Carolyn Forche` is the author of a best-selling book for children, Colors Come From God … Just Like Me! She is sharing her favorite collard greens recipe and her favorite cornbread recipe in The Collard Patch .

Here is a snippet of her fascinating memoirs:

"As I share my Collard Greens Collage and Fresh Corn-Cornbread with you, let me tell you a little bit about myself, and how these twin passions came to be. My mother was an incredible cook, and I loved watching and helping her prepare foods. It was always fascinating to watch the magical transition at her hands of raw products like flour, eggs, yeast, milk, butter, cream and fruit and see them segue into perfectly shaped cakes, rolls, pies, cobblers, donuts and unforgettable, home-made ice cream...."

Carolyn's Endorsement
If the title of the just published book, The Collard Patch, summons visions of warm, sunny days, a beautiful table set in the solarium or sun room of a charming country home -- a home situated in a verdant, pastoral setting with meandering varieties of vividly colored flowers, you’re getting the picture.

Simply add to this scene -- you and friends sitting at this table, while mixed aromas of hot corn bread, and the unmistakable fragrance of hot collard greens and a baked apple pie are wafting into the room. Your host, a busy cook is coming in and out of the room, setting one tempting, mouth watering entrée after another on the table before you.
As she scutters in and out the room, your eyes look beyond the tall French-door style windows onto a patch of neatly planted rows of large, leafy rosettes of something favoring cabbage, but with much darker leaves. Oh, that’s the “collard patch” over there.

Your host now enters the room, and with flushed excitement takes her seat nearest the entryway to the kitchen as both she, co-author Paul Elliott, you, and other friends await the blessings upon the food and the first palate pleasing delights of collard greens, cornbread and all the country trimmings. You have just met the delightful and ever gracious host, Mary Cheatham, and marketing genius and author Paul Elliott, co-authors of The Collard Patch.

A simple browse through the pages of this wonderfully warm and enchanting book will transport you, as it has me, to the scene or scenes like the one described above. The only difference being, that as you prepare the incredibly delicious recipes that grace the pages of this uniquely written story-book of recipes, you become the host -- setting your easily duplicated entrees before your own friends. Never mind the fact that you may not be serving your dishes in a country setting … the food itself will transport you there.

Paul and Mary have outdone themselves with this treasury of gastronomic delights. As your recipes are simmering and baking, sit with a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy the riveting stories between the recipes. My favorite is the one about the young boy and the drunk cow. No, don’t ask me; I won’t tell you the name of the story, go and get a copy for yourself, and a couple for the others who will ask you the same. Enjoy!

Jane Galay, who lives in Tennessee, is an artist, writer, home school educator, and Internet marketer. In The Collard Patch she has shared a beautiful story about her cornbread inspired  by Prater's Mill:

This time it was to drink in spring!  Of all the seasons, this time of the year is absolutely perfect in Georgia!  The dogwoods are a bloom’n and the azaleas are all dressed up in their Resurrection Best, declaring, “New Life is NOW”! I just HAD to grab my daughter, Joanna, and take a mini road trip back into time, into the country where the air is fresh, and the sky is clear.

There is just something about this time of year that causes our hearts to rejoice like no other season.  The evenings are crisp and cool, and the sunsets are vibrant, the light is exquisite.  From the Mill, we watched the waters rush past us as we played with our camera. 

This trip with my fifteen-year-old daughter, in a sense, was a return to my own, "old homestead".  What a sense of awe I had that evening.  There we were, with over twenty years of deep, intimate memories passing between us.   I marveled how I was sharing with my very own legacy, reminiscing on times long past, before she was even my own thought.  How sweet it is to share what you love with whom you love. 

It, also, just happened to be Passover, named for the day God made the Death angel pass over those who believed and acted on His word, just before the children of Israel were delivered from slavery in Egypt.  What a thrill, in retrospect! Is this how God feels when He watches us rejoicing together, as a family?  Does He love to remember with us, all that we have gone through, as we appreciate all that He has done for us, as He has been faithfully making us the loved ones we are today?  It just doesn’t get any better than this!

Go to The Collard Patch to get Jane's full true story about Prater's Mill and her authentic old-fashioned cornbread recipe inspired by the Mill!