Greens from South Carolina

By Tom Hanchett

Amid the office towers of uptown Charlotte, a dusty blue pick-up truck arrives each morning piled high with produce.

That’s Frankie Meeks, the “greens man.”  He’s headed to Mert’s Heart and Soul where he delivers towering stacks of collard greens and other vegetables every day. 

Meeks grew up in a gardening family in Charlotte’s University Park neighborhood off Beatties Ford Road, then at the edge of the city. He started selling fresh produce to senior citizens complexes, and today also services half a dozen restaurants including Merts.

“Hoy Nichols, down in Lexington, South Carolina, he grows greens for me year-round,” says Meeks. “Summer, the leaves are bigger, winter-time the frost makes ‘em sweeter.”  There’s many kinds. “Ones called blue greens, very dark, others that look like cabbage.” 

Collard greens are a taste-memory of the rural South.  At Mert’s, owner James Bazzelle recalls the greens from his grandfather’s garden.  But he prepares them a new way.
     
“I cook them with vinegar, onion, garlic, like the old days.  But we want to eat healthy now, so no ham-hock.  We use olive oil. And for flavor we put in a spice called adobo.  Got that from Latino cooking.”   

Mert’s Heart and Soul
214 N College Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
(704) 342-4222

Lunch every day, 11am – 3pm
Dinner Tues-Sat beginning at 3pm
Brunch Sat & Sun beginning at 9am