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VEGETABLE SURPRISES--The ABC's: A Bagful of Beets; Broccoli; Collard greens. That yard man of mine is tending to his fall garden patch these days. Every so often I find a surprise delivery on the kitchen porch.

Here's how I worked yesterday's abundance (which included four freshly-laid eggs from his hens) into supper: I scrubbed (and scrubbed) and trimmed and roasted about a dozen beets (And told the yard man, as we ate them like candy, peeling off the skins with our bright pink fingers, "These little buggers are just barely worth the effort!") A few of them I sliced and added to the green salad I made.

There was a bounteous bunch of collard greens, and those I washed, trimmed and loosely chopped. I sauteed a chopped onion, then added some strips of ham and let those slightly brown before adding the collards. Then I covered the skillet for about ten minutes and let it all cook into a dish to die for. My yard man has never been much of a greens-eating fan, Dear Reader, but you should have heard him rave!

As for the broccoli. I'd been singing, "Green green, it's green they say, on the far side of the hill. Green green, I'm going away to where this meal is greener still."*













But then I thought, no--there's a reasonable limit to the greenness with which this meal should be imbued! I steamed that head and put it in my freezer.
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*New Christy Minstrels, my dear.