It’s collard season y’all, and South Carolina is ground zero! In fact, the state vegetable of SC is the humble collard, and since 2022 SC has lead the nation in acres of collard production.
At about 0.5%, Bradford Farm makes up a very small percentage of the state’s collard production, but we are the only ones growing our family heirloom Bradford variety.
Growing up I never knew of store bought collards. My grandad, Paa Paa, grew the collards that we all ate. He planted two long rows every year in late summer which were mature and ready to begin harvest after the first frost usually in November. Pictured here is my wife Bette in the collard patch when we first started dating. She came to meet my family over Christmas and the first thing we did was go pick a mess of collards with my Paa Paa.
Years later after he passed I was able to retrieve the little jar of collard seeds that he kept. From those two little rows, we have expanded into close to 20 acres a year and are in restaurants throughout SC, NC, and GA.
I am very grateful for my seed heritage. I’m grateful for the work my grandad did to steward and maintain the breedline of our special family collards that go back to the mid 1800s. The collards along with our Bradford watermelon and okra have enabled me the opportunity to pursue my dream of farming and stewarding our family seeds for another generation.
I’m so glad to have my kids getting involved now too. And we are all super grateful to be able to share them with so many appreciative chefs and their customers.
Thank you, chefs, for supporting our farm, our seed preservation efforts, and our pursuit of flavor.
Another note: Thank all of you who have tried out the Feaster mustard greens and Taylor turnip tops last week, we are more thankful than you could possibly know. Those two crops are vital for our farm’s mission in saving endangered, historic ingredients. Continue to get them in while they're still here, who knows what this huge Sunday night freeze is going to do to our crops (18 degree freeze). Nature is a beast!
SPECIAL REQUEST: We kindly urge you to consider adding at least one of our own Bradford Farm grown crops to your weekly orders. We are working with quite a number of other farms to bring you the best access to regional flavor that we possibly can, but the heartbeat of our farm is our homegrown crops. We can’t exist without moving our own crops too. So please review the crops we offer under Bradford Farm Crops below and consider adding one or more of them. It helps us a ton.
Important Info
- Feaster mustard greens (Bradford Farm) are available now!
-
Taylor Turnips Tops (Bradford Farm) available!
- Candy Roaster Squash (Bradford Farm) available!
- Sunchokes (Bradford Farm) available now!
- Winter crop Bolero carrots out until February
- baby bolero carrots are out until February
- Pink blush Cauliflower from Ricky James is done for season
⚠️ **Highlights of the week**⚠️
Bradford Collards - Bradford Farm
Bradford collards, our staple crop on the farm, are superior to every collard on the market. Our family has been growing them since the 1850s. They are completely unlike any of the commercially available collards today. Ours have been selected for 170 years to be sweet, tender, and crisp whether cooked or raw, stems and all. They cook much faster and produce a far more flavorful and tender product.
These are available year round, so feel free to make them a mainstay on your menu!
Whole plant 10# and 15# cases
Bagged/chopped 10# and 20# cases
Key:
** - limited availability
*OUT- currently out of stock
*OFS- out for season
NEW- recent addition
✅ Bradford Farm Crops: ✅
-NEW! Feaster Mustard Greens (heirloom, SlowFood Ark of Taste)
-NEW! Taylor Turnip Tops (heirloom)
-Candy Roaster squash (SlowFood AOT)
-Stampede Sunchokes
-Scotch curly kale
-Dutch Fork butternut pumpkin (SlowFood AOT)
-Bradford collards bagged/chopped
-Bradford collards whole plant (SlowFood AOT)
-NEW! Fall Charleston Wakefield cabbage (SlowFood AOT)
-GoldTart™️ tangerines
-Citrumelo lemons *Limited Stock*
-Hybrid green cabbage
-Purple cabbage
-Shredded hybrid cabbage
-Shredded purple cabbage
🤝 Partner Farms: 🤝
-Baby Appalachian Gold potatoes - Clem’s
-Watermelon radishes - Clem’s
-Hakurei Turnips - Clem’s
-Rainbow Daikon Radishes - Clem’s
-Parsnips - Clem’s
-Curly Mustard Greens - Dorr Farms *OUT*
-Fall squash lineup
——Acorn
——Delicata
-Appalachian Gold Potatoes - Clem’s Organic Gardens
-Apples - Lively Orchard
——Pink Lady
——Jonagold
——Granny Smith
——Ambrosia
-Blue Lake Pole Beans - Dorr Farms
-Jalapeños - Dorr Farms
-Fall broccoli - Dorr Farms and others
-Green butter beans, fresh-frozen- Johnny McNair Farm
-Speckled butter beans, fresh-frozen- Johnny McNair Farm
-Pinkeye field peas, fresh-frozen- Johnny McNair Farm
-White Acre field peas, fresh-frozen- Johnny McNair Farm (SlowFood AOT)
-NEW Fall (iron & clay) peas, fresh-frozen - Johnny McNair Farm (SlowFood AOT)
-Zucchini
-Yellow Squash
-Kirby Cucumbers
-Green Bell peppers
-Red Bell peppers
-Pecans: Mascot Farms (GA)
-Grape tomatoes
-Green tomatoes
-Red round tomatoes
-Roma tomatoes
-Tomatillos
-Pee Dee sweet potatoes - Dixon Farms
-Beets, Golden
-Beets, Red
Coming soon:
- Gilfeather turnabaga (SlowFood AOT)
- Purple top turnips (SlowFood AOT)
MORE COMING SOON
….let us know if there is something else you are interested in that isn’t on our list