lima beans and collard greens

In this hour of the sung-unsung, oversung and singsong hero, one has gotten completely overlooked. Whoever cracked the culinary codes for the lima bean and collard green deserves a monument,song or sign. Only twice growing up did I give even a chance to the lima bean. First sidelong chance was bad. Gritty, dry, stuck to the roof of my mouth bad. Even buttered. Second chance was there was to be no third. And we never even encountered a collard green even far as Utah that I can recall even to this day. So leathery, we'd probably try to make boots out of it. But someone down here has gotten gravy out of limas, and crisp tenderness out of collards. Tasty Collards. Downright Heroic. And I say that if Wyoming can post a gargantuan bust of Lincoln on top of the pass outside of Laramie a full million miles from anything else Lincoln then surely the South can do better for their own. Wyoming doesn't even post for Denver. No mention. You must guess how far it is. But there sits Lincoln. "We freed the slaves!" Was Wyoming even a state then back then?? Everyone wants credit. Even all the people that don't inhabit Wyoming. Granted there is no face to this Chef of All Limas Chef. No Aunt Jemima equivalent. But here's an idea. If not a monument, then a sign. The West smirks at signs of "Jesus Saves" and "Got Jesus?" Doesn't matter where they are. But let them drive by a sign that says, "If God so loved the Lima Bean and Collard Green, just what do you think He ain't got crackin' about you?", you might just get them mad enough to quit their sassin' and pay some mind. Or a song. "I been redeemed, like the collard green...." verse 2...."I been redeemed, like the lima bean...." Good night. Enjoying our stay here. Food's great.