Collards make you beautiful

A summer night at Olbrich Botanical Gardens with community and greens

by

Snapshot

It’s not often that the lead singer of a band can step just a few feet forward to dance alongside audience members. But this July night, on the great lawn of Olbrich Botanical Gardens, the setting is intimate, the crowd at eye level.

Olbrich’s after-hours shows, which run on select summer nights, are as much about connection as music. Hundreds of people spread out their lawn chairs, play card games with friends and, sometimes, dance.

Tonight, the latter is non-negotiable. The leader of Obi Original & the Black Atlantics instructs everyone on the lawn to get up on their feet, clap to the music, and chant “Yeah yeah!” when prompted.

“The music that I play is about community,” Obi Original says to the crowd between songs. “This gathering we have today is a blessed gathering. This is a gathering that was meant to happen.”

That gathering is Collard Fest, a collaboration between local chef and farmer Yusuf Bin-Rella and REAP Food Group. Bin-Rella and REAP’s former executive director began working with Olbrich to grow collards in 2024 and this is their second time hosting Collard Fest. Bin-Rella says he wants to “demystify” collard greens and celebrate their cultural significance for African Americans.

“It’s one of those things that is an anchor for the Black community in celebration and life,” he says of collards. “It’s not a real party if there ain’t a pot of greens.”

In the parking lot, local food trucks offer a variety of dishes featuring collards, including a pork roll wrapped in collard greens from KindThailand. At Propa Jerk & BBQ Jamaican Gourmet, customers eventually eat through 10 gallons of “Caribbean Greens” — a side dish of collards served with every meal — reports co-owner Jason Whyte. 

There are sadly no cooking demos at the fest, but there is a merch tent with zines and pamphlets on which collard varieties work best in certain recipes, and how to grow greens in Wisconsin. Packets of free seeds sit next to tote bags and tees with a graphic stating: “Collards Make You Beautiful” — alluding to the leafy greens’ nutritional benefits.

Bin-Rella, who began farming in 2019, grows most of his greens on Troy Farm, on Madison’s north side, but he also plants collards in a few small urban “pockets” like Olbrich.

“I donate the collards I grow, and I use them in pop-ups and education,” says Bin-Rella, who teaches classes at Olbrich and the Badger Rock Neighborhood Center on how to cook with collards. Most of the work is unpaid: “ I do it ‘cause I like it, and it makes me happy. It’s something I can give to my community.”

As Obi Original sings about celebrating community and Mother Earth, attendees wave their collard leaf-shaped fans in the air and explore the gardens where the collard plants are growing. There is also a farm stand to visit, run by Firm Footing Farm, a small farm in Black Earth.

Obi Original & the Black Atlantics, with their modern Afrocentric sound and mission to uplift African diasporic art through music, is a perfect fit for the event. Their first song is performed in collaboration with Black Star Drum Line, a group of youth drum players from Madison, who opened the show.

“Let us enjoy what this beautiful place, these botanical gardens, give us,” Obi Original says with hands raised in the air. “Let us dance, let us enjoy, let us love life.”

The crowd complies.

Bin-Rella plans to continue to spread the word about collards and hopes to get more organizations involved in future fests. “Let’s make it a civic crop for Madison,  for the communities, where it’s not a mystery, (and) people don’t know what to do with it.” 

12: Months a year that collards can grow (with modest protection needed in the winter)

2,000+:  Years people have been eating collards

1,150+: People attended Collard Fest

Aug. 12: Madison Black Restaurant Week Heirloom Collard Greens Networking Mixer and Tasting, at the Black Business Hub

Sept. 11-12: CRACKLIN’ Collards: fall collards fest at Olbrich