The Bond family knows all about collard greens. The Bertie County Farm Bureau members have been raising them for close to 30 years.

“You need good plants and good weather,” says Carl Bond, who grows the green, leafy vegetable with his parents, Rhodes and Queenie Bond. “You have to put a lot of work into them.”

People from Bertie County and beyond certainly appreciate the work the Bond family puts into their annual collard patch, a piece of land nearly an acre big with rows of the vegetable so popular on New Year’s Day.

The Bonds set about 5,000 to 8,000 collard plants in May. By Labor Day weekend, buyers from as far away as Richmond, Va., descend on their farm to walk the rows and pick their own.

“Normally about the end of August, first of September, they’re large enough to get out there and sell them to the customers,” Carl Bond says. “We let them come to the field and let them select what they want.

“That’s the way we’ve been doing it for 30 years. People just love to come by and get them,” he adds.

The Bonds usually rotate the plot where they grow their collards.

“If you put collards in the same place you put them last year, it just won’t work,” Queenie Bond says.

“The collard patch was right on the road this year so people couldn’t miss it,” Carl Bond adds about his family’s farm, which stands along N.C. 308 between Lewiston and Windsor.

Thankfully, this year’s weather pattern didn’t damage the collard crop too badly. A dry summer came before Hurricane Irene, but Carl Bond estimates only about 10 percent of the collards succumbed to drought or too much rain.

“After the hurricane left, the weather turned right again so they got even bigger,” Carl Bond says.

While buyers come to Bond’s farm to pick up some collards throughout the fall, the Bonds say their collards are especially a hit on New Year’s Day when lots of people eat them along with black-eyed peas.

“Collards are just so beautiful and taste so good,” Queenie Bond says.

Why People Eat Collards and Black-Eyed Peas on New Year’s Day
Native Southerners often believe collard greens represent money. So for good luck, collard greens are a regular staple of the New Year’s Day menu.

A similar belief is held true for black-eyed peas. Some say they represent coins since they grow after they are cooked. The more black-eyed peas are eaten to begin the year, the more prosperous people hope to be.

And even more Southern sources attribute the black-eyed pea’s popularity on New Year’s Day to a major event from the Civil War.

According to legend, back in November 1864 when Gen. William Sherman and his troops marched through Georgia from Atlanta toward Savannah, the Union Army leader ordered his men to strip the land of all food, crops and livestock and destroy anything they could not carry.  That legend says the troops followed orders and the surviving Southerners were left with nothing to eat except black-eyed peas.

The troops’ decision left the Southerners with a nourishing food that now carries the thought of good luck and prosperity when consumed on New Year’s Day.

Health Benefits of Collard Greens and Black-Eyed Peas
If Amanda Holliday could create meals for everyone, just about every day would seem like New Year’s Day. That’s because the registered dietitian and clinical assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine insists collard greens and black-eyed peas contain many vitamins and nutrients everyone needs.

When it comes to collard greens, Holliday says they’re nutrient dense, a great source for dietary fiber and low in calories. She says they’re also rich in vitamins A, C and K and are high in folate and calcium.

“I don’t think people know they’re so good for them,” says Holliday, a North Carolina native.

Holliday says her family enjoys collards that she prepares a unique way.  A big hit in her house are baked collard chips. Holliday explains that cutting collard green leaves into potato-chip size pieces, lightly dousing them with olive oil and possibly adding a little seasoning such as salt and pepper before baking them for about 15 to 20 minutes creates a healthy snack.

“My daughter loves them and she’s 5. It’s a different way of eating collards,” Holliday says.

Holliday also recommends steaming collard greens and mixing them in with other vegetables, such as carrots, squash and onions to get them into a meal regimen beyond New Year’s Day.

As far as black-eyed peas, Holliday again says these vegetables pack a nutritious punch and should be eaten more than just on Jan. 1.

The UNC professor says like collards, black-eyed peas are low in calories and are high in fiber, especially soluble fiber that can help lower cholesterol to reduce heart disease, as well as to assist with maintaining a properly working digestive tract.

“You can include both as part of a very healthy diet,” Holliday says. “Three times a week is a great place to start. Have a great time. Eat up.”