Reflect on the collard green — robust, substantial, and packed with nutrients, this vegetable is cherished in households around the globe. Though collard greens originate from Europe and the Mediterranean, they are deeply connected to the American South.

While British and Irish settlers brought collards to the U.S. in the early 1700s, it was mainly Black families, many of whom were transported from West Africa via the transatlantic slave trade, along with impoverished white families, who valued collards, appreciating the worth of both the greens and the mineral-rich pot likker remaining after cooking.

Their preservation played a crucial role in establishing collards as a Southern staple and a lasting emblem of legacy, handed down from generation to generation in household gardens.

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