Now is the time to start sowing kale and collards

If you were to define the difference between kale and collards, you might generalize and say that collard leaves are large, smooth and flat, whereas kale leaves are often curly, frilly or pebbled in texture. Southerners are big on collards, and Yankees favor kale. But genetically and nutritionally, they are almost the same plant.

Botanically, both are the species Brassica oleracea and belong to a group called acephala (Greek for "headless"), as opposed to the cabbages in the capitata group (Latin for "headed"). Many cultures have their own headless brassicas, such as the Portuguese couve tronchuda or Chinese open-headed cabbage varieties such as Tokyo Bekana.

The kale-collards kinship hit home for me when I was growing a favorite kale called Western Front. Its leaves were variable, but many had a smooth collard-like leaf. I've been saving seeds from it, selecting for smoothness. Maybe it's the Louisiana blood from my mother's family, but I seem born to eat collards.

Not that I've avoided them. Some years back, we grew an heirloom collard from seed passed on by a farmer in Georgia, and what a magnificent thing it was - tall and blue-leaved with red ribs. When its yellow flowers burst forth to make more seed, it could have won a beauty contest against a phlox or dahlia.

So now we're planting a collard from Osborne Seed called Blue Max, in the hopes that it will be the star of our winter garden. This is the time to start sowing crops for winter harvest - not ones deterred by still-warm soil, such as lettuce, but Swiss chard and the stalwart lineup of brassicas: arugula, mustard, bok choy, kale and collards. We start ours indoors and set them out as transplants a few weeks later, 12 inches apart each way, but you could just as well sow them directly in compost-enriched soil. Pluck out the thinnings to get the desired spacing, wash them and toss them right into the pan for supper.

If you have had moist weather recently, conditions should be fine, but keep a hose handy just in case it turns dry. In cozy Zone 8 in southern Virginia, collards will go right through the winter in good form. North of that, they'd need some protection in the coldest months, not just to survive but also to keep leaf production going.

Collards can work as a spring treat as well, but like so many vegetables, they taste sweeter when grown in cold weather. Rich in many nutrients, especially calcium and vitamins A and K, collards make a good winter tonic.

My Southern grandparents, who raised and smoked their own hogs, most likely ate their collards boiled with a ham hock, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that as long as you don't throw away any of the broth. In fact, the couve tronchuda version of this vegetable is used in a hearty Portuguese soup called caldo verde, along with potatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil and either pork sausage (linguica or chouriço) or smoked pork loin (salpicao). Collards would be a fine substitute.

Most often I chop up my collards, or my kale, then cook them in a cast-iron skillet with onions. I sauté the onions in olive oil, butter or bacon fat, then add the greens and a little water, cover and cook them over low heat for about 10 minutes or until just soft. The onions add an extra note of sweetness.

Fall is not the time to use greens as a diet food. Vitamins A and K are fat-soluble and therefore less available without butter, olive oil or some other healthy, nonindustrial fat - without which the cold months would be bleak indeed.