Breaking News! Wild Shoots! Out in Oakland!

I know, I know, collards are not the most glamorous vegetable on the plate, even if eating your greens is very cool right now.  But if you wait around long enough, you get something even better (can that be possible!) than the leaves.  You get the shoots.

The shoots are tender (stalks included), mildly broccoli-esque, and if you pick them regularly, will keep producing for a very long time.

Saute them in olive oil with garlic and onions; do the southern Italian thing by adding raisins, pine nuts (actually, most often now I use almonds or pepitas since pine nuts have gotten so dear) with a splash of balsamic; or chop them up for use with those other healthy greens you have on hand.



In fact, collard shoots are very reminiscent of my favorite broccoli: the trendy "piracicaba broccoli."  Found on menus from as far away as Blue Hill at Stone Barns (one of my lovely sisters is on the Board at Stone Barns) to Bar Agricole in SF, piracicaba is somewhere between broccoli raab and a heading broccoli, only sweet-flavored, and very easy to grow.  Winter or summer.  Eat the small heads and the tender leaves, wait, and more will appear over a number of months.

Piracicaba seeds are available from Bountiful Gardens, (although they misspell the name and mash the pronunciation.  It's "peer-a-see-CA-ba".  I told 'em, but they just weren't listening).  Bred by Brazilian agronomists, so of course it's trendy.