Stumping and Eating in North Carolina
Courtesy of the New York Public Library
Today is Super Tuesday so we continue in the theme of Stumping and Eating in America. North Carolina is among a number of states hosting its Democratic Primary Election today including Colorado, Virginia, and more.
U. S. Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) instituted his famed New Deal policies and agencies for hurting unemployed citizens across the country during the Great Depression of the 1930s and early 1940s. One of them, the Federal National Relief Agency (NRA), chose Tyron, North Carolina for one of its surplus food distribution program area depots. Singer Nina Simone (1933-2003) was born and raised in Tyron. Her father and other men in Tyron received NRA truck-driving jobs. Simone recalls drivers traded leftover “collard greens, string beans, tomatoes and sometimes eggs” with drivers who had “more sugar or flour, say, than they needed.” In North Carolina and other parts of the south, the NRA led to a political realignment (changing one's party affiliation). Large numbers of voters flocked to the Dems, registered to vote, and beneficiaries of New Deal policies voted to keep FDR in the White House for four more years.
Vegan Collard Greens
Ingredients
1 bunch of greens: collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, kale, or chard
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon salt, depending on the saltiness of your stock
Liquid smoke or smoked paprika
Method
Wash the collards good in plenty of slightly salted water, strip the leaves off the steams, discard the steams and cut the greens into small pieces. Start out with 3 bunches which will serve 6 people, they are big but they cook down like spinach. I steam mine in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes until the fibrous leaves are easy to eat. Steaming preserves the water soluble vitamins that are killed when you just boil the greens down like most of my ancestors have done for years. Remove the collards from the pressure cooker and save the water to make the pot-licker or stock. Season the water with 3 cubes of vegetable bullion, dried bay leaf, dried red pepper flakes, little vinegar, and some honey. Had some smoked paprika or a little liquid smoke which most grocery stores sell if you like that smoked meat flavor (the traditional recipe calls for a smoked ham hock or a hunk of smoked fat back). The pot-licker is full of vitamins and great seasoning for the greens Sauté the steamed greens with chopped onions and garlic in olive oil with your preferred seasonings like pepper, salt, etc. Add sautéed greens to the pot-licker and let them marinade for 30 or more minutes.
Nina Simone,The Voice of a Movement:
[Listen 16 min 56 sec]
http://www.npr.org/2010/06/17/127910845/princess-nina-simone-the-voice-of-a-movement
