Weather Alert in McHenry and Kane counties.
May 28




If you pull up a chair in a Florida Cracker kitchen, you call it swamp cabbage.

Step this way and meet a unique vegetable. A Florida native, it has two faces. Fit for princes and paupers, swamp cabbage, alias hearts of palm, has a taste all its own.

Ask most folks who have been around south Florida for a lifetime what swamp cabbage tastes like and you get smiles. They open their mouths, in all sincerity to tell you all about how yummy it is. Then they close their mouths and get a curious look on their faces.

''Uhhh . . . you just have to try it,'' they say. ''There`s nothing else like it.''

Hearts of palm is served in good restaurants all over the country, but finding Florida swamp cabbage is a little more difficult.

Swamp cabbage is taken from the cabbage palm tree, otherwise known as the sabal palm, Florida`s state tree. But once the heart is taken, the tree dies. There`s a lot of misunderstanding about whether it is permissible to cut down the state tree in order to obtain the terminal bud that cooks up into no more than a quart of vegetables.

One old timer contacted for this story thought that an uncontrollable urge for swamp cabbage could cost an offending party a $500 fine. Meanwhile, ranchers in St. Lucie County in east central Florida brushed that off with the sure statement that cabbage palms ''grow like weeds in these parts.''

Both Martin and St. Lucie county officials said that it is not illegal to cut cabbage palms, but that the practice is not encouraged.

Stan Rosenthal, Martin County forester, said that the cabbage palm is on

''a conservation list,'' but using it for food carries no penalty.

However, he said, ''gourmets are urged to restrain their appetites.''

Should you decide that you absolutely must have some, the scenario goes something like this one played out on a recent afternoon:

From a palm and pine thicket at the back of the Circle T Ranch in Port St. Lucie comes the sound of a chain saw. Following that screaming, growling sound through the woods one finds Chuck Tilton there amidst the smoke and the mosquitoes--with sweat dripping off the end of his nose.

He has just sawed down a 10-foot cabbage palm tree, which lies felled at his feet, and his chain saw is now ripping through a segment near the top of the tree just below the leaves.

He tears back the remaining stiff outer segments until a shimmering core is exposed. He has killed the tree and now holds its ivory white heart in his hand.

Tilton says he is getting the swamp cabbage for a fundraiser for the local Elks, adding that the thicket at the back of the ranch is to be cleared anyway.

Once you find someone who can cut cabbage palms down with a clean conscience, the next step is to find someone who can cook it. Local recipes tend to be of the ''add a little of this, enough of that and cook it until it`s done'' variety.

Warren Kendall of Jensen Beach, Fla., shared what he said is the basic recipe for cabbage palm, but he didn`t want to take credit for it.

''It belongs to the people of Florida,'' he said.

The tree selected for eating shouldn`t be too big, nor should it grow too near the water or the heart will be bitter.

When you cut out the heart, which is in the segment just below the base of the leaves, peel back the outer layers with a knife until you reach the part you can break with your fingers. That`s the tender part that is sweet and edible.

Clean it right away and keep it in cold water until you`re ready to cook it or the dish will turn green instead of being white as it should be, Kendall warned.

Fry some hickory smoked bacon or fatback in a pot, then brown onions in the fat. Put in the swamp cabbage, broken into bite-sized pieces. Add water until it`s level in the pot with the swamp cabbage. Bring the water to a boil and cook the swamp cabbage until it`s tender.

Phillip Dean cooks a Florida Cracker party dinner once a year for residents of a local condominium building. Along with fried local fish, black- eyed peas, sweet potato pie and something called ''red neck salad,'' he prepares swamp cabbage.

He, too, starts with bacon and lots of onions, but to his swamp cabbage dish, he adds chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaf, a little Worcestershire sauce and a dash of Tabasco sauce.

Cook the swamp cabbage until it`s just tender, he advises. ''If you cook it too long it will be a mess. You won`t even be able to tell it`s swamp cabbage.''

Raw swamp cabbage also is appreciated as a Florida Cracker delicacy.

For cooks who would like to try cooking hearts of palm (it turns back into hearts of palm if you`re going to be really careful and measure everything) and need a precise list of ingredients, here is a recipe featured at Allen`s Historical Cafe, Auburndale, Fla.


Six servings

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 3 to 4 hours

6 slices smoked bacon

1 cup water

Small head swamp cabbage (cut out tender part inside the palm) or 2 cans hearts of palm

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Fry bacon until crisp in frying pan; drain and retain grease.

2. Crumble the fried bacon and add to a saucepan along with bacon grease, water and cabbage palm. Simmer, covered, until tender, 3 to 4 hours. (Cooking time will be less if using canned hearts of palm.) Add water as needed -- salt and pepper to taste.


Six servings

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

2 cups cooked swamp cabbage (drained) or 2 cans hearts of palm

1 cup water

Lots of pepper to taste

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 egg, slightly beaten


Flour 9

Bacon fat or cooking oil

1. Cook swamp cabbage partially in 1 cup water. Be sure to cook with lots of pepper. Remove from pot; drain and dice.

2. Combine swamp cabbage with onion, egg, salt and pepper. Add flour a little at a time until stiff.

3. Heat griddle or frying pan with 1-inch fat in the bottom. Drop mixture by the teaspoon into hot grease. Fry until brown on both sides. Drain on paper towel. Serve hot.

Copyright © 2020, Chicago Tribune