Lovers of Collard Greens use science and history to raise the southern southern food: NPR

Collard Greens is one of the southern culinary traditions, especially in black households. Now, a researcher studies how differences in leafy vegetables determine his taste and rusticity.

Ailsa Chang, host:

Collard Greens is a staple for many kitchens in the South of the United States, especially in African-American houses. And now the vegetable receives the same heritage treatment as other fruits and vegetables. Kate Grumke of Harvest Public Media has the details of a current research project near Saint-Louis.

Kate Grumke, Byline: A new greenhouse at the Jackie Joyner-Kerse Community Center in East St. Louis is almost the length of a football field. Inside, hundreds of percedes are planted evenly in rows. Ph.D. of the University of Washington. Candidate Antonio Brazelton travels his research subjects.

Antonio Brazelton: Some of them are really, really smooth when you look at the edges of the leaves. Some of them are more curly leaves such as kale.

Grumke: These green cabbage are different from what you could find in a grocery store. Some even have purple veins.

Brazelton: as varied as on the ground, they also do really cool things underground.

Grumke: Brazelton studies the roots of Collard Greens and wants to determine how differences can affect things like taste or rusticity in the middle of climate change. But they are not just any Green Collard. These are heir varieties that have been transmitted during generations. Brazelton puts a paper label on a cabbage.

(Soundbite of paper rustle)

Grumke: After years dreaming of this project, in a few days, he will find the plant to learn what is happening underground. The seeds of these plants were traveling to the Brazelton greenhouse. Almost 20 years ago, Ed Davis and some colleagues led thousands of kilometers in the south-east of the United States in search of unique darling. Davis is a geographer and scholar of agriculture at Emory & Henry University in Virginia.

Ed Davis: We arrived at a house and say, excuse me, I think you have interesting collards there. These do not seem to have been purchased in store. And generally, people were simply radiating pride.

Grumke: The seeds found themselves in a bank led by the American department of agriculture. Now, a group of Collard enthusiasts is working to preserve these varieties and put them on the plates of people in the Collard Heirloom project. Ira Wallace is known as the godmother of this effort. She owns a worker from Southern Exhibition Seed Exchange in Virginia. Wallace says that the Collard Heirloom project raises a nutritious vegetable with a rich cultural meaning for African-Americans.

Ira Wallace: He has a link with history, to people’s families, to return to the south in summer.

Grumke: Wallace says that Brazelton’s work in East St. Louis is part of a long tradition of African-American science and agriculture, work embodied by researchers like George Washington Carver and historically black colleges and universities.

Wallace: I think it was the modern child of these first works, who was a little interrupted with the great migration of blacks from south to north. But it’s incredible.

Grumke: And she says that it is particularly important in the middle of climate change. Back at the Brazelton greenhouse, it is finally time to dig up the plants.

(Diaphony)

Grumke: A team of people is in East St. Louis to help Brazelton to weigh, wash and photograph green cabbage.

(Water spraying soundbit)

Grumke: He says it is surreal to reach this point after working for years.

Brazelton: I have the impression that I could be a scientist in root now – today (laughs).

Grumke: Brazelton is considering a direct impact for science behind his project.

Brazelton: I hope this leads to more than one reproductive initiative led by the community and focused on the community around these leaving Collards.

Grumke: For the moment, collons are heading for community food programs. And Brazelton says that some will go home with him. He likes to jump them with turkey tails.

For NPR News, I am Kate Grumke at East St. Louis.

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