On Dec 2, 1:17*pm, "l, not -l" > wrote:

> In my family, if you knew what "greens" you had to cook, you called it by
> its name. *However, where we lived we didn't grow all of our greens in
> window boxes or backyard victory gardens; we picked most of them wild. *
> When I was a child, my grandfather would grab a burlap sack, take my hand
> and say "let's go pick some greens". * Greens because he didn't yet know
> what variety he would find; upon return to the house he might say we "picked
> a nice mess of greens" if we collected several varieties or he'd say we
> "picked a mess of collards" if that were the case.

Exactly, in my family and in my "neck of woods" a mess of greens
meant many different things. It could be a mixture of
greens out of the garden or yard or all put together. To this day
I like mixed greens as well as a singular "mess". If I don't have
some in a long while I actually crave them.