Eddie Patterson used to grow vegetables because they put food on the table and green stuff in his wallet.
Now, the 57-year-old Summit man grows greens for the glory of God.
“When I was a kid, my father grew greens. We farmed,” says Patterson. “It was our way of living. We farmed for our food supplies. I was knee high to a duck, and it wasn’t, ‘No, I can’t. No, I can’t. No, I can’t.’ It was ‘You’re going to.’ ”
Farming at age 7 was hard work. It was in his late teens and early 20s, too — when he bunched greens and picked peas to put himself through college.
And it’s hard work, Patterson says with a laugh. But these days, he grows greens for a different reason.
Not to put food on the table, but to honor the land — and to honor the Lord.
A Pike County native, Patterson is associate pastor at Bogue Chitto Missionary Baptist Church and a chaplain at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center.
In his off time, he grows 3 to 5 acres of greens twice a year and donates most of them, usually through his church, which is under the leadership of the Rev. Robert Causey.
His efforts have earned him the moniker “greens man,” and Patterson is proud to have the title because he knows just what his greens represent. They represent God’s bounty, and because he is able to grow them pretty well, they reflect his appreciation for God’s blessings.
“I decided to give because God had blessed me,” Patterson says. “I give thanks to God for that by giving to others.”
Once or twice a year, Patterson and his church brethren haul a couple of truckloads of greens — mustard, collard and turnip — into McComb and give them away. They’re building a new fellowship facility, and although they accept donations for the produce, they don’t ask for any. They simply want to give back for being given to. They want to share the blessing of God’s promise that the building will be completed.
People respond, too. It doesn’t take long for the greens to run out, Patterson says. He figures people like fresh greens more than frozen, and they like free things.
“Really, they’re astounded that someone would give something away for free as much as things cost,” Patterson says.
Plus, his greens are pretty good.
“People love greens, especially these greens. They taste better than any greens I ever knew,” he says. “But I’m not saying that for my glory. Some people just bake a better cake than others.”
But he relates it to the gift God gave to mankind — his only son. And he relates it to God’s other blessings. Blessings, Patterson says, are intended to be shared.
“We have to share with those less fortunate, for whatever reason,” he says.
“We don’t look at the reason. We look at the need. I give because I see the need.”
Still, working 3 to 5 acres of greens twice a year is hard work. Patterson and his family do it all themselves.
When “bunching” time comes, he hires a little help, but not much.
Good help, he says, isn’t easy to find these days.
He plants in September and harvests about six weeks later. Then he plants again in March.
Yes, the work is hard. And it doesn’t put nearly as much cash in his wallet as it used to. But growing the greens are his way to relax, to find contentment — and to give glory to the one who guides his life.
“It all paid off,” Patterson says of tilling the soil and harvesting greens as a kid. “It didn’t hurt me. It built me. And I’m thankful for that.
“God is good. I went to school because of (greens), and got many types of degrees. And it still all fell short. So I came back to my roots. I came back to the land.”
And people keep coming back to his greens.
