{"id":152139,"date":"2026-02-11T22:18:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/152139\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T22:18:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:18:34","slug":"deuces-community-festival-takes-its-cue-from-collard-greens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/152139\/","title":{"rendered":"Deuces community festival takes its cue from collard greens"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many things you can do with collard greens \u2013 chop \u2018em, boil \u2018em, braise \u2018em, use \u2018em in a quiche or a casserole. Rich in nutrients, tasty collards make any meal a little healthier.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg actually devotes one day a year to collard greens. There\u2019s so much more to the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival \u2013 the 2026 edition takes place this Saturday \u2013 but at the center of it all is the leafy vegetable from the Latin family Brassica oleracea.<\/p>\n

The food-centric festival takes place Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2240 9th Avenue S., in the Deuces area.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be any food, really, but especially in the African American community it conjures up moments in time, moments in family history \u2026\u201d pointed out Boyzell Hosey, who co-founded the nonprofit in 2017. \u201cIt just brings joy to people. And anyone, not just the African American community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hosey, who spent 23 years in the photography and visual department of the Tampa Bay Times, believes that talking about collards tends to bring out the best in people. \u201cFor me, as a photojournalist, I\u2019m a storyteller at heart,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo it\u2019s the storytelling that always attracted me. So when we called it the Collard Green Festival, immediately people started sharing stories: \u2018I remember when we used to make collard greens around the holidays,\u2019 or \u2018I remember picking collard greens in my parents\u2019 garden.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s just a symbol that can rally folks around a common cause \u2013 to live healthier through the foods that we love to grow and eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with a collard greens cook-off, there will be food vendors, arts vendors, community service info, STEM exhibits, live music and even a petting zoo.<\/p>\n

Also at the festival: Talks on gardening, agricultural science, fitness, nutrition and more. \u201cIt really is a shared event. We\u2019ve gotten a lot of ideas from the community. If it represents what we consider \u2018uplifting the community,\u2019 if it\u2019s something that will help people live their lives better, that\u2019s what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s festival drew an estimate 18,000. Admission, as always, is free.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t get into this to make any money,\u201d Hosey pointed out. \u201cI love just connecting community. That was the thing for me as a photojournalist. That was the thing I loved most when I was a photographer on the street \u2013 being able to just get into the community, talk to people and share great stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each year, he said, the collards available at the festival get tastier, even as they discover ways to make them more healthy. \u201cSo we really wanted to get that message out that you know what, you could actually do this at a fraction of the time, and do it in a healthier way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find all information at the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival website, at this link<\/a>. Learn more about the nonprofit\u2019s other activities there, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

African drummer Healing Fyah gets the crowd moving at the 2023 Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are many things you can do with collard greens \u2013 chop \u2018em, boil \u2018em, braise \u2018em, use…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-152139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}