the country. Really looking forward to seeing how these 20 collard varieties grow.
Well, the results are in from our goat taste test. They have equal preference for all 21 collard varieties.
While tree collards are often rooted from cuttings, we like starting from seeds because we'll get some variation in the genetics and will be able to select the plants that do best in our region. Which is what we're all about - better food, regionally grown.
We're growing 'Green' 'Purple' and 'Merritt'.
I've got about 30 seeds left of 'Merritt' and am going to send them to a randomly selected Patreon supporter on Monday. So if you've been thinking of supporting then do it now!! Link in our profile.
I'd also like to shout out to @projecttreecollard for quickly resending extra seeds when some arrived crushed by the mail. Great customer service for a small company.
#treecollards #perennialcollards #heirloomcollardproject
#collards2020 #collardtrials #heirloomcollards
#collards2020 #collards #eatyourgreens #eatcollards #heirloomcollardproject #heirloomcollards #collardsalad #collardtrials #collardtrial2020
Ashleigh Shanti (@foodordeath_) and Chris Smith (@blueandyellowmakes) will be diving into some of the culinary traits of the 21 #heirloomcollards straight after Ashleigh's cooking demo next Thursday!
Big thanks to @frannytacy and Mike for helping with the harvest ❤️
#collards #collards2020 #collardtrial
@heirloomcollards
Huge thanks to the @heirloomcollards project partners that helped make this entire week of collards possible: @workingfoodgnv @seed_savers_exchange @southernexposureseed and our fantastic host @culinarybreedingnetwork
Collards grown at our #experimentalfarm at @frannysfarm
#collards #collarsgreens #eatcollards #growcollards #lovecollards
Also, big thanks to @dirtcraftorganics. They donated a couple of totes of seed starting soil in spring and I have enough for fall planting. Great to know there collards are getting a great start in a locally made soil mix!
#collards #collardtrials #heirloomcollards #collards2020
I also want to start looking for Asheville-based chefs who may want to collaborate on the food side of these trials.
#collards #collards2020 #heirloomcollardproject
This is actually very upsetting; I'm walking around the field a little despondent. They looked SO beautiful.
Resilience! I'm going to clean them up, cover them up, and with a little luck we'll have good regrowth to resume the trial.
#goatslovecollardstoo
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