A dear gardening friend is sending me both the Green and the Yellow Cabbage Collard Seed. I am passing along the description and information she shared with me. Perhaps this is the same 100 year old variety which you have.
Gary The Yellow Cabbage Collard, and the green version, usually just referred to as Cabbage Collard. These are fairly unknown outside the Carolina's. Usually they are heavily guarded family heirlooms, having been passed down for more than100 years in the same family. Most folks will not share seeds. After literally years of looking, I have been smiled upon and gained samples of both types in the SAME year! I am sure there are many other lines of both versions because each family and each farm saves their own seeds from year to year.
These particular Yellow Cabbage Collards originated from The Cabbage Shack in Ayden, North Carolina. I have long known that these folks would sell the seed at their farm stand, but would not mail them. Finally I came across a new gardening friend who was willing to make the drive. Now he and I, and all of you folks also, have a new old garden favorite to try!
http://southeastfarmpress.com/mag/farming_unique_marketing_system/
This link is to a page with pictures of Cabbage Collards made by folks who really grow them. Please pay attention to the series of pictures by farmerdill of a Cabbage Collard at various stages of development:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/12902/
I am told that these plants grow to the size of a No. 4 washtub. Normally these are harvested in a progressive manner with the outer leaves first harvested individually, and then the heads as they form. As with almost all of the Brassicas, they have a sweeter flavor after they have been kissed by the frost. I am told that the heads of these are particularly tender.
Yellow Cabbage Collards in the field: http://www.deansfarmmarket.com/page.php?id=12
Just a personal observation...I haven't had the opportunity to grow either of these collard varieties to maturity. I have had the yellow version once before. If this strain is anything like the ones I had before, they will be perky little plants of a bright yellow-green with a tender and velvety texture. I planted them early in the spring, and fought the darned cabbage worms for them most of the spring. I lost when we had to leave town for a weekend. I will probably start a few plants now and keep them covered with netting this time. But I will also save some to start late summer when there will hopefully be less competition with the infernal cabbage stealers!
Collards are an acquired taste for lots of people. I grew up eating them and the other strongly-flavored southern greens. And to tell the truth, I really only like collards and some of those early greens after the first light frost, or in the early spring when it is still cool. Radishes are better then as well--loosing the overwhelming hot spicyness that plagues them in the heat of summer and developing a sweetness that I find very refreshing.
There are many ways to cook collards other than the typical pot of boiled greens--although that is a traditional way to cook them, and can be very satisfying with a nice hot piece of buttered cornbread alongside (or ladled along with the pot likker over the cornbread in a nice deep bowl). However, there are many other ways to serve them ranging from soups to casseroles. In fact, when I started collecting recipes found online, I was surprised myself at the many interesting ways people have devised to serve these sorts of greens.
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