Reptile & Amphibian Forums

how do you get your hands on cooking greens in the winter??? I have a hard time finding collards, turnip, endive etc in the summer let alone in the winter. as of now there is only one grocery store that carries what i need and when they are out i go to the farmers market. i didn't have to worry much about greens last year because spike was still young and unwilling to eat a ton of greens.. well now i have three... and go through the stuff quickly..any ideas on what to do to prepare for winter "shopping".... sigh.. can't wait for the snow to fly..hehe

ohh and another thing.. is there a chart out there of an average beardies wieght and length.. just something i can compare my dragons too.. thanks

alissa

Where do you live? Is there an organic food store or a food co-op? I can always find it there.

i live in mn.. and i haven't thought of an organic store.. heck i don't even know where one is.. but thanks i'll check that out..

alissa

Sorry, but I've never even thought about it... The stores around here have greens of all kinds all year long. I can even go get cactus pads in the middle of winter.
This is made even more strange by the fact that I pretty much live out in the middle of nowhere. The nearest "large" city is 25 miles away. Even the small town I'm closest to is 12 or 13 miles away.

Wish I could help, but I just don't know what to tell ya.
( Other than "MOVE". lol )

D.A.

and can get catcus pad and cooking greens year round...i wanna stick my tongue out at you ... i live in bloomington (suburb of minneapolis) and have a very very very hard time finding collard greens in any of the super markets i go to.. i guess i'll have to drive down town to an organic store ..sit in traffic for a half an hour...get lost more than once on my way there and on my way back... sigh.. heheh

alissa

Minneapolis eh?

I was born in Virginia, MN. From what I hear, it's a couple hours north and it's really in the middle of nowhere.

its the iron range (nothing but old factories)... all they have is a k-mart and couple of other stores... closest big city is duluth..

alisa

No wonder why my parents left shortly after I was born. Whenever I mention MN, my mom shudders. I don't think she's ever been to Minneapolis though.

your mom probably would have liked the twin cities.. you can live in the country but still be less than 30 mins from a big city... (sounds like an endorsement)..hehe

Sugar, this is Tennessee... Running out of collards and turnip greens just don't happen.

And believe it or not, we can actually grow prickly pear cactus here... There's a patch of 'em growing in somebody's front yard, just down the road. Been wondering if I could get away with a little "cactus-napping"...

D.A.

when i got the check out line with a bunch of collard greens.. the check out lady always has to ask what they are and what i do with them.. and when i tell them its dragon food.. i get an entirely different look.... the only we don't run out of in mn is snow and road construction...i love the snow.. but could live without the road construction..hehe

alissa

Snow stops everything here. Too many hills, too many idiots that can't drive.
An inch of snow closes the schools down. Six inches closes the whole state down.
And we aren't gonna talk about road construction at all.
TDOT = TN Dept. Of Terrorism. ( Some folks claim it's Tn. Dept. Of Transportation, but I know better. )

And as for the greens and veggies, I guess I should take the camera the next time I go to the store, and let you see what we have to choose from here. ( Wonder what kind of looks I'll get for that? hehehe )

D.A.

so i can be jealous....and i think i would have liked living in tn as a kid.. 6 inches in mn is no big deal.. the last snow day i can remember was when it snowed 8 inches in two hours.. and the last blizzard i can remember was in 92' when we got 28 inches in a very short amount of time..and everything was shut down...what do you do with collard greens anyway.. how do you cook them.. i saw on tv how to prepare mustard greens.. and i tried eating a collard green the other week raw i couldn't understand why people ate them.. it tasted like grass.. maybe thats why they call them cooking greens..do they taste different after they are cooked??

alissa

Yes, Collard greens have to be cooked to be edible.
And if I remember right, they have to be par boiled or blanched first. That is, you boil them, then dump the water out and add fresh along with the seasoning, then finish cooking them... Have to ask my mom to be sure.

I can cook just about anything, but oddly enough, I've never actually cooked collards or turnip greens myself. Pinto beans, cornbread, green beans, fried chicken...yes. Can and have cooked all of that.

Odd, considering where I live, and the fact that I usually do the cooking here....

Anyway, they're usually cooked with a piece of pork, salt and pepper. That's it.

D.A.

this is hot dish country up hear.. things aren't that complicated.. dump in some hamburger and a can of cream of something soup and put it in the oven and your done.. maybe i'll figure out how to make a collard green hotdish (jk).. thanks

alissa

You have to cook collard greens? I didn't know that..been eating them raw in salads to help lessing the waste since I only have one dragon.

I only purchased my dragon in March but didn't find it too hard to find collard greens, dandelion greens or enchive at that time (course most were imported from the states). I don't know about the dead of winter yet. I haven't been able to find any mustard greens up here though (Northern Ontario, Canada). If they really start to get scarce I will pick up another light fixture and try growing the greens in my basement using grow lamps. I tried growing some outside but worms eat all the mustard greens and too much rain didn't do the collards well...they are still trying to grow but the leaves are soo small, nothing like what I get at a grocery store.

Well, if you've been eating them raw and are still with us, then I guess collard greens don't have to be cooked to be edible.

As I said earlier, I'm not sure of exactly how they're cooked.
I will check on it and get back with you though. Hopefully before the raw ones have any ill effects on you.

D.A.