Susan Clifton of W.P. Rawl & Sons demonstrates the simple way to sweeten up summer collards. Put them unwrapped into a freezer for about 15 minutes.

DATE: 8/11/2006

CONTACT: Powell Smith, (803) 284-3343, ext. 228; jpsmth@clemson.edu

Susan Clifton, (803) 894-1900

WRITER: Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343, ext. 241; tlollis@clemson.edu

Collards: ‘They’re not just for New Year’s anymore!’

PELION – If you did the traditional Southern thing by eating collards and blackeyed peas on New Year’s Day, why avoid them in August?

If you do, you’re shortchanging yourself, according to Susan Clifton, director of finance and administration for Walter P. Rawl & Sons, the largest producer of leafy greens in South Carolina.

“Collards aren’t just for New Year’s,” she said. In fact, the Rawl operation just outside this Lexington County town plants collards 10 months out of the year and harvests the leafy green around the calendar, shipping them throughout the Southeast, the middle-Atlantic states and as far north as Boston and Canada.

Powell Smith, Clemson Extension Service vegetable entomologist, learned in the early 1990s from Clifton’s mother, the late Sue Rawl Wingard, not to refer to collards as a “cool season crop.”

“One of her jobs was to promote year-round consumption of greens, and she found that she could sweeten up summer collards by putting the whole, bare plant in the freezer for 15 minutes before cutting the leaves off the stalk,” he said. “It fools the plant into the same reaction it takes in winter, drawing water out of the leaves to protect them from freezing and concentrating the sugars.”

Clifton said collards produced in warm months are sometimes a bit strong, but the freezer and a pinch of sugar remedy that.

“ South Carolina is the nation’s No. 2 collard producer behind Georgia and the Southeast’s major year-round collard producer,” said Smith. “We have about 4,200 acres of collards in the state. More than 3,000 are in Lexington County. W. P. Rawl & Sons and Clayton Rawl Farms are the two biggest growers. About 800 acres are grown in the summer.”

The acreage has picked up greatly since the late 80’s and early 90’s, according to Howard Rawl, vice president and chairman of the board.

“We had 400-500 acres then. Now we farm about 2,000 acres,” he said.

Clemson Extension works closely with the Rawls, according to Smith.

“We’ve helped them with management of diseases, insects, nutrients and the use of cover crops,” he said. As a result of Integrated Pest Management and scouting before treating problems, the consumer gets a product produced with fewer pesticides.

W. P. Rawl & Sons uses biological control in addition to “soft” chemistry to manage pests. They spare natural enemies by using selective insecticides and release two species of small wasps that lay eggs in the caterpillars that feed on the collards. They also plant a variety of wild flowers, such as sweet alyssum, to provide food and habitat for these natural enemies.

One of the big problems facing growers since the late 1990s has been bacterial leaf spot. It causes about $1.5 million a year in losses in Lexington County and no chemical controls are available.

Plant material with resistance to bacterial leaf spot would be welcomed.

With that in mind Clemson scientists screened more than 700 selections from the world collection of brassicas at the Rawl & Sons farm in 2005 looking for promising material.

“We found four lines with significant resistance to the bacteria involved in this leaf spot complex,” said Smith. Breeders at the USDA Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston are now making crosses and new material may be available in the next few years.

“Crop rotation is the only control for leaf spot at this point,” he said.

That’s where sweet corn, cilantro and parsley enter the Rawls’ crop mix. They are totally unrelated to brassicas and provide relief from the leaf spot on a few acres at a time. Green onions, yellow and zucchini squash, radishes, beets, kohlrabi, red and green chard, spinach, leeks and peppers are also in the crop picture at Rawl & Sons.

“Leafy greens make up about 75 percent of our sales, and collards are about half of that,” said Clifton.

In 1998 the company began offering collards washed and chopped in a ready-to-cook bag in addition to the traditional whole stalk.

“That’s when our family started to change the way we cook collards,” said Clifton. Instead of using lots of water and fatback and cooking them for hours, she cooks them 20-30 minutes at the most and experiments with new recipes. She likes them cooked in water, chicken stock and extra virgin olive oil.

“They have good flavor and it’s healthier to eat them that way,” she said. Stir frying with peppers, garlic and onions is another favorite.

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