Cookin' Up Collards!

I don't think I've posted about it much on here, but I have been shopping our local farmers market alot lately.  They have so much fresh, yummy, produce for awesome prices.  I had also set a goal for our family to start buying all of our meat from local farmers only instead of local grocery stores.  I'm SO excited that for last month or so we have not purchased anything besides turkey lunch meat from the store.  Still haven't figured out a replacement for that yet!  We are loving it.  I love picking up my meat and having it handed to me by the actual farmer and his wife! They are so sweet and take such good care of their farm and animals.  Their slogan is "Our cows don't do drugs!" Anyways, I'm on a huge rabbit trail.  That's a whole different post...where was I?? Oh! COLLARD GREENS!

While I was at the market on Saturday, there were huge crates of beautiful, fresh collard greens.  I wont even tell you about the conversation I had with the farmer, but it ended with him saying, "You aren't from North Carolina, are you?".  He convinced me that I could cook up a big pot of collards and make Randy proud. And I did!  Randy LOVES them so he was so excited when I came home with a shopping bag stuffed full of them.  

I had some ideas about how to cook them, but I also knew that my friend Amy would be able to set me straight with this one.  She was born in Mobil, Alabama and although I've never eaten at her mother's table, I know from stories that she is an amazing Southern cook.  So Amy sent me a nice set of instructions and I got to work.  The next day I was also able to get some more pointers from her mom through facebook.  The thing I have loved about trying new recipes, is that everyone has their own version..each a little different.  It's so fun to see which you like best. SO!  I'm going to share with you a little mix of what I learned from both Amy and her mom Jackie..and then how I did my pot.

The first and most common tip from EVERYONE I meet is this.  wash, WASH, wash!!  Triple wash.  So I soaked mine in the sink all morning while I was at church and then gave each one an individual rinse and look over.  Can I just tell you though, that mine were sooo clean before I started. They had obviously had a really good wash at the farm.

Next, I used a tip from my receptionist at work (wish I had taken a pic of this part!).  I stacked several leaves on top of each other and chopped of the thick stem at the bottom.  Then I rolled them like a burrito and chopped them longways once or twice.  Next time I am going to try it the way Mrs. Garvin suggested and just pull each side of the leaf right off the stem and throw all the stems out!

Here's one of the places I changed mine up.  Amy's suggestion was to heat up my stock pot with a little EVOO and saute some chopped onion first.  I forgot to buy an onion so I couldn't do this, but I definitely will next time.  Instead, I just dumped all of my greens into the pot and filled it up with half chicken stock and half water.

I also added a little bit of fresh, chopped, garlic into the pot.  This wasn't suggested to me, but since I didn't have any onion..and I really love garlic, I though it would be yummy.  I left the pieces pretty big though so they wouldn't be too strong.

Also, you have to add some sort of meat for flavor.  Both Amy and her mom suggested either smoked turkey wings, turkey legs, or ham hocks.  This time I went with a ham hock.  Also, Amy's mom suggested cooking the ham hock in covered water for an hour or so until it was nice and tender and then adding your greens.  I actually just plopped mine right in there, but I knew that I was going to just let mine cook low and slow for awhile.  The flavor from the ham hock was soooo yummy!

I just smushed it down under there. I also added salt, pepper, and some apple cider vinegar to the water as well.  (Per Amy's suggestion)  Then I let them come to a boil, reduced the heat, and let them simmer for awhile.  They cooked down a ton, but still made lots! I also roasted some potatoes, and had some ribs in the oven.  Loved it because I just prepped the whole thing right when we got home from church, went with a friend to speak to some college girls at ECU and then came home to a delicious dinner!

Here's the final view of the pot:

And the whole meal (but not plated fancy or anything!  We were ready to dig in!)

Yum, yum! Thanks again for all of the pointers from Jackie Garvin and Amy Garvin Wren!
So tell me, how do you cook your collards??  Any thing else you like to add to the pot?  I have another batch to cook up again soon!