On Saturday March 7th you can visit a festival devoted to the collard green. This typical southern food obviously deserves its own festival. The Collard Green Festival takes place in Port Wentworth outside Savannah.

If you haven’t tried collard greens before, this is your chance to get to know this leafy green vegetable up close and personal. The festival offers a “Collards and Cornbread Cook Off” but there’s also BBQ and other foods available.

Collard greens are an excellent sources of vitamin C and soluble fiber. It is a staple vegetable of southern U.S. cuisine and soul food, often prepared with other green leaf vegetables, such as kale, turnip greens, spinach, and mustard greens in “mixed greens”. Traditional seasonings is smoked and salted meats, diced onions, vinegar, salt, and pepper (black, white, or crushed red) and often collards are served with cornbread.

Collard greens were grown by the Greeks and Romans and also in Africa before the leafy green vegetable made its way to North America.

Today, collards — along with mustard and turnip greens – are a staple at African-American meals and celebrations. And they’re being discovered at trendy restaurants and by American families of many cultures.

On March 7th the Collard Green is celebrated at Promised Land Farm in the historic African-American community of Monteith, GA near Port Wentworth.

For more information about the event call Willie Johnson at 912-964-0418 or visit Port Wentworth Visitor Center website