Which state grows the most collard greens?
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A collard is a leafy green you pick one leaf at a time — the plant does not pack itself into a head the way its cousin the cabbage does. In the 2022 Census of Agriculture USDA counted the acres harvested state by state and printed a figure for 45 states. Three more are hidden behind USDA’s withheld mark, and two carry the mark USDA uses for an amount too small to show as a whole acre. Put these three in order, most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→3 in order
Easy. Vegetables are California’s whole personality. California grows literally everything and I am not going to overthink this one. 🐾
Answer
The real order is…
South Carolina — 2,568 acres, about 1.33× what second-place Georgia harvested, and a little more than a fifth of the 11,483 acres counted in the whole country. Start with the size of the place. South Carolina is 40th of the 50 states by land area; Georgia, right next door, has nearly twice as much land. California, the third-biggest state in the country, is only fourth here. And these three are not just the top of a printed list: everything USDA did not print for a state adds up to 482 acres, less than third place, so no hidden state can push any of them down. All three are national places. Now the part that is easy to miss. South Carolina did not win this by growing. Georgia was first in this table in the 2002 census, and in 2007, and in 2012, and still in 2017. Look at the two ends of that stretch: in 2002 Georgia printed 5,728 acres and South Carolina printed 2,011. By 2022 South Carolina had risen to 2,568 — while Georgia’s number had fallen to 1,935. The lead changed hands because one number came down, not because the other shot up. One more oddity, further down the list: fifth place is New Jersey (782 acres), ahead of Texas and Florida — and New Jersey is 46th of the 50 states by land area. Why the greens are where they are, this quiz does not claim to know. Biscuit’s Field Note is about the plant itself, which USDA files as the very same species as the cabbage, the broccoli and three more vegetables in your kitchen.
📚 Background South Carolina wrote this vegetable into its law books. Section 1-1-681 of the South Carolina Code of Laws is one sentence long: “Collard greens are the official vegetable of the State.” It was added by 2011 Act No. 38 and took effect on June 2, 2011 — eleven years before the USDA count in this quiz. What the plants are actually doing out there is described by USDA’s own research magazine, in an article about scientists hunting for old collard seed in the Carolinas. “Around New Year’s Day, there’s not much green on the coastal plains of North or South Carolina, except for neat rows of collards (Brassica oleracea),” it begins, and it places the crop plainly: “Collard—a cole crop related to broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower—has always been a local staple in the South.” It records the winter rhythm, too: those plants “are planted in August, and foot-long leaves are harvested from November to the end of February.” A law and a magazine article are not a reason for a ranking, though, and neither is claimed as one here. The USDA table below counts acres, and the acres are the only thing that sets the order. (South Carolina Code of Laws § 1-1-681, “Official state vegetable” (2011 Act No. 38, Section 1, effective June 2, 2011); USDA Agricultural Research Service, AgResearch Magazine, “A Collection of Carolina Collards” by Ann Perry (April 2008). Quotations unchanged) (opens in a new tab)
🔍 Explore more: 🥦『One plant, six vegetables』→ Easy. Vegetables are California’s whole personality. California grows literally everything and I am not going to overthink this one. 🐾
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Collard greens harvested (acres, 2022)
Most: South Carolina (2,568 acres). The national figure USDA prints is 11,483 acres. At 640 acres to the square mile that is about 18 square miles — every collard field in the country would fit inside a square a little over four miles on a side.
Note: acres of collard greens harvested in 2022, from USDA’s five-yearly Census of Agriculture. This line counts land, not pounds of leaves. The United States bar is USDA’s own national figure. USDA NASS. USDA printed a collard acreage for 45 states. Three — Colorado, Tennessee and Wyoming — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual farms. Two — North Dakota and Utah — carry (Z), the mark for an amount too small to show as one whole acre. Every one of the 50 states does have a line in this table. Everything USDA did not print for a state adds up to 482 acres, less than the third-place figure, so the first three places here are national places. A withheld state is not the same as a state growing none. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
The little state that stood still 🐾
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🏅 South Carolina is the USA's #1!
🐕 States in Numbers
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📋 See the ranking table (top 45)
| Rank | State | Value | Share of U.S. total |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | South Carolina | 2,568 acres | 22.4% |
| #2 | Georgia | 1,935 acres | 16.9% |
| #3 | North Carolina | 1,376 acres | 12% |
| #4 | California | 1,245 acres | 10.8% |
| #5 | New Jersey | 782 acres | 6.8% |
| #6 | Texas | 670 acres | 5.8% |
| #7 | Florida | 409 acres | 3.6% |
| #8 | Maryland | 343 acres | 3% |
| #9 | Virginia | 230 acres | 2% |
| #10 | Alabama | 189 acres | 1.6% |
| #11 | Ohio | 141 acres | 1.2% |
| #12 | New York | 131 acres | 1.1% |
| #13 | Illinois | 113 acres | 1% |
| #14 | Mississippi | 112 acres | 1% |
| #15 | Pennsylvania | 94 acres | 0.8% |
| #16 | Oregon | 86 acres | 0.7% |
| #17 | Michigan | 85 acres | 0.7% |
| #18 | Idaho | 76 acres | 0.7% |
| #19 | Arizona | 61 acres | 0.5% |
| #20 | Massachusetts | 58 acres | 0.5% |
| #21 | Wisconsin | 48 acres | 0.4% |
| #22 | Washington | 43 acres | 0.4% |
| #23 | Kentucky | 41 acres | 0.4% |
| #24 | Connecticut | 22 acres | 0.2% |
| #25 | Arkansas | 17 acres | 0.1% |
| #26 | Louisiana | 14 acres | 0.1% |
| #26 | Minnesota | 14 acres | 0.1% |
| #26 | Vermont | 14 acres | 0.1% |
| #29 | Indiana | 13 acres | 0.1% |
| #30 | Missouri | 11 acres | 0.1% |
| #30 | Oklahoma | 11 acres | 0.1% |
| #32 | Hawaii | 8 acres | 0.1% |
| #32 | Maine | 8 acres | 0.1% |
| #34 | Iowa | 7 acres | 0.1% |
| #35 | New Mexico | 5 acres | 0% |
| #36 | Alaska | 3 acres | 0% |
| #36 | Kansas | 3 acres | 0% |
| #36 | Nebraska | 3 acres | 0% |
| #36 | West Virginia | 3 acres | 0% |
| #40 | Delaware | 2 acres | 0% |
| #40 | New Hampshire | 2 acres | 0% |
| #40 | Rhode Island | 2 acres | 0% |
| #43 | Montana | 1 acres | 0% |
| #43 | Nevada | 1 acres | 0% |
| #43 | South Dakota | 1 acres | 0% |
| 🇺🇸 USA (total) | 11,483 acres | 100% |
USDA printed a collard acreage for 45 states. Three — Colorado, Tennessee and Wyoming — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual farms. Two — North Dakota and Utah — carry (Z), the mark for an amount too small to show as one whole acre. Every one of the 50 states does have a line in this table. Everything USDA did not print for a state adds up to 482 acres, less than the third-place figure, so the first three places here are national places. A withheld state is not the same as a state growing none. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (2022)
Sources
Data as of: 2022
USDA NASS Quick Stats: GREENS, COLLARD - ACRES HARVESTED, 2022 Census of Agriculture, by state (opens in a new tab) (2026-09-09) — Published values only (the committed raw file holds the API response verbatim). USDA printed a collard acreage for 45 states. Three — Colorado, Tennessee and Wyoming — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual farms. Two — North Dakota and Utah — carry (Z), the mark USDA uses for an amount too small to show as one whole acre. Every one of the 50 states has a line in this table. Everything USDA did not print for a state adds up to 482 acres, which is less than the third-place figure, so the first three places here are national places. A withheld state is not the same as a state growing none. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
↳ In Quick Stats, pick CENSUS / Census of Agriculture, year 2022, commodity GREENS, short description GREENS, COLLARD - ACRES HARVESTED, Total domain, and compare states.