Is it normal for collard greens to be red?

Question

The collard greens that I have received are red. Is this normal/healthy? Image attached.

Google searching this gives me zero results that are anywhere near relevant. I also can't find any images of red collard greens, they are always green in the image search.

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 19 '18 at 18:26

5

No, that is not normal for collards. Enlarging the picture, the discoloration looks to be a brownish-red. Those leaves look to be very old and quite possibly have been frozen (while still in the field), especially the one on the right. I would be tossing those.

answered Mar 19 '18 at 18:26

Cindy

18,331
12
52
92

1

Excuse the cheap shot: They aren't called collard reds for a reason :) – rackandboneman Mar 19 '18 at 22:46
@rackandboneman yeah, like Roquefort isn't called a _blue cheese_ for a reason. ...wait... – leftaroundabout Mar 21 '18 at 09:31

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 07 '21 at 01:58

Ours are red too. Green toward the middle/newer part of plant and more red on the lower leaves and tips of green leaves. Usually, they get better with cold (live in SC), especially if it snows - makes them sweet.

This year it may be a couple reasons. One is variety. This year we have Georgua collards. Past years have been a 'blue' variety. This years variety seems to have more red as the season progresses, but only I certain beds. Other beds they're still green all around; this leads me to suspect alkalinity. The red ones are in beds where the soil more neutral or alkaline, the green ones are in more acidic soil.

Is it normal for collard greens to be red?

2 Answers2