Thursday, March 17, 2011

Greens From The Garden.

Every now and then, my body calls out for red meat. And I eat red meat. And my body is happy. Every now and then, my body calls out for greens.
And I must have greens. My body is screamin' greens today.
Mr. Hawthorne went out to my garden and fetched a mess o' greens - I have mustard greens, kale, broccoli, collards, and turnip greens growing now.
Mr. Hawthorne picked a selection.
He added a few chunks of country ham, added a little water, brought it to a simmer, then covered and cooked the greens down.
And cook down they do.
I like my greens with a pat of butter on them and some vinegar.
Every time I eat greens I am reminded of Mama Hawthorne. Daddy Hawthorne loved his greens and had a huge garden where he grew everything. Mama Hawthorne would cook the greens for him. At the time, I was an ignorant child, and refused to eat the nasty greens. I was highly offended by the odor emanating from Mama Hawthorne's kitchen whenever she cooked greens. Well, Daddy Hawthorne liked cider vinegar on his greens and would liberally sprinkle the vinegar over the greens. Mama Hawthorne would get furious at Daddy over the damn vinegar. She was highly affronted and repelled by the smell of the vinegar. I just thought that was awfully weird since of all the odors at that table, vinegar would have been the least offensive.
I lurves me some greens. They're pungent, they exude flavor, they're potent, they're comforting, and they make me happy.
Ahh. I feel healthier already.

6 comments:

SweetPhyl said...

All that's missin' is that pone o' cornbread and some buttermilk. Dang Rosie, I'd almost give up my traditional American Irish corned beef & colcannon for a bowl of your greens right now. Happy St. Pattie's Day, darlin'!

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Happy St. Pat's to you!

tortietat said...

Around here those greens would be called "sallet." Mama planted her sallet patch in the fall and the greens always tasted sweeter after the first frost. She liked her sallet so much that she'd make a sandwich the next day from the leftovers. I like the mixed greens combination that you have, but my favorite is creasie greens.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Tortietat, please tell me what creasie greens are.

And I'm sure your
octo- or nono- generian twin aunts have a mess of 'em.

I need to find out about poke salad Annie. Especially since I have some growing.

tortietat said...

Creasie greens are more properly known as winter cress or yellow rocket. They grow wild, but people cultivate them as well. The wild ones were usually the the first thing the grow out green in the early spring.

Yep, one of the twins has a ginormous sallet patch which is planted within sight of the highway. You'd be amazed at the number of people who have the nerve to knock on her door wanting to know if they can pick a mess of greens. They've also come home from church and caught people in their garden with large black garbage bags!

I have lots of poke vines growing on my property but have never eaten any of it. Did one time crush a bunch of berries and paint my legs purple....

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Tortie, I just had a vision of you as Lucy and one of your lovely Auntie Twins as Ethel, in the vat, stomping poke vine berries, painting your legs purple.

Good times!