We were sitting in the Piggly Wiggly grocery store on Capitol Drive across from Midtown shopping center handing out election reminders to people who came to shop. “Are you cooking on Mother’s Day?” Sadie kept asking the women coming by where we sat waiting with our clipboards to register potential voters. That question usually stopped them long enough for us to get their attention and for me to slip an election reminder, a tiny piece of bright yellow paper, into their hands. Sometimes we did a kind of Laurel and Hardy routine, and she asked if they were planning to cook, and I asked if they were planning to vote. Then she started inviting herself to dinner. It was about that time that Emma showed up.
She and Sadie obviously knew each other, and they began a lively discussion while other shoppers squeezed past our little group, and I kept handing out little yellow election reminders and trying to listen to Sadie and Emma at the same time. Somehow the subject of greens came up. I had eaten greens as a kid in the South and lately working at Lena’s on Teutonia as well as this Piggly/Lenas at Midtown. I had always wanted to ask an African-American woman for her greens recipe but had been too shy. When I could get a break in their rapid fire talk, I asked Emma for her recipe. She looked a bit surprised but not unfriendly. “This is just what I do,” she said as if not wanting to be claiming that her recipe was the definitive recipe for greens. And then she gave it to me fast, and I tried to get it all down, fast.
Emma Winfrey’s Greens
2-4 bunches of greens: collards, mustard or turnip (This was left very vague.)
1 c. chicken broth or water (“You don’t want to drown your greens.”)
A couple cloves of garlic
Some onion
Seasoning salt to taste
Add: bacon and some other kind of smoked meat (“Some folks use turkey but I don’t care for it.”)
Touch of vinegar at the end (She came back to add this later.)
