Collard greens festival gets greener every year

Hundreds of attendees celebrated all things collard greens Oct. 20 at the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex for the third annual Big Mama's Collard Greens Festival. Competing cooks served up their best collard green dishes — from spicy collard eggrolls to more traditional collard green recipes from Cajun, Creole or Caribbean cuisine.

Paul Murphy offered an Ethiopian-inspired dish that he made with "awaze," a spicy simmering sauce.

"I've been taking Ethiopian cooking classes but I was too impatient for the next class, so I came up with this dish on my own," said Murphy. 

Dorothy David, Henery Davis and LaToya Wilson took home the top prizes for their collard green recipes. 

Organized by the Newtown Farmer's Market and Transition Sarasota, the festival has been getting bigger and greener every year. The event has doubled in size since it began three years ago. 

"The festival is about bringing different people together through tasting dishes from different cultures," said event organizer Mary Mack.