Week 5-The Collard Green Festival

We hope all of you are doing fine, and that you’re holding on for the Spring season. There have been a few warm days down here, but it can still get chilly at times. We’ve been trying to stay busy on this end. Jo tried a new craft this week. She made a small fabric coiled-basket and loves doing it. See a picture of the basket below. She has also taken a temp job for a couple of weeks with the Georgia Historical Society. Very interesting. More on that in a later blog. Jesse is still teaching online and practicing piano. He just finished grading mid-term exams. He hasn’t gone fishing yet, but intends to do that soon.

The biggest thing going on in Savannah this past week is the preparation for the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Actually, that’s been going on for quite a while. These people are deep. There are daily articles and a “count down” in the newspaper, and just about every store in the city has a display of “green” items - and it’s not about the environment either. You may have heard about the greening of the famous fountain in Forsythe Park. A few days ago, there was an article in the local paper with pictures of local school children pouring green dye into the fountain in honor of this “auspicious occasion.” Downtown businesses and offices in the Historic District will be closed for the big parade on Tuesday the 17^th, and there will be beer trucks on the streets, and all the restaurants, even the taco joints, will be welcoming the revelers. Because of the numbers of visitors expected, there will be a ban on parking in most of the downtown area. The cost of riding the bus downtown is going from $1.00 to $5.00 for that day. Oh yes, Jess read in the paper last night that a judge who recently ruled that a local bar have its alcohol license suspended for a few days for serving under-age drinkers, can wait until after St. Patrick’s Day to have his ruling take effect. So it looks like there’s going to be a wild time in Savannah on Tuesday. We’re staying away.

Now for the fun-time. Last Sunday while Jo was watching one of the two channels we get (with no cable), she saw an ad for the 12^th Annual Collard Green Festival at The Promised Land Farm in Port Wentworth, Georgia, about 20 minutes from Savannah. So we went on Saturday. Brothers Willie and Robert Johnson, who have a 31-acre farm, originally started the tradition of allowing the community to glean the fields at the end of the collard season in the early 90’s originally to honor the elderly, veterans, and the disabled. Participation in the event has been growing ever since. For the cost of $5.00 (free for veterans, seniors - "that's us" - and the disabled) you could fill a 30-quart plastic bag of greens, pick-your-own, of course. It was the first time we had heard about anything like that. When we got to the farm on a little country road right off the highway, the place was already crowded with people who were picking their own. We arrived at about 9:15am. The early birds (picking started at 8:00am) were already leaving when we arrived, carrying bags crammed full with greens. In the field they had a “stage” with a drum set and sound system set up on a flatbed with groups singing gospel music and young people stepping and doing mime to gospel hip-hop. There were vendors selling shirts, tomatoes and boiled peanuts, sun glasses, doing face-painting and what ever. The Williams family and friends were selling fish sandwiches, rib dinners, and chicken dinners including home-made pound cake that makes your tongue slap your brains out. There was even a parade, which they started 3 years ago, with a Grand Marshall (The Mayor of Port Wentworth this year), Mr. Willie and some other farmers on their tractors, the Port Wentworth fire truck hoopin’ and a-hollerin’, and some bikers and horseback riders. It was a blast, like a big country family gathering with a spirit of joy and laughter among the people. It was a life-changing event for us – actually seeing totally unselfish giving/love in action. Click here for our pictures of the festival.

Later, we found on the web a Collard Green Cultural Festival in East Palo Alto, California. To get information about their efforts on the West Coast, click here. By the time we stopped picking ½ a bag each, we had so many greens that we gave over half of the greens to some friends in continuation of that same spirit.

So, that’s it for now. Stay well, and we’ll be in touch later. Peace.

JoAnn and Jesse

Jo's 1st basket: